January 22nd: Nankeen Night Heron

I don't often get out in my local patch for birding these days, but I used to keep an almost daily record of what I saw in the area. Given the great birds I've seen in the area in the past, and this challenge, I figured I should start going on regular walks again. This morning my resolve was rewarded with two new year birds, though neither particularly difficult to get. The first was Common Starling (#211), and the second was Nankeen Night Heron (#212). The Night Heron has been semi-resident here for several years - I don't often see it as it roosts deep in the trees next to the water and the only way to get it seems to be to flush it from the trees, which I don't like doing. Today I headed in to check if it was there partly because I didn't have it for the year yet, partly because I wanted to see if it was still here, and partly because I had watched a Latham's Snipe fly into the grass by the water right under the trees a few minutes before and wanted to try and get a better look. Other good birds for the area were Collared Sparrowhawk and Mangrove Gerygone, both quite regular but always nice to get. I also had some fun photographing dragonflies, as I am trying to learn how to identify them at the moment.

Total birds to date: 212

January 5th: Cicadabird

Today I did a quick cycle around my old stomping ground in Mandalay near my house. This is an area I've been birding and keeping lists in for 7 years. Wow, that makes me feel a little older just saying it. I say this because, among the regular birds (including great little common birds like Red-backed and Variegated Fairy-Wrens, and Rainbow Bee-eaters), I had a bird that I've only seen in Mandalay once before. Cicadabird! This is a bird you hear nearly every day in summer here, but are nearly impossible to track down. In fact, I've still only SEEN one a handful of times (most recently prior to this in VICTORIA, a long way out of their normal range). And what a view, I had never seen one this well before, a male perched out in the open making its familiar buzzing call, like a cicada (which gives the species its name). Wow, a great piece of luck, and one that gives me my first difficult species of the year.

Total birds to date: 65