Shipwreck Coast

Cape Gannet at Point Danger

February 4, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

One of the highlights of the Point Danger experience was seeing the cape gannets. I try not to be lifer obsessed but… gannets. Yes, there would be opportunities to see them in the future and I could have seen one while combining a trip with a pelagic. Gannets take away all logic with me though.

Melanie did a brilliant job of helping us find the cape pair but despite her best efforts, I struggled to see it. Here is an explanation of how to tell the difference.

The Cape gannet has a distinctly longer black, featherless gular stripe, stretching from the base of the lower mandible down to the middle of the throat (confined to the base of the chin in the Australasian gannet); a pale orange-yellow head (more golden in the Australasian gannet); a white rather than pale grey iris; and brighter, cyan stripes down the foreleg and toes (electric blue in the Australasian gannet).

via NZ Birds Online

This bird was on the nest, so we couldn’t clearly see the gular strip. I couldn’t see the iris difference using just my lens. Fortunately, a new friend helped me see the eye up close. I may have done a little dance then because I was so excited.

There are only a few species of birds that get me really excited. Parrots. Kelp gulls. Gannets. I’m besotted. I took about 1600 photos in one hour to make sure I captured the birds and, fortunately, I did.

Melanie was speaking later and stopped suddenly. “Did you hear that call? It is a cape gannet!” We got to see the bird land, so it was easy for me to find it amongst the others.

Even if I didn’t see it, it was very helpful by putting its beak up in the air. I got to clearly see the gular stripe, which is amazing.

I’m so glad I went to Melanies talk rather then going to see it by myself. I learned so much. It’s amazing, I event learned that there is one lone Australasian gannet over at the South African colony. The following video explains.

Young gannets at Point Danger

February 3, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I’ve only ever seen one young gannet. I have no idea how old it was but it was flying by itself over Eastern Beach. I’ve always wanted to see some of the younger ones. At Point Danger, I got my wish.

It was phenomenal. Nothing compares to seeing the young of a species you are obsessed with. The birds were of varying ages and the parents were so doting. It was fascinating, especially as it is quite likely these chicks will be abandoned.

They had attempted breeding earlier in the season but it had been predated by foxes. It’s somewhat disturbing. Why put all that effort into raising chicks if you are just going to abandon them? Wouldn’t it make sense to skip a season and conserve energy?

It was also interesting to learn about the eggs. They are really small, the size of a hens egg. Apparently the kelp and pacific gulls steal and eat a lot of the eggs. I *never* would have learned this much just observing the colony by my own, or watching the ones at Popes Eye. I’d love to learn more about gannets or photograph a complete breeding cycle, but I’m not sure that is possible.

The early life story is quite interesting, though.

After 43 days a blind, naked chick hatches, and is fed and cared for by both parents.

The chicks grow rapidly. In the first week they develop white fluffy down, which is replaced during their second and third months by juvenile plumage. By 14 weeks the chicks weigh 3 kilograms, half a kilogram more than the parents, and they begin flapping and stretching their wings for hours each day.

via Te Ara

Below are the photos of the chicks that I saw. I’ll be providing many more updates over the coming days.

Tower Hill: Lava Tongue Boardwalk

February 2, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This walk was the culmination of a beautiful week in South West Victoria. I’d just spent five days with my family in Apollo Bay, and observed the Point Danger Gannet colony in Portland. I’d explored both ends of the Great Ocean Road – a region I am very much in love with. My birdwatching friends and I had visited Killarny Beach near Warrnambool, where I had seen a wild ruddy turnstone. He decided that our final adventure for the day would be a quick visit to Tower Hill. Now, I’ve been obsessed with the south west region for over a decade. I haven’t explored much beyond Apollo Bay but I had a very long bucket list of activities to do when my anxiety allowed for it. Tower Hill was right up there. It’s history is so fascinating.

