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Bellarine Peninsula

Visiting Lake Lorne and Mcleods Waterhole

July 15, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on July 9.

On Thursday I woke up, keen for an adventure. I had impulsively decided to go to Serendip, after someone had commented that there was a baby moorhen there. I waited for the right bus…. and waited…. and waited.

The bus timetables had changed in Geelong and I wasn’t able to catch the right bus in order to get the train to Lara. I flipped out. My anxiety was extreme that day and I hadn’t created a back up plan. I caught a bus into town, debating whether to go to Lake Lorne or walk along the beach. I walked up and down the bus bays at the Geelong Station, trying to see which place would be the best to visit.

By the time I got there, I had calmed down. I’d seen a couple of black shouldered kites along the road, especially near Moolap Saltworks.

I got there around 2pm.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed. There didn’t seem to be much wildlife there. Ducks were scattered and hard to see, even with my 500 lens.

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I did see this lovely fungi when walking there.

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I also saw this cute pardalote. I think there have been a lot more pardalotes around then I would have assumed. I saw one at Balyang recently. They are so small and hidden that it is easy to assume it’s a thornbill.

Mcleods Waterhole

My main reason for going was photography. I wanted to observe some bird behaviour to help me calm down. There were interesting ducks at Lake Lorne, as someone pointed out later. I prefer Mcleods Waterhole. Larger numbers, easier to see them. They are fairly skittish though.

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There were about 70 pink eared ducks there, which was fantastic. They are one of my favourite species of duck. I never get really close enough to get good photos or observe behaviour. The ones at Balyang, and Jerringot, were by themselves and I never got to observe group behaviour. I did get to see a couple of them flap their wings from a distance. The above photo is cropped. It’s awesome because I got to see under the wings

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The underside of the birds chin. I don’t know if this is normal but I thought it was awesome.

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The pink eared ducks were extremely skittish – I’d sit down somewhere and they’d instantly fly away. They would swim back shortly after. The freckled ducks would just stay hidden in their little area and not care.

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I did see some interesting behaviour when they called. There would be one main duck in the group that would raise its head up and do an interesting hoot, causing the others to follow it. I had never seen this before. I’d love to learn more about it. In one group, the other birds were smaller. I wish I could have recorded it.

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Saw a black kite flying overhead, which was a bit disappointing. I had really hoped to see other birds of prey.

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I was able to see a couple of pairs vortex feeding, which was a first. I’d seen youtube clips but had never seen it in person. The birds were a fair bit away so I couldn’t get close up photos and only saw it about five times. The feeding only appeared to last 6-10 seconds. Sometimes another duck would interrupt them. I wish I could find more information on this – I almost want to go back and see them again.

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I did get some awesome photos of this eurasion coot feeding.

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More views of their underwings. Love it.

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Was lucky enough to get a photo of the bird with its mouth open.

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Crested Pigeon – taken using creative auto. I think I need to experiment with this setting for birds that are up close!

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More fungi

~

A bit of a rushed post; at my families and the nephew is making it hard to type. Have recorded most of the major observations. Didn’t get to even start the post about Balyang though πŸ™‚

Hoping to do more adventuring now that the weather has improved.

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula Tagged With: black kite, crested pigeon, eurasian coot, freckled duck, Lake Lorne, Mcleods waterhole, pink eared duck

Visiting Ocean Grove Nature Reserve With Mr Sethy

June 6, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on May 15

IΒ knew I had to take Sethy back to Ocean Grove Nature Reserve after my recent visit with Carolyn. He also LOVED it when we were there for the moth night. He just loves going to the proper bush, not normal parks and reserves close to suburbia. Fortunately this was close to public transport, and Sethy was mature enough to for the longish trip.

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One of the first birds we saw were these hybrid lorikeets, which Sethy was so excited to see. Ocean Grove is considered to be an awesome place to find hybrids but personally, I’m more interested in finding the local population of swift parrots.

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The above bird is a pink robin, which was a complete surprise. I’d been hoping to find flames but a certain someone didn’t want to walk along the track. I almost dismissed this photo as being a wren but something made me reconsider.

