Late in February as I was driving to work I was surprised to find a small group of Plumed Whistling-Ducks on a farm dam on Lavis Road near home in Wilby. Over the next few days their numbers increased from 6 to about 35. I posted the sighting on Birdline Victoria and it attracted some interest from Melbourne birders Paul Dodd, Ruth Woodrow and Tim Dolby, who came up to Wilby to add the bird to their Victorian Lists. Members of the Murray-Goulburn BOCA branch also came to view the birds. What good timing. A few days later the birds, all 35 or so were gone! One wonders where they came from or where they went, but regardless it was still a great sighting, and so close to home.
The birds spent most of the time roosting on the clay coloured banks of the dam, in which they blended into quite well. I am assuming at night they may have flown into nearby paddocks to feed on lucerne and wheat which has recently greened up after rains. Plumed Whistling-Ducks have also been seen on odd occasion in the North East at Peechelba, near Rutherglen and further west at Numurkah. Here is a photo taken with some birds on the day wall in the early morning light.
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