I visited Fivebough this morning with my parents. I promised in advance that i was going to be an absolute nightmare birder getting excited about everything and I think that I delivered on that promise.

As soon as we arrived we had a treat: two superb parrots sitting in the grass of the property that neighbours the carpark feeding away, accompanied by two crested pigeon and a little raven. Six blue-faced honeyeaters were chirping away in the large palm by the bridge over the outer channel, as has been true every time I’ve visited, and we had the first of many superb fairywrens on the entrance path as well.

Next to the toilet block a white-faced heron flushed out of the grass and croakily flew away, and two yellow-throated miners eyed us warily from a small nest. On the return we saw these same two miners repeatedly swooping something in the grass but couldn’t pick what it was – my guess is snake, though I’ve also seen an eastern bearded dragon in this exact spot on previous trip.

There as been a huge amount of work digging out a new channel on the southern and western edge of the wetland, and the grass field approaching it has obviously been used as a staging area. The whole thing is in pretty miserable condition.

Stepping over a new sluice gate we hit the path proper, where there were both golden-headed cisticola and Australian reed warblers calling away. The cisticolas obligingly popped up and gave us a good look, the reed warblers did not. I thoroughly enjoyed watching a crested pigeon fly in and crash into the reeds, fail to find a perch it could use, then retreat.

A banded lapwing flyover

Approaching the brolga observation platform we had my highlight of the day: two banded lapwings noisily approahed from the west, passed overhead a couple of times, before we lost sight of them to the east. This was a first for me in New South Wales, and not a species that I would have thought to target here. There have only been half a dozen eBird records of them in the Fivebough area.

At the platform we got a look out onto the main northern pond. The water here was higher than expected, and as a consequence there were very few waders present. Pacific black duck were the dominant species, along with black swan, yellow-billed spoonbill and, around the edges, dusky moorhen and Australasian swamphen picking away in the mud. We heard our first little grassbird while standing here and got a glimpse at both a magpie-lark and singing honeyeater.

Turning around to leave the platform I realised that we’d had our backs to another bird which has long been a target of mine here: two red-necked avocet standing out in the shallower pond to the south. I’ve heard from other birders many times that they’re an easy find at Fivebough but on six previous trips I’ve never once managed to track this very conspicuous bird down. They sat for a couple of minutes before relocating to the eastern floodplain.

A distant red-necked avocet

From the brolga platform there’s an out-and-back walk to the north, which leads to the glossy ibis platform. We only went far enough along to chat to two other birdwatchers, Anna and Paul, Leeton locals and Fivebough regulars who run the Facebook page and who I’ve met a couple of times on previous trips. Paul very helpfully pointed out the third species that I’ve sought and dipped on at this spot on previous trips: two wood sandpiper sitting on the tiny amount of exposed mud. These are typically the first shorebirds to arrive each year, Paul was telling me, though with the water level as high as it still is, it’s not quite suitable habitat for sandpipers and snipes.

On the eastern floodplain we saw Australian white ibis, silver gull and pied stilt. A single black swan cygnet popped its head up – one of four that made it through without being snatched by the ravens.

At the bittern platform we didn’t hear the namesake bird that was reported last week calling from the reed bed, though there was a spotless crake clucking away in the same spot. On the far side of the floodplains a single Australian shelduck sat grazing among a group of swans. At this point the time ticked over 9.00am and, like clockwork, the first magpie geese started to arrive – first four, then another four, and eventually dozens in small groups coming in from the west.

As well as more cisticola, grassbirds and a fleeting look at warbler, a couple of handsome male purple-backed fairywren propped up on the reeds and gave Dad a decent opportunity to shoot them.

Up on the freckled duck platform, which overlooks the settling ponds for the sewage plant, we found where the geese had been going. Dozens more kept arriving while we stood watched. There were loads of other waterbirds here too: the dominant duck was grey teal; there were more PBD but also Australasian shoveler and hardhead; all four cormorants – pied, little pied, little black and great – a few Australian pelicans and a royal spoonbill. We had more views of singing honeyeaters here too, and a couple of welcome swallows hawking around.

I suspect that if we’d inspected a bit more closely we may have found chestnut teals in there, possibly a musk or blue-billed duck, maybe a few dotterels, but we were a few hours in at this point and ready to move on.

On the walk back we found yellow-rumped thornbills, silvereye and zebra finch. A whistling kite passed high overhead and a Nankeen kestrel quite low. The zebra finch are always an exciting presence here but with the kestrel around I didn’t want to accidentally flush them or draw any attention, so we grabbed a shot while they were up and then quickly moved on.

Back toward the toilet block we had a small flock of galahs, a willie wagtail and a black-faced cuckooshrike all calling from the forested area over on the western edge.

The final bird of the day was another that I’ve sought many times but never found here: a simple white-plumed honeyeater, a bird which has somehow avoided me on every previous trip despite being so visible and vocal otherwise.