In the ID forum I use, a friend posted this to help me out:

they look much browner overall than the Flames or Rose Robins, with no white edges on the tail and tan coloured wing bars. There also seems to be a slight pink flush on the belly of this bird. Another good ID point, if you get to see it, is the yellow on the “soles” of their claws. Pink Robins visit the OGNR in Autumn/Winter in small numbers. Listen out for the distinct click call they sometimes make – like a stick being snapped. They also have a trilling call.

Normally I try to paraphrase, but this information will be so useful to Sethy and myself in the future. I am so thankful to how helpful people are. It was a lifer for Sethy, although I’m very keen for him to go to Toolangi and see both male pink and rose robins in the wild.

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Bog standard red rumps. Beautiful nonetheless.

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Seth loves seeing different types of trees. A new goal will be to get him to try and identify them. That may be tricky as it will mean I have to identify them first.

Fungi

The fungi there was magnificent. I’d love to take mum here to explore. Not as good as the otways but still, it was pretty awesome.

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Other critters

As usual, a certain 6 year old was great at finding various bugs hiding in the undergrowth. I have no idea what they are, nor how I should go about ID’ing them. Regardless, it’s an opportunity for future learning.

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~

I think I’ll be trying to visit the nature reserve, or places similar to this, more often with him. We didn’t see any wild wallabies but we did find two sets of bones. Took photos so we could play ‘guess which part of the animal this comes from’. Surprisingly, it’s a good way to learn. Seth is enamoured with Jakes BonesΒ at the moment as well.

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula

Lake Lorne with the little dude – again!

May 22, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on May 6th

Lake Lorne πŸ™‚ It’s quickly becoming one of my favourite accessible birding locations. It can take a short while to get out via public transport – especially when compared to my local haunts – but it has a lot of diversity.

Sethy and I had gone to Lake Lorne in February. He enjoyed it, but was a bit disappointed. I had promised him freckled and blue billed ducks. We had gotten a bad view of a blue billed and the freckled were in small numbers.

Earlier this month, Carolyn invited me to both Ocean Grove and Lake Lorne. We had a fantastic twitch. I was so impressed with the birds I had seen there that I decided I should take Sethy up there ASAP. I don’t know the area intuitively yet, nor am I knowledgeable about bird movements on the peninsula. I wanted to get there quickly to hopefully see the same amount of birds. Was so glad I did!

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Yes, swans are boring. I don’t care though, I always love seeing a family of swans.

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Black fronted dotterel. Really need to find us a red kneed for Sethys list!

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An unknown plant type that looked interesting. I’m going to start printing out some of these photos to take to the field nats, to help us figure out what we’ve seen.

Whistling Kite

I was hoping the whistling kites would show up in similar numbers to last time. The ducks here were fantastic but we were too busy looking at the kites.

We were able to observe their behaviour most of the time we were there and I got some really clear photos that will be able to help when teaching the little dude about ID’ing.

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Spoonbill

I was able to get some beautiful photos of the spoonbills feeding. Sethy was getting a little bird bored and wouldn’t let me spend too long watching them, which was a shame.
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Ducks

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Blue billed, male and female.

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You can see the decent number of pink eared ducks here, which I always love. Someone one ebird recently reported 150!

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Small group of freckled ducks.

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Shovelers.

~

This account is a bit rushed because there really isn’t that much to say. I’m not knowledgeable enough about this area to provide any real commentary.

Both visits this month have been great for photography. I don’t know if that is a seasonal thing. I’m thinking of returning soon by myself to see what photos I can get.

Sethy loved it, because the birds were accessible. I’m running out of places to take him to! Fortunately, people at the field nats are helping out with ideas and even things to pass onto him.

I’m feeling a bit unsure about what birding adventures I’ll go on next, especially with the impending move. Hopefully it wont impact me too much and I’ll get back into the birding/hiking scene.

