Global Big Day 2017

Global Big Day 2017

Global Big Day is an international eBird event where thousands of birders from across the world go birding, and submit as many eBird checklists as possible. So far, over 13,000 people have participated, submitting nearly 33,000 checklists, and these figures are going up rapidly. 

Global Big Day in Australia was on May 13 this year. Last year we went to Cape Conran and Marlo, but this year I wanted to keep it more local, to save on travel time. After having a look at Google Maps, I came up with a route. The list of places we went to this year, with the key bird species I was after are listed here:

Mossiface: Starting point for the day. Common backyard birds.

Tambo Upper: Cattle Egret, Chestnut Teal.

Swan Reach: Blue Billed Duck, Australasian Grebe.

Tambo Bay: Pied and Sooty Oystercatcher, Crested Tern.

Bullock Island: Pacific Gull, Black Faced and Little Pied Cormorant.

Lakes Entrance Treatment Plant: Any sort of duck, mainly Pink Eared.

Burnt Bridge: White Throated Treecreeper, Rose Robin, (dipped) Eastern Yellow Robin, Azure Kingfisher.

Colquhoun: Chestnut Rumped Heathwren,(dipped), Spotted Quail Thrush, Yellow Tufted Honeyeater.

Wards Rd: Emu.

Mossiface: Lunch.

The Cut: Red Capped Plover (dipped), Musk Duck, Kestrel, Whistling Kite, Red Necked Avocet.

Jones Bay: Black Winged Stilt.

Lees Rd: Grey Fantail, Collared Sparrowhawk.


Tambo Flats: Black Shouldered Kite.

Tambo Flats, from Mossiface

We got a total of 88 species, and 20 checklists, in 8 hours. The Lakes Entrance Treatment Plant had 5 specie of duck, making this our best stop. Burnt Bridge was also very good, with Azure Kingfisher, Bell Miner, and most of the bush birds.