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Saturday, 15 July 2017

Birding Lake Lorne

Today I visited Lake Lorne with a few friends, hoping to show them a variety of waterbirds. In particular, I wanted to get better photos of freckled and blue-billed ducks.
Almost immediately upon arriving at the lake, we observed large numbers of freckled ducks and pink-eared ducks, resting on a distant island, while many chestnut teal and Pacific black ducks were swimming closer to shore. A few little pied cormorants were perched high in trees on this island, and a group of Eurasian coots were grazing nearby. A lone purple swamphen was also seen. Shrubs around the lake held superb fairy-wrens, little wattlebirds, spotted turtledoves and noisy miners.
Several pink-eared ducks shared this branch with a lone freckled duck
We walked around the lake, and were able to get close views of a flock of pink-eared ducks. While passing some reeds, we spotted 2 nearby blue-billed ducks, an Australasian grebe, some black swans and several hardheads. As we finished our walk, several dusky moorhens and Pacific black ducks were seen on the lakeshore.
The pink-eared duck is a very social bird, rarely seen alone
The blue-billed duck is part of a group of ducks which all have stiff tail feathers
The Australasian grebe is one of 3 species of grebe in Victoria

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