Day 295: October 22nd – Down Under

Sunny, mid 60s with a light breeze

       No, there is no error in the heading of this blog.  Yesterday was the  20^th and today is the 22^nd.  In the middle of the night we crossed the international date line and lost the 21^st.  Where it went, I do not know.  But I do know that here in Melbourne, Australia, it is Monday, the 22^nd of October.

       After a 16 hour flight and a couple more hours getting through Customs and Immigration, we are finally here in beautiful Melbourne.  This is truly a fine cosmopolitan city with clean streets, friendly inhabitants, and some fine birds!  I really didn’t think that taking a walk in the middle of a city, I’d pick up two new life-birds. 

       Down here, of course, these are “junk birds”.  They are seen all the time and everywhere in the city, but for me, they were lifers and that’s all that counts.  The first (and there were dozens of them!) was the Silver gull.  With a pure white body, white tail, and gray mantle, the bird also sports deep red legs, bill and eye-ring along with a light colored iris.  The bird is really difficult to mis-identify, and for a gull, that’s saying something in my book.

       Next to be found was the Magpie-lark.  I’ve got Magpies on my list as well as larks, but this was a new bird for me.  The one I found along the banks of the Yasso River, was a female.   The fact that there is no white above the eye as there is the both juvenile and adult males makes it so.  Another beautiful bird which the folks here in Melbourne take for granted.

       While not a lifer, the Common myna was a nice addition to the Australia life-list.  Walking along the river bank not too far from the Magpie-lark, this bird paid me little heed as I approached and moved around the bird to get better lighting on the subject.  I haven’t had a myna since Florida, so this was a nice addition to the “year-list” as well.

       Finally, I have to add a Common starling to the Aussie life-list.  The bird was sporting a great deal of white spotting and a bright yellow beak, so it was obviously in breeding plumage.  Even if we see the European version back home, this bird was welcome and added to the total count of this brief. 

       Finally, it was off to our room to get a few hours of shut-eye after being awake on and off most of last night (a 16 hour night at that).  Tomorrow, we’ll visit one of the Botanical Gardens here in Melbourne and we should be able to pick up a few more “Urban lifers”.  The great thing about this past-time is that no matter where you are and what time of year it is, you can always go birding!