We interrupt our regular blogging to bring you a twitch. Troopi and I arrived back from Queensland and I wrote the Black-breasted Button-quail blog entry. Yay! I was beginning to work on the entry about the rest of that trip when I heard that a Hudsonian Godwit was reported on Reef Island. I had the Thanksgiving dinner with the kids on Saturday, so Sunday morning I headed to Reef Island. It is about 2 hours from the Tiny House.
I collected Owen Lishmund at the Glen Iris Station on the way and we were on the beach near Reef Island by 10am. My dear friend, Karen Weil as well as Jannette and Peter Mannis were already there. There were several other Victorian birding friends as well and more arriving. I think it ended up being 15 or so of us. You gotta love a Sunday twitch! It was pretty straight forward as to where to look for the little godwit flock. See the below map.
After spending some time out on the island, I ended up watching and waiting with my friend Kevin Bartram for the godwits to fly in from their rocky roost. Kev has now unofficially named the bird, Rock Hudwit. “Hudwit” being the Aussie nickname for the Hudsonian Godwit as is Barwit and Blackwit for Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits.
One of my favourite moments from the day was my friend Adam Fry’s response when a few of us were suggesting we move in to the beach to wait for the godwits. They were continuing to stubbornly remain on the far side of the little pile of rocks. Adam said, “I kinda want to see it.” Then a short pause and he added, “And I know where it is.” And then he glanced toward the beach and said, “And it’s not there.” His timing and delivery were perfect. It still makes me smile to remember it.
This blog entry is leaning heavily on the photos (a lot of Hudwit photos). It was a joyously successful twitch with dear friends. And twitches, and life don’t get much better than that.
I collected Owen Lishmund at the Glen Iris Station on the way and we were on the beach near Reef Island by 10am. My dear friend, Karen Weil as well as Jannette and Peter Mannis were already there. There were several other Victorian birding friends as well and more arriving. I think it ended up being 15 or so of us. You gotta love a Sunday twitch! It was pretty straight forward as to where to look for the little godwit flock. See the below map.
After spending some time out on the island, I ended up watching and waiting with my friend Kevin Bartram for the godwits to fly in from their rocky roost. Kev has now unofficially named the bird, Rock Hudwit. “Hudwit” being the Aussie nickname for the Hudsonian Godwit as is Barwit and Blackwit for Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits.
One of my favourite moments from the day was my friend Adam Fry’s response when a few of us were suggesting we move in to the beach to wait for the godwits. They were continuing to stubbornly remain on the far side of the little pile of rocks. Adam said, “I kinda want to see it.” Then a short pause and he added, “And I know where it is.” And then he glanced toward the beach and said, “And it’s not there.” His timing and delivery were perfect. It still makes me smile to remember it.
This blog entry is leaning heavily on the photos (a lot of Hudwit photos). It was a joyously successful twitch with dear friends. And twitches, and life don’t get much better than that.
Much love from the Tiny House...
Hudwit! Hudwit! Hudwit!!
ReplyDeleteWell done Brucie-baby.
Yeah, I'm actually kind of glad now that I missed it at Lake Wollumboola when I got the P. Shelduck with Mike.
ReplyDelete