It was the final week of the school holidays. (Thank gosh.) The mister had asked if we could go to Balyang. I countered, asking if he’d be interested in going to Point Henry. He immediately said “Oh, the banded stilt place.” I don’t know how his brain manages to remember everything I’ve told him.
I asked my dad if we could get dropped off on his way to town as it was closeby. As dad lately pointed out, “It may be close as the bird flies but it is a fair bit of a detour.” I felt so guilty by putting my family out during Seth and my adventures but you know what? He has loved it. Loved it so much.
We got dropped off at the carpark and started wandering around the foreshore. There were lots of shells to look at and Seth tried to teach me how to skip rocks. As he later said to mum: “Aunty Jades rocks always made a big splash!”
Then I saw it.
European goldfinch, lifer #98 for him. I had seen them before when a family of them spent a week raiding one of the trees in our backyard but hadn’t seen them since. I was pretty stoked to see them again as I think they are beautiful birds.
I looked back towards Geelong waterfront. It was incredibly beautiful, especially with all the boats from the festival of sails leaving.
There was a lot of jellyfish washed up on the beach, which was kind of awesome. It’s sad, but it also provides a learning opportunity. We didn’t see any when walking around Williamstown/Altona the day before and I really wanted him to get a close up look. Well, we got several 🙂
We had spent about 30 minutes wandering around and I wondered how we were going to spend the rest of the time. Didn’t I read there was a boardwalk? We saw this bird resting on a fence and assumed that we weren’t allowed to walk down that path. Turns out that was an entry point to the wetlands area, but oh well. We found it eventually!
Grey fantail. Want to show him a rufuos one next 😀
Boardwalk
Was very happy to show him a golden headed cisticola, lifer #99. Not sure how to pronounce it but one of my attempts sounded like “testicular.”
Seth found these little bugs. He’s so awesome at finding bugs. At one point, he opened his hand and there was about five in there.
Teeny tiny baby dotterel! Bad photo, but saw the bird running after its parent.
We didn’t have much luck at any of the bird hides, although we did hear some rustling. I wonder if there aren’t as many birds there now that Altona has shut?
Along the foreshore
We wandered around the foreshore again while waiting for my parents to pick us up. We saw this white fronted chat while I was on the phone to mum. It’s behaviour felt different to the other chats I’d seen so was hoping for a plover. No luck.
Also a pacific gull, a bird that we both love.
~
It was a pretty good trip despite going to an unfamiliar area. Seth really loved it. He’s noticing similarities between the various coastal areas we visit. He’s learning a lot.
It’s definitely not a case of me forcing my hobby onto him. He’s the one that asks for it. He’s developing a fondness of hiking. I’ve definitely influenced him in the sense that he’s been exposed to the natural world, due to my keen interest. But he has his own unique interests in the natural world.
He’s a good little teammate too, helping me find stuff and forcing me to slow down. I’m so grateful that dad took the time to give us lifts to places. I’ve worked super hard not to inconvenience them. I know that our adventuring has helped them to allowed them to get more down with the move without a 6 year old running around.
He’s tiring me out though. 🙂 Lot’s of talking about things afterwards, looking at apps + guides and looking at the photos.
Thinking that I may try for either a banded stilt or a hoodie for bird #100 for him. He’s loving his life list – and he’s fast catching up to mine!
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