Tower Hill formed at least 30,000 years ago when lava from beneath the earth’s crust came into contact with the subterranean water table. The violent eruption that followed created the main funnel-shaped crater which later filled with water to form a lake up to 90 metres deep. Further volcanic activity within the centre of the crater formed the islands and cone-shaped hills that can be seen today.

via Kanawinka Geopark

Geelong has it’s own volcanic history – primarily, the You Yangs which resulted in the large volcanic plains in the surrounding countryside. Apparently, “when these volcanoes were active, probably between 2 and 3 million years ago, the You Yangs would have been granite islands in a sea of lava.” I recommend visiting the Museum Victoria website to learn more about the volcanic history of the Geelong region. Those unfamiliar with my blog may not know that I’ve been battling severe anxiety for most of my adult life. Volcanoes fascinate me and I love exploring the natural history of an area, but agoraphobia has severely limited what I’ve been able to do. I loved being able to explore here and see how it different from the You Yangs.

A sign described this walk as “where the wetlands meet forest”. As you can see in the above photo, there wasn’t much in terms of wetlands. This may have been due to it being the middle of summer – I know many of my local haunts are significantly drying. It may have been due to dry weather over a longer period. Regardless, a lot of the walk just looked like this:

It may not have made for much of a pretty walk, but I still felt a spiritual connection to the place.

Others probably wont feel this. I went to the information center as soon as we got there and asked what the best walk was for bird watching. She recommended this and told the story about how she witnessed an eagle while driving recently, and that her community interpreted that as a soon sign. I may have paraphrased that wrong, but I really appreciated her sharing that with me.

I feel such a connection with nature and it can be quite upsetting to see the way so many Australians treat the environment. To talk to someone who had such a strong history with the area made me feel like I was among my type of people. I’d love to return here properly and doing some of the guided tours here.

The walk was actually quite disappointing in terms of birdlife – mostly silvereyes, grey fantails and fairy wrens, but it definitely made up for it with other wildlife!

The boardwalk warned that snakes lived here and said that they ‘often moved away to the safety of cover’ when approached. I didn’t think much of this. There are snake warnings everywhere along the Barwon, in Geelong, and I’ve never seen one. Seconds later, I did see a light brown snake! I have no idea whether it was a lowland copperhead, as referenced on the sign, or possibly a brown snake as I only had my telephoto lens on at the time. I was transfixed.

It shows just how much I have changed since returning to nature. Previously, I would have been scared and felt on edge for the rest of the walk. Here, I was perfectly calm. It moved away at the same time that I saw it and hid in the bushes. I told my birdwatching friend about it later and he said that he had seen more, including a tiger snake. The area is meant to be pretty awesome for reptiles. One of the signs said that you can find southern grass skink, garden skink, tiger snake and white lipped snake. I got excited, thinking I saw a grass skink near the sign talking about them but it turned out to just be a southern water skink. Oh well! There is other fauna to be found in the area. In addition to koalas and kangaroos, the bark and hollows of trees are home to common bent wing and lesser long eared bats.

More photos:

There is very little to say about the following photos other then they capture what it truly feels like to be inside the crater. I’m very keen to do the other walks to learn more about the geology of the place. I’m guessing it is similar to Blue Lake at Mount Gambier, in that the volcano collapsed. Unfortunately, this walk didn’t allow me to capture much of this. Perhaps the other ones do?

The flora was interesting, but very different to what I am used to

One I got past the wetland areas, the walk got a little bit interesting. I did notice that the trees and other plants were different to what I’m used to.

I’m not sure why this is, as Geelong is only 2 hours away from Warrnambool. I’m not even sure what type of environment I’m comparing it too. It just felt different. Maybe I was spoiled after exploring the Otways so much recently?

I was able to get some interesting photos of bark, although it didn’t stand out as much as others.

The emu

The walk was nearing an end. I may have been excited (big weekend – I needed sleep!) Then I saw this feathered fiend.

Shit.

