buckley falls

Yummy Photos at Buckley Falls

November 23, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

One of the main reasons we visited Buckley Falls last week was to look for skinks. Lets face it, a 7 year old kid has different priorities. We did see a couple but didn’t have much luck with catching them. We settled playing in a little ‘rock pool’ area. It’s where there are are a bunch of rocks that lead to really small falls. A lot of water gets pooled between some of the rocks and it’s a popular place for kids to play.

I was half watching Seth and half looking around me when I noticed the friendly kookaburra had returned. The initial photos just showed a blur between branches. That was fine, I just needed to confirm the species for ebird. Then I noticed – he/she was hunting!

In the following series of shots, you can see that the kookaburra managed to catch a skink. It isn’t the clearest shot – not like the kingfisher with a skink at Yea wetlands. Still, it was pretty exciting. A shame it also caught that bit of reed at the same time.

White Faced Heron Eating

The kookaburra wasn’t the only highlight of the day. There was a white faced heron that was tolerant of our presence and fished close to where Seth and I were sitting. It ducked its head in the water quickly and pulled out this.

I have no idea whether it caught a fish or an eel. It was astonishing to see. Even Sethy was captivated.

I highly recommend Buckley Falls for those who are patient and are into this type of photography. You can get so many interesting photos of birds fishing if you are willing to wait. It’s better to do this on a weekend when there are less kinds around.

More Moorhens at Buckley Falls

November 22, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Last week, I shared some images of dusky moorhen chicks I took at Buckley Falls. I wasn’t proud of the photos I took so went down there again 8 days later. My goal was to take photos of the chicks with the sigma 150-500 lens and hopefully get better detail.

The best laid places of mice and moorhens. I wasn’t able to find the family that I saw previously. I was able to get much better photos of a different family though. I’d say these chicks were around the same age as the other family.

Some of the photos are still a bit blurry. Still, I’m impressed with the detail on the wings and head. The parents were doing a really good job. Hopefully the kookaburra I’ve recently seen there doesn’t get to them!

Dusky Moorhen Chicks at Buckley Falls!

November 14, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I posted about the awesome night herons (and their lunch!) that I saw at Buckley Falls. As it was a Seth day, the schedule was based around what he wanted to do. Which, being a 7 year old, was to climb over rocks.

There was skinks near those rocks. And other families. And, as I noticed on the way back, some dusky moorhen chicks.

These guys were teeny weeny. They were well hidden so many of the photos turned out to be blurry. I’d been experimenting with black and white photography (to teach Glenn), so accidentally forgot to change settings.

It looked like a couple of families were hanging out together. The chicks would hang out in an enclosed area surrounded by rocks and move out whenever they felt safe. Too much noise/movement? They would go back to hide. They didn’t even need encouragement, which I thought was rather interesting.

Was lovely to see unexpectedly find them 🙂 I had been looking for chicks on any description (birds, I mean :P) at Balyang but had only seen the occasional group of ducklings. I’m assuming they are hiding elsewhere. I now need an Eurasion coot family to complete my mental collection.

Other Buckley Falls Shenanigans

November 13, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Earlier today, I shared photos of a hungry night heron at Buckley Falls. Sethy and I were there for a couple of hours and there were a number of other interesting observations.

These photos are a bit generic, but they highlight some of the photographic opportunities currently available.

I often go to the lower lookout that is overlooking the man made area of the falls. It’s hard to explain. The below photo shows it best.

In the above photo you can see the falls themselves. On the rocks at, and in front of the falls, you’ll often find various species of heron. I’ve been seeing night herons occasionally, but they require more patience. There is usually 2-3 white faced herons. This is an incredibly popular area for birds looking for fish.

If you look in the rocks that are in the still water behind the falls, you can occasionally see other species of bird. On this visit, I saw this hot little pied cormorant. I’m not sure what is up with the white on the wings, I think that some feathers must be askew.

If you are patient enough, you can also see herons leaping across the stones at the top of the falls. You can get some awesome photos if you are quick enough. You have to be very observant as they can stay still for ages before they decide to move.

The herons also like hanging out at some rocks at the bottom of some steep steps. If you sit still they will get very close to you and fish in front of you. You can get a lot of photos of them doing a variety of everyday stuff. The ones here are less skittish then the ones I’ve seen elsewhere. This can also be useful if you are learning about photography and want to experiment with settings.

There are a lot of dragonflies here, and elsewhere, at the moment. Good luck trying to get a decent shot.

No idea what the below bug is. I’m working on getting various critters identified.

It has taken me a while to really like Buckley falls as a birdwatching place. It’s mostly because it requires more patience then other places. You have to wait in the one place for an hour or two and just watch the various birds as they move around. In the past, I wasn’t mature enough to do this. It didn’t help that I was struggling to leave the house. You can expect to see a lot of birds in a short period of time like you can at other environments.

I’m very keen to visit here a bit more often now 🙂

Glenns Barwon River Birthday Ramble

October 29, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Monday it was Glenns birthday. We had originally planned to go to Melbourne to do some photography but the stormy weather had other plans. We didn’t fancy going to the zoo and botanical gardens in drizzly weather so chose to stick around Geelong.

Glenn, however, decided that the day was conspiring against him and didn’t see the point in going anyway. I persuaded him to go. We had a bit of a tiff where I told him that he was choosing to be in a funky mood and he could still have a good day if he wanted. We decided to walk to Queens Park bridge so he could try to photography the baby honey eaters.

Honeyeaters

He had a lot more success then I did when it came to getting photos. The tripod helped, as did the fact we were there mid afternoon. He was fascinated at how the act of feeding was over with so quickly. There would be nothing for a long period and you had to be so quick to get the action shot. It was such a challenge, but he did really well.

I think they were close to fledging. One of them was moving about on a branch next to the nest. The parents were working so hard.

Buckley falls

The birding past Queens Park bridge was pretty uneventful. No kingfishers this time, nor the elusive crested shrike tit. Glenn had an opportunity to practice photographing red rumps once we got to the golf course.

A facebook contact had observed a night heron in the area. Another Facebook friend had gotten some great photos of a heron feeding. I wanted Glenn to try to get some more photos of herons.

The feeding photos weren’t great, but the wind helped make the photographs more interesting. Glenn said he thought there was three herons in the area.

Black Cormorants

I’m proud of how Glenn is able to ID birds now. He asked if a darter was a type of cormorant. I said no and handed him my field guide. I asked him to point out the differences in the birds. “Oh, they are shaped differently and the beak isn’t hooked.” He then looked further down the page and pointed at the black cormorants. “These are the ones we saw. I recognize the wings.”

I didn’t intend for Glenn to get as nerdy as he has, but I like how he now understands the importance of knowing how the bird will behave. His photography has improved so much as a result.

I told Glenn about how bad my agoraphobia has gotten and how much I’m struggling. He said “you enjoy birdwatching, don’t you?” and I told him that all trips were a struggle. He’s encouraged me to back to the doctor so…. we’ll see what happens. Also will be moving over the next few months. Will really miss the area – but will be happy to be close to a different bus line!