Jade Craven

A Day at Serendip

December 29, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Anyone who is close to me knows that I’ve been obsessed with Serendip Sanctuary lately. It’s named as one of the best 100 birdwatching sites in Australia and allows you to get extremely close to many of Australia’s native animals. Oh, did I say that it doesn’t cost anything?

The main issue preventing me from getting there was the logistics. It would require a bus, a train to Lara AND a taxi. Fortunately, I had the mental mojo on Friday to handle such logistics. I convinced Glenn to come, packed the cameras and away we went!

Glenn. THERE’S AN EMU!

The taxi driver wasn’t quite sure where serendip was. Fortunately I had the address, but he only dropped us off half way to the car park. We walked the rest of the way up surrounded by birdsong.

There was an emu walking around outside the entrance. Glenn was able to get pretty close to practice his photography.

I don’t know if it classifies as a wild one but my gosh, it’s so brilliant to be able to get so close.

We walked past a tinsy winsy stream. There were a lot of people looking at something that was darting under the bridge. A MUSK DUCK!

I would have been willing to travel several hours just to catch a glimpse of one of these birds. I don’t know why I’m obsessed with ducks, especially weird looking ones. Seth (who joined us later) loved it. It made him laugh, it was so weird looking.

We had barely gone past the visitors centre. But oh – whats that? Just a whistling kite.

We went to Jirrahlinga (at Barwon heads) for my birthday a couple of years ago. Glenn fell in love with the call of a whistling kite. I’ve been wanting to see one in the wild ever since. The markings are distinctive and make it a lot easier to identify.

Later on, we saw three birds of prey together. Two of them sort of fought in the air with their talons. It was so amazing to see.

The wildlife walk

This walk is awesome. It starts near the info centre and takes you through various areas where you can get close up to animals. You can walk through decent sized enclosures with animals such as emus, swamp wallabies and cape barren geese. There are signs in a couple of places that help explain things like animal poop and ant lifecycles. It’s very educational.

Technically, I have seen swamp wallabies in the wild. We were at Ocean Grove Nature Reserve and could never quite get a clear photo of them. We enjoyed being able to get up close to them. Most of them were in groups in the shaded areas.

Seth may have been excited to see swamp wallaby poo. I may have several photos of animal scats.

Now, originally it was meant to be just Glenn and I there. I had phoned mum up asking if Seth wanted to come but we couldn’t figure out the logistics. Later, my sister decided that she would take Seth and join us there. It was a bit of a surprise, seeing as we’d probably have to cover the same ground.

It was then that we realized we’d had the camera on the wrong setting the entire time. All of our photos had that blue tinge. The unexpected arrival turned out to be a blessing as we got another chance to get photos.

We also got a chance to see the tiger quolls. Seth and I LOVE tiger quolls. Part of it is because of Chris Humfrey. The other is due to a museum.

Museum Victoria have this really cool app that is a field guide to Victorian fauna. It has photos of the animals, distribution maps and audios of the animal calls. It’s really popular here. Mum and Seth used it to identify animals they saw in the Apollo Bay rockpools. We regularly play animal calls and just talk about our favourite animals.

So. We were playing animal sounds and I heard what sounded like someone grunting while going to the toilet. It was hilarious. Seth kept on playing it because he knew it would give me the giggles. Quolls became an obsession.

We didn’t get to see the quolls the first time. We did the second time, when my good luck charm/nephew was there. I don’t know whether they were the kittens that recently made the news. Still: QUOLLS!

The geese were roaming freely throughout various enclosures and in the paddocks outside of Serendip.

There was also a number of walk-in aviaries which allowed you to get close to bush stone curlews and tawny frogmouths. Great photo opportunities!

Another highlight was seeing the brolgas up close.

Bird Hides

There were a number of bird hides along the wildlife walk. There are two separate walks that take you to other wetland environments but this was the most accessible. I loved watching the emus drinking.

I also got my first photo of a yellow billed spoonbill. I’m sure I had seen them previously at limeburners lagoon but I had lost the photos. I only noticed the bird when going through my photos afterwards.

Baby ducklings.

I love ducklings.

Black tailed native hen. Another lifer.

Dotteral. Now seeing them all the time. Buttheads.

I want to go back

It was a great way to spend a couple of hours. Glenn got so many photos and Seth already wants to go back. I want to go back by myself and spend a couple of hours at the wetland areas looking for new ducks. I also want to see the little and purple-crowned lorikeets which are found in the area.

I highly recommended it.

Recommendations

It can be a bit of a pain to get to if you don’t have a car. The taxi fare from Lara Station was less then $12.

. Echidna Walkabout have a tour that visits here and the you yangs in the same day. I believe that a tour is the best option for overseas visitors as you will learn a lot more.

Balyang (Again!)

