Woke up early yesterday and decided to head to Greenfields. Arrived at 6:45am - the weather (supposedly thunderstorms) was delightful. Great light and relatively warm. I was greeted by over 20 different species in the first area of water. Cool! All the usual suspects - black swan, purple swamp hen, dusky moorhen, dozens of black-tailed native-hens, hoary-headed and australasian grebe, pacific black and white-eyed duck, chestnut and grey teal, red-kneed and black-fronted dotterel, australian pelican, little pied and little black cormorant, plus my first great cormorant here, little grassbird and australian reed-warbler, eurasian coot, spotted crake, silver gull, magpie lark and welcome swallow.
Heading into the wetlands I quickly picked up house sparrow, crested pigeon, spotted turtle dove, singing honeyeater, little egret, great egret, royal spoonbill, australian white and glossy ibis, willie wagtail, and common starling. Then hit the next set of ponds and found a group of banded stilt and red-necked avocet - both new for me at Greenfields, along with black-winged stilt, white-faced heron, whiskered tern, caspian tern (another new one for Greenfields), masked lapwing, red-capped plover and nankeen night heron (at least six roosting in the rushes - they took off and fly above my head for ages. Nice! Finally I found the waders - sharp-tailed, wood and marsh, along with red-necked stints.
Took some photos - attached and then headed back. Stumbled on a very badly mangled sharpie flapping about on the ground. it had clearly been attacked and was in a very bad way. Couldn't even attempt to get away from me other than to flop frantically on the ground. After a quick photo, I quietly put it out of its misery (sad face), rather than leave it to the mercy of a raptor or the ants. A slightly sobering end to a lovely morning. Almost 50 species of bird in less than two hours only fifteen minutes from my home!
