Australian White Ibis

Eastern Park Stormwater Harvesting Pond

December 31, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Thursday, Glenn and I went to visit the Stormwater harvesting pond. We were on a macro photography adventure and I wanted to check on the young grebes. I thought that Glenn might want to try his luck at leaf curling spider or dragonfly photography.

These photos are rushed because Glenn was feeling anxious and I made the call to just go to the gardens, where we had a blast. Will definitely be returning here to get clearer photos of the chicks.

One of the first things I noticed though was this great egret in breeding plumage. Yes! It had some feathers on its beak. I was able to get some photos of it fluffing its feathers before going to join Glenn. Next season I will definitely emphasis photographing other birds.

Grebes

As I’ve said, these photos are mediocre because I was in a rush. You can clearly see how its feathers and markings have changed as it matured.

I could only see three of the chicks. They are still being fed, although are considerably more independent.

White Ibis

One of the highlights about this time of year is getting photos of birds having a bath. They can look so much different! I’ll be creating a collection of photos later for these types of shots.

My next goal is to spend a couple of hours around the botanical gardens by myself, doing macro photography at my pace and also looking for birds. I did notice a blackbird nest hidden in a tree near where some bugs were hanging out. I’m also keen to find where the night herons are nesting, and whether you can still find bassian thrushes there. So many birds, so little time. And I’m crazy enough to be thinking about going back to uni 🙂

Swan Bay: Viewing from a distance

August 7, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I used to love hiking. I had to drop the hobby when my agoraphobia worsened. I couldn’t leave the house and lost my fitness. I also lost all my blog posts from around that era.

Sometime, before 2009, I walked Bellarine Rail Trail. I did it over two separate visits and both 16km walks were enough to encourage me to buy expensive hiking shoes! The majority of the walk was through farmland and was beautiful, with the occasional opportunity to photograph a black shouldered kite. I was enamoured though when I got to the Swan Bay portion of the walk.

I don’t know if it is possible to get any closer, especially as I’ve since learned that birds love this area.

The photographs are beautiful but are of rather generic birds. I didn’t have the zoom lens at this time and my feet were blistered. I’m so keen to return here – especially over summer – which I know will annoy the heck out of me considering it is an hour on the bus. Also keen to explore swan bay. No idea how I’ll explore here as well as focus on Serendip + my other chosen locations.

It truly is an amazing wetland.

Rainy Eastern Beach and Limeburners Point

June 14, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on May 31st

Late May/Early June was particular difficult for us. On the 30th of May, we got the phone call telling us to get to hospital now. Papas health had deteriorated and the family had been called in. This happened 10 minutes prior to a cadets adventure so we hopped in the car, got there 10 minutes early, and my parents rushed to the hospital.

My parents went to the hospital every day for the next 5 or so days. I knew that this would disrupt Seths routine a little bit so decided we would do the Eastern Beach adventure. We’d start around Cunningham Pier, walk to Limeburners Point and see where we go from there.

The weather was quite windy and the rain was taunting us, so it wasn’t the best day to find stuff in the ocean. Seth loved the water hitting the barrier and then hitting his face. We also saw a number of gannets.

They were flying a lot further out then I’ve seen them in the past and it was difficult to get photos of them. I’m curious as to how the wind impacts their proximity to shore? It sucked, because Seth couldn’t see their awesome dives.

We were able to see 3 juvenile pacific gulls, which was amazing. They were flying low and close, we got so many photos of them in flight. So much detail!

Below, I can see that the bird has something in its mouth. I have no idea how to tell what it is, though

Stormwater Pond

We then walked around Eastern Park towards the storage pond where we have seen that crake in the past. We stopped to see the bats, which was a real highlight. Despite the cold, they are still incredibly active. We saw some interesting fungi, although they weren’t as good as other locations.

This photo shows the underside of the ibis, where you can clearly see the red.

I as initially disappointed as we didn’t see a grebe, but this one showed up from behind the reeds. I wonder where the others went to?

