Barwon River, Geelong

Collared Sparrowhawk at Balyang

Jade Craven · April 6, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Seth, mum and I went down to Balyang to look for bugs. As soon as we got there we heard this unusual call. I can’t describe it but I hadn’t heard anything like it before. It was high up in the tree and the light was fading. Oh no! I recorded the calls just in case I needed them for later.

Seth and I circled the tree a couple more times. I was lucky enough to get the two shots I’ve shared below. Obviously, they have been edited.

At the time, three young collard sparrowhawks were still hanging around the area so I didn’t want to post about it. I do miss living in the area. It’s still fun to get these little surprises when I visit.

Balyang At Night: End Of Summer

Jade Craven · March 8, 2018 · Leave a Comment

These images were taken on February 17.

Taken on a night trip to Balyang. We didn’t get as much variety as I hoped; nor was I able to narrow down many of the species. Still, an interesting sample. [Read more…] about Balyang At Night: End Of Summer

Seeking The Scarlet Honeyeaters

Jade Craven · November 1, 2017 · Leave a Comment

It was late October. The scarlet honeyeaters were showing up in regions where they had never been seen before. Initially, people were getting excited because they were showing up close to Melbourne. Then there were sightings in Ballarat. Then Geelong.

It was hard for me to get excited about such sightings. I was still getting used to medication changes and wasn’t well enough to catch two buses. They had been seen at both Fyansford Common and then Ocean Grove.

Fortunately, a friend asked if I wanted to join her in tracking down the elusive birds. Our first stop was the Ocean Grove Nature Reserve.

Ocean Grove Nature Reserve

We didn’t have much luck here. The grass was overgrown in some areas and the mosquitos were prolific. I ended up with about 15 bites around my elbow, despite using repellant. I did quickly snap some photos of wildflowers. I had planned to visit more areas in the Spring and get photos of flowers, but was thwarted by exhaustion and migraines. Hopefully, better luck next year.

Little Black Cormorants Showing Nesting Behaviour

Jade Craven · December 18, 2016 · Leave a Comment

I was starting to get excited. I thought it was nearing the end of the first part of the breeding season around Balyang, which meant I could slow down and focus on other things. There was a new pair of darters preparing to create and raise young. There was significantly less numbers of young cormorants.

Then I noticed this. A little black cormorant carrying nesting material! YES!

I followed where it landed and noticed that it had started constructing a nest. WOOHOO! I’d been wondering for a while why I saw a lot of LBC’s along the river but saw no nesting behaviour. The other cormorants have REALLY stepped up their nesting behaviour so maybe they just don’t nest earlier like other birds? On the first day, we could see one pair constructing a nest.

The next day I returned. The nest was well and truly finished and the cormorant was starting to display courting behaviour. On subsequent days, I noticed other LBC kicking the young little pied cormorants out of the nest and attempt courtship.

I didn’t witness any mating or other types of behaviour. It *does* mean an extended season visiting Balyang. I’m going to visit twice over the next month, and then resume weekly visits watching the young little black cormorants grow up. It will be interesting to compare that with the other cormorants. Have seen no sign of the great cormorants showing courtship or nesting behaviour.

Buckley Falls – The Water Has Gone Down

Jade Craven · November 4, 2016 · Leave a Comment

It sounds obvious. Of course water levels would go down if you haven’t been somewhere for a month. Mum and Seth had gone there earlier that week though and they said that the water levels were quite high.

Yes, studying floods is high on my bucket list but Seth and I had an alternate agenda for this day. We wanted to find some skinks!

We did some have some early luck finding skinks on one of the lower viewing platforms. We would have had more luck finding them if we’d gone looking on the rocks. by the time we got down there the weather had changed and we were out of luck. I’m keen to find some of the more unusual species of skink, other then the water and garden skinks we seem to always find.

The above photos show that the water had gone down significantly, more rocks were exposed. This was awesome news. This meant that there were more places for nankeen night herons to go fishing, as the main falls were still pretty busy. This little guy landed quite close to us and I was able to get a lot of photos. Alas, it didn’t comply with me wanting to get the elusive poop shot.

It was also a good day to find other critters –

Seth found the above moth under a rock, which was surprising. It’s been identified as Melanodes anthracitaria,

This cockroach has been identified as Laxta granicollis. Which is awesome, as Sethy found a larger one there in August and I used my book to identify it. THIS MEANS I HAVE SKILLS! 🙂 Fortunately the new meds have made me less critical about my lack of knowledge.

This post has been mundane as the weather turned suddenly and Seth was just rock scrambling and being a kid. However there ended up being an incident that made the adventure oh so worth it.

The following is from my facebook account: –

The highlight of last weekend was definitely seeing the Kayaker whose kayak flipped right in front of us. He was okay and laughing and got out pretty quickly.

Only his shorts had fallen down past his butt. The front bit was covered (fortunately, as Seth was there). He struggled to pull them up and turn the kayak over so just focused on the kayak for a good couple of minutes 😉

I had two cameras on me (Seths and Glenns) and it was so tempting to get a pic, it would have been hilarious. Chose to respect the dudes privacy.

Certainly brightened my day!

His butt was really red. The photos could have been hilarious. 🙂 DARN IT!