Well, another day spent around Swan Hill getting some things done. No need to go into the details as they are rather dull. Lets just say that I should be able to update my galleries next time Ihave a couple hours at an Internet connection. Anyway, I left Swan Hill late afternoon and headed south. Ihave to be in Melbourne tomorrow night but Ireally didn't know what I was going to do tonight. On a bit of a whim, I decided to head to Terrik Terrik National Park and spend a couple hours spotlighting.
Terrick Terrick National Park is home to a large portion of the Victorian population of the strange Plains-wanderer. This bird is a bit of a strange one and quite difficult to see. It is sort of like a quail but I believe is now known to be closer to the waders taxanomically. It is very secretive, fairly rare, and to make matters even more difficult, nocturnal. The easiest way to see them is with a guide out of Deniliquin in New South Wales but unfortunatlely I didn't get my schedule planned out enough to make that happen. So Iheaded to Terrick Terrick for a wonder through some grassland paddocks in hopes of stumbling across one but in all reality, my chances were extremely small.
I picked a paddock at random and spent about an hour wandering through it without seeing anything more than the glow of a bunch of spider eyes. Ididn't expect much more than that since I was so ill prepared and it was a last minute decision. However, I am now a bit more intrigued about these birds (I had sort of written them off as one I would miss) and may do a bit more research and try and revisit the spot later. We will just have to see.
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