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula Tagged With: Australasian shoveler, black swan, blue-billed duck, freckled duck, Lake Lorne, pink eared duck, royal spoonbill

Sethys First Visit To Lake Victoria

May 20, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on March 8th.

You know how it goes. I discover a place via the field nats – in this case, Lake VictoriaΒ – and have to take Sethy there so he can partake in the awesomeness. I know a lot of these posts lately seem to focus on him but it’s mostly because I’ve been too lazy to write up our combined trips. Mostly because it’s stuff I’ve already seen and there are too many solo trips demanding to be written up.

Sethy rather enjoyed it. Lake Victoria was interesting in itself, despite the first bird sighting being the obligatory grey fantail.

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One of the reasons I wanted to take him there so badly was so he could see some shorebirds in breeding plumage. The area didn’t disappoint.

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I also would have loved to have taken mum and Glenn here for landscape photography. I’m not sure it’s as haunting now.

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We got to see birds in various stages of developing their plumage, which Sethy loved.

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Stints too!

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He really loved getting close up looks of the red capped plover. He was disappointed he didn’t get to see their broken wing display. I had shown him my photos from last time, and found some useful youtube videos. He thought it was fascinating and was glad to add another lifer.

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It was also a good day for critters. He enjoyed finding the spider. πŸ™‚ We really need to start ID’ing the spiders. I’m no good at it.

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And this grasshopper, which is different from the others we have found.

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Grey fantails used to confuse me but don’t anymore. Rufous look entirely different.

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Thornbill. I’ve forgotten what it is but rest assured, it’s been added to his life list.

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Alas, we didn’t see any hoodies. I will try to add them to his life list next summer πŸ™‚

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We did find some interesting plants though, none of which I can ID.

Walking to the lighthouse’

He probably enjoyed the walk to the lighthouse more. The beach was pretty generic but we were able to get really, really close to some of the terns on the beach. And we saw this pacific gull yawning!

Definitely need to find some more terns πŸ™‚

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~

This write up sucks due to the time that has past, but Sethy really did enjoy it. We got to explore the lake and the flora along the side of it. We got to get a close up look of a lighthouse and muck around on the beach. It was one of those trips that combine the best of both worlds. I try to incorporate kid stuff into our adventures but sometimes there just isn’t any kid stuff to do.

Very keen to explore more of the Bellarine Peninsula with him. It’s more accessible and interesting then other places. I’m actually keen to explore more of it by myself but it depends on how practical that is πŸ™‚

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula Tagged With: greater crested tern, grey fantail, lake victoria, pacific gull

Visiting Ocean Grove Nature Reserve in Autumn

May 17, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on May 6th

I love the Ocean Grove nature reserve. It’s a hidden gem on the bellarine. I didn’t get to enjoy it properly the first time I visited with Glenn. He loves nature in a different way to me and I felt a tad guilty when I realized that.

This was the first place I visited with Carolyn on that impromptu adventure. It was so awesome to explore it with another person who just wanted to savour it. I had enjoyed my visit with the moth night, but I was busy trying to watch the little dude.

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One thing I loved about the area was the number of what I suspect are austral grasstrees. It’s not a huge amount, but more then we get around here.

Wallabies

In the past it has been pretty hard to find wallabies, with the exception of the moth night. On Wednesday we saw at least four! It was amazing.

I did read that you get red necked wallabies there, although I don’t know if I saw any.

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I took this picture because it kinda looked like a wallaby from a distance. They really loved the areas where they had recently done burning off. A couple of wallabies were nibbling on the fresh shoots. I also noticed that the burns were pretty light.

Robins

The birding for the day was quite good. I know we saw a grey currawong and a couple of other species. I was really impressed with the robins though!
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As always, I loved seeing the yellow robins. I could spend all day photographing them. The pink robins, below, were an even better surprise. I now can really see what others say about the bands on the wings.

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~

I loved this adventure so much that I ended up returning 9 days later with Seth. I think I’m in love with here. It has so much charm and hidden secrets. I know I was disappointed that I didn’t see a flame but hey, I’ll find one πŸ™‚

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula

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