A Visit to Altona

Yesterday I was a little bored so I decided to (after asking my dad) go on a birding trip. I looked on the web and saw that common terns had been reported on some rocks in the ocean along the Altona Esplanade. I decided to go to Altona and check out the terns if they were there, then look at a new birding spot in the area called Newport Lakes Reserve that apparently had good birds.
First we drove over to the spot. There were silver gulls, pied oystercatchers, female chestnut teal, little pied cormorants and even a few red-necked stints on the rocks, but I could not find the common terns, if they were indeed there. As the wind blew we got back into the car as sparrows chirped and drove to the Reserve.
On the way, I spotted a dark brown bird, reminding me of the skuas and jaegers I had seen pictures of, flying above a carpark. We stopped the car and got out, cameras at the ready. It was no skua and jaeger but a bird I had already seen before- a juvenile Pacific Gull.

The juvenile Pacific Gull among some commoner silver gulls

Nearby was a smallish body of water. Many birds were flying around and swimming in the water. Most of these birds were chestnut teals, little black cormorants or welcome swallows. As we got back into the car we spotted a greenfinch, a bird that has been introduced to the Melbourne area from Europe.

The greenfinch

After driving around a bit more we came to the Newport Lakes Reserve. As we got out of the car we could hear some birds singing. We stopped at a flowering shrub where I spotted a few wattlebirds. There were soldier beetles almost everywhere in the reserve. We came to the lakes and saw Australasian grebes, coots, black swans, Pacific black ducks, purple swamphens, little black cormorants and even a feral mallard duck. Welcome swallows were flying around, snatching up insects. We crossed the lake on the stones set in the middle and got to the track on the other side. We spotted another swamphen but not much else. The birds were pretty disappointing, but we did arrive late in the day. After we walked a bit more to the auditorium where red-browed finches are supposed to be common (we didn't see any) we had to go. 

All in all, it was a pretty average day of birding.