Ballarat and after (day 4)

 The main business on this day was a visit to the Western Treatment Plant.  It's huge: 110 sq km (11,000 Ha) in area with about 120km of roads.  It is a Ramsar site of importance and Melbourne Water do an excellent job of providing access to birders.  I recently got my personal key so can come and go as we please!

This is the view looking backwards.  The You Yangs are the hills in the background and the sheds to the left are hangars at Avalon Airport.

We soon saw a bunch of Pied Stilts.
Yellow-billed Spoonbills were common.
As we drove along the Eastern side of a lagoon we noticed a bunch of birders on the Western side peering in our direction(but a bit further along.  When we got there a Brolga's head poked up!
Shifting across to the more Western track we got great views of the whole bird.
A large flock of Straw-necked Ibis seemed t be around most of the day.
When we eventually tracked them down on the ground quite a dew had the 'straws' of breeding plumage.

Two White-bellied Sea-Eagles gave good views.
The bird of interest in this image is the tern.  I initially identified it as a Common Tern (which aren't that common) and this was confirmed by two experts on the Australian Bird Identification Facebook Group.  Later I realised that many of the smaller terns I had been identifying as Little Terns had black Bills and were thus this species.
A Cape Barren Goose was a surprise, but they seem to have established in the area,
A poor photo of a Swamp Harrier cruising over a swamp.
Every gateway ( and there were quite a few) had flocks of Hirundines sitting on the road or the adjacent fences.  As well as the very numerous Welcome Swallows there were usually a few Fairy Martins mixed in.  This one posed well.
Here is a comparison of a more mature Martin with a few Swallows.
A typical WTP image of Black Swans and Australian Shelduck
After about 6 hours we fired up the GPS and headed back to Ocean Grove. This time Polly took us around Geelong, apparently to avoid closures on the Bellarine Highway.  One assumes that was an accident-caused closure.  

Links to all reports from the trip.

Day 1 to Ballarat

Day 2 Around Ballarat

Day 3 to and at Ocean Grove

Day 4 Western Treatment Plant

Day 5  Zoo and WTP

Days 6 - 8 CBD and Home


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