Bellarine Peninsula

Visiting Ocean Grove Nature Reserve With Mr Sethy

June 6, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on May 15

I 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.

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.

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.

Bog standard red rumps. Beautiful nonetheless.

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.

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.

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 Bones at the moment as well.

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 🙂 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!

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

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

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.

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.

Ducks

Blue billed, male and female.

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

Small group of freckled ducks.

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.

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 Victoria – 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.

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.

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

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

Stints too!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 🙂

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 🙂

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 🙂

Lake Lorne in May: Cold Yet Awesome

May 14, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, I got a text message from Carolyn asking if I wanted to go birding. I was having a bit of an anxious day but ended up saying ‘Yes’ – provided we didn’t visit somewhere along the Barwon River.

Now, I love the Barwon. It’s a beautiful area. It’s also an area I’ve explored WAY too much with a very adventurour 6 year old. On childless birding trips, I want to go further afield. Fortunately, Carolyn was thinking along the same lines, to the point where she suggested the same two places I have been wanting to go to for a while. The latter idea was Lake Lorne…. which I’ll be writing about first because internet downloads are SO slow!

It had been raining on and off all day. It was raining on the way there but cleared up as soon as we got there. As soon as I got out of the car I immediately regretted not bringing the zoom lens.

Look at that spoonbill! Beauties like that deserve the close up treatment. We were lucky enough to find two spoonbills on the day

There was a large number of ducks on the lake, more then I had seen on the previous visits. The lake is quite large so it is easy to overlook just how many different species there are. In this photo, wood ducks and freckleds were scared off by our presence.

We were so fortunate. There was at least 3 whistling kites circling overhead. One ended up landing on a dead branch in on a tree in one of the lakes islands. I loved hearing their call. We also saw a black kite flying off from a tree. It was so quick, I didn’t have the time to get my camera.

The yellow spoonbill was quite close, I was so annoyed that I didn’t bring the zoom lense. I was also happy to get closer to a yellow one. They don’t seem to be as common, nor as friendly, as the royal.

More photos of the kite. Could have spent a lot longer photographing them if I had the time.

Eastern Rosella. I’ve noticed that these are the most common in this area.

Large number of straw necked ibises flying in to roost at this time. It was just before 5pm.

It was also awesome to get this photo series of an egret catching a fish! It was also fascinating how these two birds banded together and worked together to get food. I wonder if this is a common pairing?

Some of the ducks. Carolyn saw blue billed, shovelers and plenty of pink eareds. It was so amazing to see all my favourites.

The ibises roosting.

It was an unexpectedly fantastic twitch. It was so different compared to previous visits. I think I need to visit here a lot more frequently to properly understand it.

It can be very hit and miss in terms of what you get from it. Perhaps it is more interesting in winter? I guess I’ll be learning a lot more about it in the coming months 🙂