Bellarine Peninsula

Seeking The Scarlet Honeyeaters

November 1, 2017 by Jade Craven 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.

Other moth night critters

March 9, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I’ve previously shared the observations I made at the recent GFNC moth night. I did see other critters, although I don’t really know where to start with ID’ing them! This post is a bit of a rush, as I’m recovering from a recent site hack and have a lot of posts to catch up on.

If you have any tips on finding ID’s, they’d definitely be appreciated!

Spiders

Neither of these photos are crash hot – the latter (a garden orb weaver) in particular is horrible. One of my friends from the field nats got much better photos of it. You can see the front and back by clicking the links.

Cricket:

I’m not sure whether these are crickets or grasshoppers – nor how to find out, really. I think that the first one is a separate species from the others as it has difference markings. Although it also looks like the middle legs are different.

It’s been over a week since moth night and I’ve seen smaller, similar bugs in the backyard. I’ll be making comparisons and look into an online resource where I can learn more about them.

Young Pacific Gulls at Queenscliff Beach

January 4, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Saturday, Sethy and I went to Swan Bay for a ‘mudflat meander’. It was run as part of the ‘Summer by the sea’ program and meant we got to explore and learn about the mudflats.

It was pretty awesome and we discovered a lot of critters. There were interesting birds on the bay, but I was carrying tiny buckets.

Afterwards, we went to a different Queenscliffe beach with my parents. We watcher the ferry leave and arrive, and watched these two pacific gulls attack dead fish for a while. Dad hadn’t gotten a proper look at them before and marveled at the size difference. I was trying to get shots from various angles for a bird ID site I am working on.

Looking forward to getting back into adventuring properly once the new years rush dies down a bit. Curse you, school holidays!

Lake Lorne + Mcleods Waterhole: Spring 2015

November 14, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, Carolyn and I went on an impromptu trip to Lake Lorne. We’d met at Balyang (where I had been birding for 2 hours) and she wanted to do a bit more adventuring.

I was up for it. I’d been planning on walking home when she texted but it is always fun birding with her. After a hit of humming and aahing, we decided on Drysdale. I’d explored so much of the Barwon and Geelong area lately, and both of us were keen to see how things were going.

We did see this family of swans at Lake Lorne. Unfortunately, there was a deceased adult nearby.

At Mcleods waterhole there was a pair of blue billed ducks which was exciting to see. My new goal is to get a really good photo of them.

A hoary headed grebe in breeding plumage. Nice seeing them, I’ve missed seeing them at Eastern Beach.

Below are a number of freckled duck photos that I took. There weren’t as many ducks compared to the last time I was here. It’s amazing how much things can change in a matter of months. I do want to learn more about their behaviour in the wild, they fascinate me. I recently learned that they are the rarest duck in the country. Cool.

We were walking around the back of the waterhole when I saw these purple swamphen chicks. I always love seeing chicks and it was awesome to see. I have no idea why there are so few at Balyang. I still have found any eurasian coot babies yet… I am trying though 🙂

Noisy Miner Vs Goshawk

This was pretty awesome to witness. We saw a noisy miner have a go at, and subsequently chase off, a brown goshawk. We couldn’t ID it at the time, I had to go home and look at the photos. I’m basing this on the tail and glaring eyes. The photos are sub par but show some interesting behaviour. I love it when little birds attack much larger ones.

We were both pretty knackered at this point. This post may not be as interesting as others, but it is always worth documenting the changes. I’m thinking of trying to visit here each season and seeing what I can learn. So many places to visit, such little time. And so much fear of catching more then one bus 😛

Swan Bay: Viewing from a distance

August 7, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I used to love hiking. I had to drop the hobby when my agoraphobia worsened. I couldn’t leave the house and lost my fitness. I also lost all my blog posts from around that era.

Sometime, before 2009, I walked Bellarine Rail Trail. I did it over two separate visits and both 16km walks were enough to encourage me to buy expensive hiking shoes! The majority of the walk was through farmland and was beautiful, with the occasional opportunity to photograph a black shouldered kite. I was enamoured though when I got to the Swan Bay portion of the walk.

I don’t know if it is possible to get any closer, especially as I’ve since learned that birds love this area.

The photographs are beautiful but are of rather generic birds. I didn’t have the zoom lens at this time and my feet were blistered. I’m so keen to return here – especially over summer – which I know will annoy the heck out of me considering it is an hour on the bus. Also keen to explore swan bay. No idea how I’ll explore here as well as focus on Serendip + my other chosen locations.

It truly is an amazing wetland.