December 17, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Today my other boyfriend/nephew randomly came over. He may have been ill but that didn’t stop his asking to go to Balyang. Yes, we *had* gone down there 3 days earlier. I was too sleepy to come up with a decent excuse to avoid going.

It was a pretty awesome birding session.

A bunch of darters nest in near the bridge near balyang. I watch the nests frequently and get photos of the varying bird numbers. I remember getting photos of baby darters, almost as big as their mother. I was pretty sure I saw baby darters peeking out from under the mother last week but I didn’t have proof.

Huzzah. Helps to get photos to show Seth later.

The weather has been heating up lately so we were talking about potentially seeing skinks or snakes. It’s weird, but I’d love to show him a snake on the path. It’d be an opportunity to teach him safety around reptiles. We went to the pet shop on the weekend – Family Pet and Aquarium – who feed their snakes every sunday. Seth got to pet a diamond python and watch it get fed. It’s always fascinating twitching with a 5 year old and watching what catches their interest.

Red rumps were back again. Seth saw them first – he is really good at seeing animals that move quickly.

Mum has been pretty obsessed with wood ducks after seeing them at Kennett river. I have to tell her and Seth every time I see one.

Part of me believes this is the family of ducks I saw earlier this year near Queens Park. If so – what happened to the other two babies? All of the cygnets at Jerringot survived. Those swans have actually moved on. I wonder where they’ve gone?

I sat down to take photos of a pair of cockatoos and saw this. It was awesome timing. I’d unsuccessfully tried to distract Seth with a bug book. We also found a cicada shell and pair of dragonfly wings on the walk down. He’s obsessed with bugs at the moment. I bird while he looks at insects and dragonflies. I’m wondering if it’s worth trying to ID this caterpillar.

The cockatoos

I saw a pair of cockatoos in this hollow that is quite popular. I’ve seen cockatoos, corellas AND lorikeets in it. I wonder whether it’s used as a permanent nest or a temporary shelter? Hmmm.

This guy as particularly active and was having fun hanging upside down. I would have loved to get more photos but dad had arrived to pick us up.

It was fun though. I got some gorgeous photos of the pair snuggling and got to practice my bird photography. I really want to get a telephoto lens, and a pair of binoculars, so I have a better chance of seeing birds that are further away. I’m glad Seth persuaded me to go.

It’s fascinating going to the same spot and making observations. It makes for a boring blog for most people, but it provides a lot of information for those monitoring larger trends. I really believe that writing trip reports can help with local wildlife conservation. I don’t know how, but it’s an idea I want to pursue. Even if it means that no-one reads this 🙂 These trip reports and holiday recollections are for me, and the few people who want such information. Screw becoming a travel blogging; comped trips may help my budget but they wouldn’t contribute to my greater goals.

Recent Birding Adventures in Geelong

December 16, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

None of my recent twitching adventures have been worth writing an entire blog post about. Here is a collection of some of my favourite sightings.

I’m hoping to hire a birdwatching guide next year when my health and finances improve. [Read more…] about Recent Birding Adventures in Geelong

Day Trip To Byron Bay

November 10, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I have mixed feelings about this tour. Nothing against the company, though. To explain, I’ll borrow a comment I left at Style and Shennanigans,

We were on a holiday in Queensland and were on a tourist trip to Byron Bay. I had just started on new antidepressants and they made me a bit nauseous. No big deal.

We were about 5km from Byron bay when my tummy started going funny. I looked at Glenn. I tried to hold on. Eventually… BLERGH. I couldn’t warn the driver so just vomited into my backpack…. which also held my boyfriends wallet and the camera bag. It happened about 5 times and I felt water seep through the bag onto my lap.

We couldn’t get to the lighthouse fast enough. We threw out the bag and Glenns wallet. I washed up. Spent the next two hours sitting under a tree waiting to return.

Glenn said he immediately knew when I felt better. He could hear me quietly munching on Pizza shapes.

My experiences with the tour are marred by the nausea and delightful side effects of new medication. Nonetheless, I’ll provide a recap for those who are curious.

Hastings Point

I’m not exactly sure that this is hastings point. It was the first place we stopped on the tour and it was really beautiful. We could have stayed for ages.

Crystal Castle

The ground here were very beautiful. My mum would have loved it here. It was very serene, very calm and made for some great photographic opportunities.

It took about 20 minutes to get served (for an ice-cream!) in the cafe area, because a group of seniors were there for lunch. This was frustrating as we only had a limited amount of time and I was starting to feel dizzy.

I ended up sitting down feeling yuck while Glenn took photos. It didn’t really interest him. I got an aura photograph out of curiosity and showed it to mum who disagreed with it’s accuracy. They did sell a lot of new age stuff here, too.

Byron Bay Lighthouse

This was the main reason I came on this tour and I believe it was well worth it. I was too distracted cleaning up to do anything. The views were beautiful though, we had a lot of fun taking photos. Heck, I would have liked to skip going to the town of Byron Bay and just stay here the whole time.