It wanted to walk in the direction I was going. I would have to walk past it to finish the walk and get to the car.

I walked to the left of the path. It ran towards me. Suddenly, it veered to the side and puffed its chest out. It did that funny run that emus do. Once it decided it was a sufficient distance away from me, it stopped.

Damn. I’ve been around emus before but it is always a bit nerve wracking on a narrow pathway. Plus, I’m a suburban walker. I’m not used to this much wildlife!

Summary

I felt a strong connection to the area, but this walk may not be for everyone. I’d recommend reading the information brochure beforehand and choosing one that definitely aligns with your interests.

Point Danger Gannet Colony: Contrasts in Flying

February 1, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Recently, I had the chance to get up close to the gannet colony at Portland as part of the Summer By The Sea program. We only had an hour, but I consider this to be one of the best birding experiences of my life.

I will be sharing many more stories from this day over the coming weeks. Melanie Wells, who studied gannets as part of her Honours year at Deakin, was a brilliant presenter. I learned so much – despite barely looking out from behind the camera lens.

It was so fascinating seeing the difference in flight. At Eastern Beach, they are foraging and the flight photographs reflect this. Here, they are often in the process of landing which leads to COMPLETELY different photo opportunities. Granted, a lot of these were made possible by being able to go beyond the main fence. You can still get a lot of great photos outside of the main one.

I loved getting photos of the birds with their feet in different positions to normal. I especially love the final photograph, where the gannet was shaking itself mid flight.

You may be asking “Why are you sharing more photos of gannets flying? Haven’t we seen these before?”

Yes, you have. However, I’m using this as a segue into how the birds I see in Geelong differ to those in Portland.

To quote from the Deakin media release,

“All the birds at Point Danger fed offshore on small schooling fish like pilchards and anchovies with other gannets, usually in association with other marine predators like dolphins and seals that collect the prey into bait balls which are herded to the surface.

“Our cameras showed the birds could swim underwater to capture several small fish per dive. This behaviour is common for gannet species around the world.”

But Ms Wells said at Popes Eye, the research team was surprised to find a different story.

“There, half of the study birds hunted in the same way in Bass Strait, but the other half hunted within Port Phillip Bay and were observed to be foraging alone,” Ms Wells said.

“Interestingly, 93 per cent of birds feeding in the bay were male.”

Ms Wells said the birds that hunted in the bay followed sandbanks in very shallow waters and didn’t rely on other predators, such as dolphins, to drive prey to the surface.

This is fascinating. I never knew that. I assumed that the behaviour I saw here was normal. I even got video of gannets diving after a dolphin. Later, I saw dolphins multiple times but never gannets diving after them.

It didn’t even click that the behaviour differed until Melanie was explaining how the local gannets fished. I was thinking “That doesn’t sound right” when she explained how the Port Phillip Bay population was different.

I will be doing more reading on this – after I finish summarizing the rest of the weekend. I’m still on a bit of a high.

Musk Ducks at Portland Harbour

January 30, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

It was the night before I was due to go to Portland. I was exhausted, having just returned from Apollo Bay, and panicking about how I needed to get ready to leave early the next day.

Keep in mind I have anxiety and it is normally extraordinarily hard to leave the house. My brain was all over the place.

I knew that Portland was a great place for seabirds and did a quick google about what to see. I stumbled across Ian Smissens blog, where he described seeing musk ducks eating crabs at the Portland Harbour.

Woohoo! I love musk ducks! I decided I would focus on the harbour and Fawthrop Lagoon when visiting.

It was so worth it. There were three ducks when I was there on the Saturday, two males and one females. They were very busy feeding on both crabs and fish. They were four there when I visited there the next day. Apparently this behaviour is quite unusual?

If you are patient and follow them, they may come a bit closer to shore which allows for slightly better photography. Lighting conditions may be challenging. I’ve read that the harbour is great for other seabirds and did see some kelp gulls, but didn’t explore it properly. Definitely for next time!