Kelly's mud-pot

Having a little time to spare this morning I took myself off to the Jerrabomberra Dampishlands to see what I could score as bird of the day.

Before getting too far into the site I noticed a white shape amongst the black cattle.  This would have been Bird of the Day had I not already used the species at Mallacoota.
 Checking eBird there seem to have been a few recent sightings in the area.

There was a small area of water in front of Ardea hide with a bunch of (mainly) Dusky Moorhens in and around it.  The mud, and exposed bases of Typha, was scanned for crakes and rails but none were forthcoming.

Moving on to Cygnus hide and mud was just about all that was available.
I am surprised that the ACT Tourism people haven't realised this has potential to be Australia's answer to Rotorua.  All they need to do is pump the hot air emitted by all members of the ACT Legislative Assemble (except Caroline LeCouteur) and they could have some lovely mudpots spluttering away!

While chatting with another birder she spotted a crake.  This turned out to be a Spotless Crake which became Bird of the Day!  It had a very surprisingly low sighting index as well.  It wasn't keen on staying in the open so no photo available.

A Red-kneed Dotterell was more obliging and proceeded to show its Red-ankles.
 There were a lot of (at least 23) of Black-fronted Dotterels on the mud.  2 of them are marked in this image.
 A nice sighting was this group of Dusky Woodswallows.  I presume they are heading North soon.

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