Living and Birding Gratitude: Black Tern: Mega Twitch Across the Street

Early last Sunday evening, 2 April an explosive post hit the Australian Twitchers FB page. Ian Melbourne, Zebedee Muller and Joshua Gatchalian had seen and photographed a Black Tern at the Western Treatment Plant. The WTP is only about ten minutes from my house. This bird is just the 4th record for Australia and a first for Victoria. It was definitively identified by the experts even down to it being the American subspecies, surinamensis.

Scott Baker's excellent photo of the Black Tern used with his permission

I was excited. I called my buddy James Cornelious and he began sorting the train schedule to get down here Monday morning. I called Robert Shore and David Adam. The twitching grapevine was buzzing. This was the first rarity for the WTP since January of 2019 when we had the Tufted Duck that became known far and wide as, “Tuffy” (thank you Karen Weil for that perfect nickname).

I went to bed at half past ten with an alarm set for quarter past five. I was hoping to get at least a decent night’s sleep. Yeah, no. I was too excited. I could not fall asleep for hours and then I woke up at quarter to three (as I often do, I am almost seventy after all). And I could not go back to sleep. Around 4 am I just gave up and began coffeeing hard.

I had not gotten up stupid-early since January and it did not come easily to me. I was awake, but in an almost drugged-like state of sleep deprivation. I left the house at dawn and drove over. The twitch was on.

The original report said that the bird had been seen near the bird hide. After a jolting, jarring, bouncing drive down the horribly rough and potholed Beach Road (yes, I should have gone slower) I unlocked the gate and entered the WTP. The road around the foreshore is closed for reasons only known to Melbourne Water, so I had to drive over, around and down to the hide. There were several cars parked there and I pulled Troopi off onto the shoulder (such as there was). I popped out with my scope, bins and old camera. I do have a new, ‘lower end’ Canon mirrorless, but I don’t know how to use it yet and as I say about most things... I like the old one better.

Beach Road gate

The birders were on the beach to the left of the hide. I ran into one of my first birding mentors, my dear old friend, Steve Davidson. I’ve known Steve for about fourteen years. I used to ask him really stupid bird identification questions (and I still would if I needed to). He was always patient with my ignorance and very generous with his knowledge. The tern was not there. However, soon he spotted a flock of terns on the west side of the hide flying toward the ponds.

Once I got Troopi turned around (she has the turning radius of a Greyhound bus) I was rumbling down the road toward, and then past, Lake Borrie. After a stop or two, the tern was seen over pond 24 (the big pond to the west of L Borrie). It was on the far side of the pond flying around with White-winged Black Terns.

Wurdi Youang (the You Yangs) in the background. It was flying along that far shore.

I saw it, lost it, saw it, lost it, followed the wrong bird for a bit, but then saw it again and was able to stay on it for about a minute. Yes, I had my scope focused on the Black Tern in flight and I had clear, identifiable views of my 766th bird for my Australian list. Later I even lucked into a usable recording flight shot there. Thank you, Steve. Joy.

It is the dark bird in the back. Not much of a photo but it is good enough!

I left and drove over to collect James at the Lara Station at 9am. Then we went back to the twitch. We ended up at the Lake Borrie outflow down the road southwest of the hide. There is a nice place to park there and that is where I got my best (although still distant) views and some photos. James did as well. This was now a fully successful twitch. Lifer High reigned as it would. Here are a few photos.

James' flight shot

James photo of the bird on the sandbar. It's an excellent phone pic though my scope. The light seems to give it a brownish cast for some reason.

James and me in yet another Lifer Selfie. We have truly seen a lot of birds together.

James snapped a pic of true Australian birding legend Kevin Bartram and me at the Borrie outflow (Kevin still has a longer beard than I do, same colour though).

I took James back to the Station then headed home to our grand baby. On Mondays and Tuesdays we babysit and I am granddaddy (and I love her).

The next morning of course I went over for a couple of hours. The tern was back at the Borrie outflow again, but still quite distant. I saw even more friends there. A ‘big’ twitch is a wonderful gathering of the birding community. I could list dozens of birders that I saw there over the three days, many whom I consider dear friends and have great respect for, but rarely see. This bird was what is called a mega and megas do bring the birding tribe together.

That arvo I met my long time birding companion, Robert Shore over there. He had driven the 8 or 9 hours down from Parkes, NSW. I arrived before he did and I talked to a few birders and learned that it had just been being seen on a sandbar east of the hide just across Little River. It was a bit longer drive and another gate to unlock, but we went there and we found it (and saw more friends).

One of Robert Shore's recording shots. His total is now 804 photographed Aussie birds.

Leaving out of the Point Wilson gate. I was avoiding Beach Road

So I had acceptable (for me) recording shots of the bird. There have been some phenomenal photos of it. I included one especially excellent photo by Scott Baker at the opening of this post (it will also end up in the next book as well).

On a personal note, at the twitch I was chatting with two people who recognised me as an author and told me that a relative of theirs (or friend) in the UK was a huge fan of mine! I don't remember the exact connection. I was too trickled to concentrate and my concentration has gotten very bad over the last year or so- but I digress as I do. They even asked if they could take a photo with me to send to him. It is those types of personal connections that are the very best validation. And as I have said, I need validation like plants need light.

As you may know, I am working toward the third book. John Beaufoy Publishing has signed on to publish it and it will probably to come out in 2025. This beautiful Black Tern will have its own chapter. I will also be writing more about birding in general and my relationship with it, as well as my relationship with photography and my ‘love-loathe’ relationship with technology. And of course... more birds and more birding adventures!

PS, I have gone back over a few times to look and yesterday 13 April I got a few decent (for me) flight shots. I am still using my 14 year old camera because I don't know how to use the new one yet. But I really enjoyed getting these shots...