It was a very kid friendly twitch that allowed me to get some great photography. We saw way more pacific gulls then usual. Maybe the bad weather brought them closer to shore? Will look into it – and will also look into where to find kelp gulls!

Also: we found a rat skull. It stinks, but I’m working on it.

Jerringot + School

January 29, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Today was the nephews first day of school. I try to keep most of my nephews life private, but this is relevant to the story. We try to encourage good behaviour with what we’ve named ‘adventures,’ This is mostly me taking him for a walk somewhere but often has a birding element. Today, we promised that we’d go to the wetlands after school. And, Nan would come too!

At 2pm this afternoon we were in the bird hide at Jerringot. Fortunately there were no drunks in there, but someone had made a fire outside of the hide and left multiple beer cans there.

One of the first birds we saw there was this little egret. Seth was so excited, it was nans first time she had seen that bird. I don’t think I’ve seen one there before, it’s usually just great egrets. I may be wrong with the ID.

There wasn’t much else in the area in front of the hide which was disappointing. Many birders have reported seeing crakes and rails in their local wetlands. I don’t think the water at Jerringot is quite low enough yet. It’s meant to be awesome for Ballions crake. I don’t know if the birds have changed their habits. I don’t know whether I should look elsewhere for them. It’s incredibly confusing.

I decided we should walk along the side and back to see what was around. I’d also read that rails love crossing that path.

Meh!

However, we did see several black winged stilts in the area opposite us. They weren’t pleased about us being there and quickly flew off.

Nan also ‘saw’ her first Lathams snipe. She’s visually impaired and snipes are difficult to see at the best of times, so that may be a bit of an overstatement. But Seth really loved sharing his hobby with nan.

After this, we got a bit distracted looking for rabbits.

In the back area we saw 3 spoonbills and a couple of ibises. We flushed more snipes and stilts by accident. We walked back along the path and Seth pointed out ducklings in the adjoining pond

I don’t know how that kid does it. He always sees stuff that I miss! At first I thought he was joking because they were that well hidden. The mister is really skilled when it comes to birding.

It was a good twitch. Seth really appreciated being able to share it with his nan. Even better, she is knowledgeable about a lot of native plants. Seth will often ask me questions about things and I’m honest about my lack of knowledge in that area. He loves learning and he loves nature. It sounds silly, but it feels like it has a healing effect on him.

I’m getting a bit exhausted with the constant birding. Everything is a gazillion times harder with a little dude around. Packing extra, slowing down and resting more.

Yet I’m doing considerably more birding then I would be otherwise. I don’t have much money to go further afield. It’s helping with my agoraphobia. I think I’m mostly antsy to return to the wet rainforest 🙂 Or find a bloody shrike tit.

Planning to slow down slightly but also go further afield if we can. Need to see how we can involve his nan.

Now, this tired aunty needs some sleep.

Taking Sethy to Jawbone + Altona

January 26, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

It’s the a story that I think is going to repeat itself multiple times this year. I promise Seth we can go adventuring if he is good. He actually behaves. I end up spending an hour plotting, trying to think of something interesting we can do that is something other then ‘Lets walk along the Barwon River.’

The Barwon is awesome. It’s fun. He’s going to be seeing a lot of it now that school is returning. He was hankering to see a blue billed duck. I thought the birding would be more interesting at Jawbone, and was certain we’d see a blue billed. We caught the train to Seaholme station and off we went.

Of course, the birding started before we got to Altona Coastal Park. We did the same walk that I did in this post. I thought it was a reasonable distance that could take him through different environments.

We saw many birds of prey on the way there. Unfortunately, I’m unable to ID them quickly yet. Seth was saying what he thought they were or, moreso, what he hoped they were. At a trainstation near Laverton we saw magpie geese on the side of the tracks! We were very shocked.

There were many musk lorikeets and a little wattlebird in the tree outside the station. Was hoping to luck out and see a little lorikeet 😉

We then walked to the beach, where someone got distracted by being a 6 year old at the beach. We looked at shells and marveled at just how many dogs were at the beach in the area. I always let him muck around and be a kid on these walks, provided we at least keep moving so we can get back at a reasonable time.

