Last weekend, we went to the moth night as part of the local field nats. It was our first proper outing as a family with field nats. As a majorly anxious person, I was pretty nervous. Would Sethy be able to handle it? Would I even know anybody?
I needn’t have worried. It was a really lovely night. Sethy scored a couple of lifers and met some of my friends. He got some close up views of swamp wallabys and actually socialized! I didn’t get as much out of the night as I would have liked but it was still pretty awesome.
We got there at around 6, before most of the people had showed up. We did a bit of a wander to see what animals we could see.
Mum isn’t fond of the type of bush there, she is more fond of the type of bush we get at the ballarat bush block. I love it.
We saw this female rufous whistler early on, although we needed help to ID. The gentleman said they would be moving on around this time, then I said that we had seen a male.
I was really stoked to see them! I had read on Graces blog that you can see Golden Whistlers there. I was hoping to find a pardalote for him but this whistler was pretty awesome. I thought they would have been hard to find. Sometimes it’s really fun to be a newbie.
I’m reading up on them right now. Apparently they do move north in the autumn. Huh. Fascinating.
Bog standard grey fantail. Briefly took Seth to the botanic gardens to find a rufous fantail with no luck. Did get a shot of a spinebill, though I’m doubtful Seth saw it.
We returned to the main picnic ground to find more people had arrived and I introduced my family to Carolyn. Someone mentioned that there was a common bronzewing. AWESOME! I had heard a ‘hoo hoo’ sound but thought it might have been an owl. I was actually hoping for a boobook. There was a group of people under the tree and I followed. Another lifer!
Sethy made sure that nan and pa saw it and was very excited to get another lifer. I had seen a bronzewing before when walking along the Barwon River and had been trying to see if I could find one for him. He was pretty excited to see both the new lifers.
A small bird nest in the tree.
We got to see the swamp wallabies on multiple occasions. I would leave the group to supervise him and make sure Sethy was keeping his distance. It was lovely to see them behave normally up close in the wild.
We did a spotlight while waiting for it to get dark enough to see the moths. Around the end, we saw this possum. Ironically, we saw a brushtail possum in the walnut tree when we arrived home.
We left before the good moth action happened as mum was worried that Seth might have been getting the way of other people. I wish I had a macro lens – I would have stayed longer if I did! Overall, Sethy loved the night and getting to see new animals. I would have been more relaxed if I was solo adventuring but I always love sharing stuff with him.
I’m hoping to go back to the reserve in the winter when more of the robins are around. Also keen to find the swifties when they arrive locally. This post is a bit all over the place because I’m catching up with so much work online and am exhausted. Want to post everything while I still remember the details!
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