Late night produces the goods
1st November. Early morning we birded around Leeton in an area of open woodland. Birds were few and far between at dawn, surprisingly chilly, well relatively, still birding in just a shirt, and the usual lower garments of course! But we worked the area and as the sun came so did the birds. A Painted Honeyeater was the star, singing away from a dead snag bathed in the first rays and perhaps like us glad of the warmth. Next up was Black Honeyeater, and great views of a species we had seen very briefly the previous day and decided not to count as the views were so poor, so satisfying to nail it.
We left Leeton and drove the short distance to Hay where first stop was the sewage ponds where plenty of waterfowl but nothing new.
After a whole hour of rest we set off again for the Hay plain, a vast expanse of, well, nothing! Huge sky stretched ahead of us above the dead flat land, low vegetation somehow managed to survive out here despite years of drought and Emus strutted around like giant chickens. We met local bird guide Phil Maher at a pub, sadly no time for a swift one, and set off into the nearby woodland. Phil knew just where to go and we were soon all watching a gorgeous Owlet Nightjar sat in full view in daylight, what a great start to our evening. Next up was a flock of Inland Dotterel, followed by very close views of an Australian Pratincole running around only meters from us.
As the light faded it was getting time for the main event. We were joined by Phil’s mate Johno and we drove further out on to the plain. We stopped and transferred into the two 4x4s and drove slowly into the dark. Tension was high and any movement in the grass had us on the edge of our seats, a mouse, a pipit, another pipit, after nearly two hours we still driving around. We nervously asked was this usual, Phil replied yeah, it can take a while. More driving then suddenly the walkie talkie crackled to life and Johno announced, got one! We pulled up alongside his vehicle and sure enough just yards away stood a Plains Wanderer! Oh yes! What a strange and amazing bird. About the size of a quail with short legs right at the back of the body so when it stood up straight it looked very weird. Short bill, large yellow eye and mottled rufous plumage, nearest thing we could think of was a seed snipe. One very odd and very good bird. We then found two more within minutes, very happy with our evening, well night it was nearly midnight now, we thanked Phil and John and headed back for some much needed sleep.Bird species total 3678