Sightings Unusual.....

Some unusual bird sightings......

	20/10/2010: an off-course Arctic Tern arrived at Mordialloc Beach and stayed for a little while. It found refuge by mingling with a flock of resident terns including Crested, White-fronted (pictured) and Common Terns.		20/10/2010: whilst at Rickett's Point looking for a ruddy turnstone a scaly lorikeet and two rainbow lorikeets were seen to be examining tree trunks, presumably for potential nesting sites. These lorikeets are known to hybridise, so there might be some hybrids resident in the area soon.
	25/10/2010: reports of a Barbary Dove pair at Brighton Beach were followed up and confirmed. Not two, but three birds were found perching on a lamp post - one was puffed up and "strutting his stuff" trying to interest one of the other birds, presumably a female.		Observed at Little Desert Lodge, a pair of Rainbow Bee-eaters keenly scanning the air for insects. The male, identifiable by the longer tail plumes, occupies the higher position whilst the female, which has shorter plumes and blue on the throat, is the lower bird. Magnificent!
	A female White-fronted Chat working hard collecting material for nest building.		A White-winged Triller (eclipse) found on the outskirts of the Western Treatment Plant, Werribee. An uncommon sighting in these parts.
	July 2012: Oriental Pratincole. A regular visitor to the far north of Australia, this one was found way, way south of its normal range at the Western Treatment Plant Werribee, Victoria.		July 2012: a female Pink Robin, a particularly unusual find in the middle of suburbia at the St Kilda Botanical Gardens. Discovered by its quiet, but characteristic dik-dik-dik call.
	November 2014: long-billed Dowitcher, the first Australian record, Lake Tutchewop, northern Victoria