Glenn got this photo which I thought was pretty nice. I wish I could redo this day and return here.

Byron Bay

Neither of us really liked the township. It was marred by my being ill. Glenn thought everything was overpriced and the guide commented that it had become commercialized and lost it’s vibe. I sat in the same place for two hours, too sick to even eat chips, until the guide came to pick us up.

The trip was one of those unfortunate ones that happens to every traveller. I prefer to fuck up and get sick when I’m alone though and not drag others with me. I ended up taking my anxiety medication at night time instead and the symptoms lessened. I tried going back to the mornings but ended up vomiting again, this time after a 10km walk.

I wish we’d chosen the glow-worm tour instead of this one as our bonus but hey, everyone needs a silly travel story!

Second Visit to Currumbin: A Great Day Out!

November 3, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This time, I loved Currumbin. Really loved it. Last visit, we had our airport departure and check in times hanging over us. We had to rush through all exhibits and skip the shows.

This time, we got to experience the free flight bird show. We got to feed the lorikeets. We got to spend as long as we wanted photographing the various animals and observing them in a relaxed environment.

It turned out to be one of the best days we spent on our trip.

One of the highlights for Glenn was these little lizards floating around everywhere. It didn’t matter how many we saw, he had to photograph every single one. He was pretty impressed with his camera – especially once I told him that those red shots show you where it is focusing.

Glenn had the exact same idea that I had the previous time – head straight to the koala enclosure and get some close up pictures. They are incredibly photogenic. They were just getting fed and Glenn got a fantastic series of shots of this koala yawning. Heck, even the guys at Australia.com on Facebook thought so! They posted the picture and it received over 10k shares and 80k likes. It’s Glenns first real taste of viral success.

A lot of people commented that it looks like Yoda and they are right.

The birds:

Glenn didn’t get as much out of the free flight aviary as I did. I saw this bird lying on the ground, which I didn’t photograph last time.

He did have a bird poop on his shirt, though. The mess was spread on both the front and back of his shirt. We took a photo of the offending bird for good measure. Unfortunately for Glenn, this wasn’t the last he’d, er, feel from his birdy friends.

Free flight bird show

I really wanted to see this the last time I was here. This time, I made sure we were there nice and early so we could snag ourselves a good seat for photography.

This show is worth the price of admission alone. They power through the many bird species (birds of prey, cockatoos, pelican and macaw) and show off the various tricks. I’m a bird nerd and though I knew a lot but I was captivated by a lot of what I saw.

It’s one thing knowing that a buzzard can crack an egg with a rock. It’s a completely different experience watching it happen.

We loved getting a look at the barking owl. It’s eyes were so piercing. Above is an example of the many, many photos that Glenn got.

Of course, the red tailed black cockatoo was a highlight.

It was also awesome watching the other birds of prey. They flew above us and caught food that the handlers were throwing up for them to catch. We also got the chance to pose with a wedge tail eagle. If you ever get the chance to do this, just do it. Don’t think. It’s so humbling to be close to such an intelligent bird and the photographs work out to around $10 each if you get multiple ones. This is so affordable and it all goes back to support the animals.

Kangaroos and Emus

There is an area where you can walk amongst, and feed, the kangaroos and emus. This area is awesome. It may be a bit boring if you’ve done this type of experience before but it offers a lot of great photo opportunities. There were ducks and pigeons amongst the larger animals.

Glenn had a ball while I just sat and watched the animals. I noticed that the dusky moorhens had babies! This didn’t bode well for the kangaroos. Some had wanted to hop past a family but the mother hen got incredibly defensive and jumped up, attacking the kangaroo.

I noticed that particular bird walking with a limp later on, and hoped that she didn’t have any long term injuries – and that the baby would be okay. This is why I have to be careful around animals, I get way too involved.

Lorikeets

The lorikeet experience was awesome, although it felt extremely disorganized.

You don’t have to pay to enter the park to take part in it. You just have to make a small donating to the park in return for a small metal bowl of nectar. The birds will fly to you instantly if you have this but be warned: they drink it very quickly.

If you aren’t front and center in this area, the staff will miss you when it comes to refilling your bowl. I got incredibly frustrated at waiting for about 10 minutes while the main presenter was talking about other paid opportunities we could take part in. I understand the need to make money but I know that there would be other people, like myself, who were missing out because the staff were focusing on a small area when it came to refilling

The good thing is that the area settles down after about 15 minutes. Most of the people move away and the lorikeets, and staff, are still there. You will have plenty of time to have those close encounters with the birds, despite the initial frustrations.

The lorikeets also fly off every time a plane flew over.

Overall

I had a much better impression of the park this time, primarily because we dedicated an entire day to it and didn’t have to rush around. This shouldn’t be rushed. I recommend checking out the website first to make sure that you have enough time to fit everything in. It’s one of the better wildlife parks that I’ve visited and I’ve gone to a lot.