I saw these two birds at the beach! Turned out all the birds I saw that day were Common Greenshanks, just like Sethy said. I was really hoping to find a common sandpiper, which had been sighted in the area. Alas, no luck.

Seth repeatedly asked me to get photos of what the little black birds were, even though I knew. Here is a close up of the starling.

Large flock of swans. Seth now really loves swans. We got photos of any bird that had a tag around it’s neck and submitted them to myswan. Seth helped point out the tags. At Jawbone, he started hooting at a pair who were kind enough to talk back.

Green shank

Beautiful tern. This was flying over as we were walking towards the coastal park.

Yellow rumped thornbill! I wasn’t able to ID it until I got home. I thought the rump looked way too bright, and it didn’t appear to be hiding like so many thornbills that I saw. Someone was amused because the word “rump means bottom.”

Grasshopper

It had been about two hours since we had left. Mum called to see how we were doing. At the exact moment I answered, Seth found this on the path.

!!!!

Seth loves bugs and critters. Loves them. I couldn’t talk to him and mum at the same time, so I hung up so we could investigate further. He put it on is hand and we looked closely at it. I know grasshoppers are common but seeing one this size and so well camouflaged was brilliant. Look at the photo below.

Try finding the grasshopper. Seth found it immediately. Eventually, I had to pull him away.

We had to wait around at the walkway over the creek because Seth saw tiny fish in that water. He can be really awesome on adventures, helping me find stuff that I otherwise wouldn’t see. And I get a buzz out of showing him different environments and ecosystems. There were a couple of terns floating around.

Egrets are still annoying

I had to ask for help with this one – I still struggle. It looked smaller, the kink in the neck wasn’t as pronounced and the gap didn’t extend back that far. I may just have to accept that this is a bird I will struggle to ID for some time.

Walking from Altona Coastal Park to Jawbone

We were walking between the birding areas when Seth pointed to something on the side of the track. “Look, fungi!” I didn’t believe him at first. I went “no there’s no………………..t,” with my voice getting really high pitched towards the end. I was that surprised to see fungi at the beach. I thought that they liked the damp and cold. Definitely something I want to investigate.

We heard a rustling in the trees and went to investigate. Seth said it was a honeyeater. I wasn’t too sure as it looked too small, but we checked on the app and with his field guide. Yep, it was a singing honeyeater. Lifer number 2 for the little dude and possibly my first lifer for the year.

Yet another fungi. Seth is awesome for finding fungi.

Walking towards Jawbone we saw a great crested grebe. Third time I’ve seen one and a second for Seth, but now we both have a photographic record. Although I already had one from WTP.

Jawbone.

We got to Jawbone and had a little bit of a wander. Seth was disappointed about the lack of quails, especially because he was super quiet. We did see a lot of rabbits. I knew it would be unlikely. Will definitely seek out quails in the future though. Or, as he repeatedly called them, guinea fowl 😉

Always fun to see another spoonbill.

A pelican flying past Williamstown beach

It was a pretty big day, with what felt like very little return in terms of wildlife. Seth still had a blast. It was just the little things that you see when you go to a different environment. We could probably find similar things closer to Geelong but I wouldn’t know how to get there. Here, I was familiar with.

The blue billed duck wasn’t there, which was a disappointment. We also didn’t get to play in any of the tempting playgrounds. Fortunately there were a lot of toilets and places to refill your drink bottle along the path. And, I got to teach Seth more about the area. I’d love to take him back to Williamstown and explore the main beach/pier area, and then catch a ferry into the city.

I’ve noticed that I feel a lot healthier, and feel less agoraphobic. Our adventuring started out so he had something fun to do over the holidays, as my parents have been so busy with moving. I think it’s really benefited both of us. He’s learning lots of little things, like he does when he’s with my parents. I find it fascinating watching his brain develop. I’m also keen to take mum to some of these places, as Seth would love to share things with her.