Good things come to those who wait 🙂
It’s safe to say that motivation for the blogs has been somewhat low of late. With the Iron Range trip report on an (extremely) delayed timeline, I thought I should try to get the blog juices flowing with something smaller… a bit of a local update. It’s been a pretty good patch year so far, with 9 new birds on the primary patch (Whites Hill Reserve) and a swag of others across the sub-patches.
Nine new birds in 8 months sounds like a lot for a dedicated patcher – because it is. To put this in perspective, I only had two new birds at Whites Hill in 2021 and 2022! Ffs… it was getting tough to keep going for a while there. So what’s changed? Well there are a swarm of new birders visiting Whites Hill this year (represented by those bubbles above… great pain). More people on your patch is both good and bad (but mostly bad). It’s obviously good because the more people are out birding, the lower the probability of a rarity slipping through… but this is a double-edged sword. What happens when someone gets a new bird on your patch and you don’t see it. In short, extreme gloom at a minimum. Most patchers I know therefore prefer for their patch birding to occur in total isolation. That way, they never miss anything! There have been some hideous dips this year for me, on multiple patches… but this is meant to be the post of a Positive Polly, not a Negative Nelly. Let’s press on.
The secret pond
The true patcher should have an encyclopedic knowledge of their patch… should know every blade of grass and wisp of lichen. In this way, the patcher can, at all times, position xirself perfectly to capture patch ticks. This also requires the dedicated patcher to have a complete grasp of the potential new birds for the site (including their likelihood of occurrence, migratory timings and proclivity to vagrancy) as well as (of course) broader environmental conditions, the movements, habits and skill levels of the other birders known to visit the patch, the phases of the moon, tide times, rainfall patterns, barometric pressure etc. It was a combination of these factors that drew me like a magnet towards the secret pond last weekend… the time of day was crap but I just had a good feeling about Zenbirding the pond. I parked up in my usual spot and entered the now-familiar Zenbirding trance… after about 20 minutes the ULTRA took pity on me and revealed itself.
What followed was a beautiful experience… without a doubt my best ever views of Lewin’s Rail. I eventually walked away from the secret pond suffused by a feeling of great joy. I navigated across the ridges and hills towards J and her family, who had gathered for a bushwalk with the young nephew. Afterwards, I took Jess for a look at the Rail (a LIFER for her) on the way home and my benevolence was rewarded with a flyover from a Hobby! Two patch ticks in one day… incredible stuff. The boys followed up later that afternoon and also connected with the Rail. A vow of secrecy was taken.
Breaking the vow, we did “the right thing” and put on the guiding hats the following weekend, taking a new Whites Hill devotee for a look – the Lewin’s was a lifer for her. The secret pond did not disappoint, with spectacular views of Baillon’s Crake, Spotless Crake and Lewin’s Rail enjoyed by all pax. We had to Zenbird pretty hard before any of the little bludgers came out, but the time was well spent slating Swaro for making a biodegradable armour for their bins (the idiots!). We trooped off to the ‘public pond’ after this in a desultory attempt at connecting with the suspicious Black-chinned Honeyeater pair (!) reported by an old nemesis of mine… needless to say, we dipped.
However, Kate returned later in the day for another crack, and passed on the news that there was a GREY TEAL on the pond. Unfortunately I didn’t get the word until late in the day, when Stu successfully twitched it. Out walking the dogs with Jess, the blogger at home, I was blissfully unaware… until I got home and got the heads up from Stu. In a panic I grabbed the thermal and my bins and zoomed off to Whites Hill in the gathering darkness. Upon arriving at the pond, I was happy to see a small group of Moorhens and ducks in the thermal (and in the light of the large moon!) There were four ducks visible… a Wood Duck that shone dully in the moonlight, two camo Pac Blacks and then a smaller beast… the Teal! Great success. I celebrated with a delicious pumpkin pizza from Superfly and had a big grin. The best patch month of all approaches… and I (for once) will be home for most of it. What else will we find?
