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freckled duck

Visiting Lake Lorne and Mcleods Waterhole

July 15, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on July 9.

On Thursday I woke up, keen for an adventure. I had impulsively decided to go to Serendip, after someone had commented that there was a baby moorhen there. I waited for the right bus…. and waited…. and waited.

The bus timetables had changed in Geelong and I wasn’t able to catch the right bus in order to get the train to Lara. I flipped out. My anxiety was extreme that day and I hadn’t created a back up plan. I caught a bus into town, debating whether to go to Lake Lorne or walk along the beach. I walked up and down the bus bays at the Geelong Station, trying to see which place would be the best to visit.

By the time I got there, I had calmed down. I’d seen a couple of black shouldered kites along the road, especially near Moolap Saltworks.

I got there around 2pm.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed. There didn’t seem to be much wildlife there. Ducks were scattered and hard to see, even with my 500 lens.

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I did see this lovely fungi when walking there.

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I also saw this cute pardalote. I think there have been a lot more pardalotes around then I would have assumed. I saw one at Balyang recently. They are so small and hidden that it is easy to assume it’s a thornbill.

Mcleods Waterhole

My main reason for going was photography. I wanted to observe some bird behaviour to help me calm down. There were interesting ducks at Lake Lorne, as someone pointed out later. I prefer Mcleods Waterhole. Larger numbers, easier to see them. They are fairly skittish though.

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There were about 70 pink eared ducks there, which was fantastic. They are one of my favourite species of duck. I never get really close enough to get good photos or observe behaviour. The ones at Balyang, and Jerringot, were by themselves and I never got to observe group behaviour. I did get to see a couple of them flap their wings from a distance. The above photo is cropped. It’s awesome because I got to see under the wings

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The underside of the birds chin. I don’t know if this is normal but I thought it was awesome.

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The pink eared ducks were extremely skittish – I’d sit down somewhere and they’d instantly fly away. They would swim back shortly after. The freckled ducks would just stay hidden in their little area and not care.

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I did see some interesting behaviour when they called. There would be one main duck in the group that would raise its head up and do an interesting hoot, causing the others to follow it. I had never seen this before. I’d love to learn more about it. In one group, the other birds were smaller. I wish I could have recorded it.

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Saw a black kite flying overhead, which was a bit disappointing. I had really hoped to see other birds of prey.

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I was able to see a couple of pairs vortex feeding, which was a first. I’d seen youtube clips but had never seen it in person. The birds were a fair bit away so I couldn’t get close up photos and only saw it about five times. The feeding only appeared to last 6-10 seconds. Sometimes another duck would interrupt them. I wish I could find more information on this – I almost want to go back and see them again.

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I did get some awesome photos of this eurasion coot feeding.

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More views of their underwings. Love it.

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Was lucky enough to get a photo of the bird with its mouth open.

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Crested Pigeon – taken using creative auto. I think I need to experiment with this setting for birds that are up close!

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More fungi

~

A bit of a rushed post; at my families and the nephew is making it hard to type. Have recorded most of the major observations. Didn’t get to even start the post about Balyang though 🙂

Hoping to do more adventuring now that the weather has improved.

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula Tagged With: crested pigeon, freckled duck

Lake Lorne with the little dude – again!

May 22, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on May 6th

Lake Lorne 🙂 It’s quickly becoming one of my favourite accessible birding locations. It can take a short while to get out via public transport – especially when compared to my local haunts – but it has a lot of diversity.

Sethy and I had gone to Lake Lorne in February. He enjoyed it, but was a bit disappointed. I had promised him freckled and blue billed ducks. We had gotten a bad view of a blue billed and the freckled were in small numbers.

Earlier this month, Carolyn invited me to both Ocean Grove and Lake Lorne. We had a fantastic twitch. I was so impressed with the birds I had seen there that I decided I should take Sethy up there ASAP. I don’t know the area intuitively yet, nor am I knowledgeable about bird movements on the peninsula. I wanted to get there quickly to hopefully see the same amount of birds. Was so glad I did!

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Yes, swans are boring. I don’t care though, I always love seeing a family of swans.

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Black fronted dotterel. Really need to find us a red kneed for Sethys list!

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An unknown plant type that looked interesting. I’m going to start printing out some of these photos to take to the field nats, to help us figure out what we’ve seen.

Whistling Kite

I was hoping the whistling kites would show up in similar numbers to last time. The ducks here were fantastic but we were too busy looking at the kites.

We were able to observe their behaviour most of the time we were there and I got some really clear photos that will be able to help when teaching the little dude about ID’ing.

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Spoonbill

I was able to get some beautiful photos of the spoonbills feeding. Sethy was getting a little bird bored and wouldn’t let me spend too long watching them, which was a shame.
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Ducks

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Blue billed, male and female.

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You can see the decent number of pink eared ducks here, which I always love. Someone one ebird recently reported 150!

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Small group of freckled ducks.

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Shovelers.

~

This account is a bit rushed because there really isn’t that much to say. I’m not knowledgeable enough about this area to provide any real commentary.

Both visits this month have been great for photography. I don’t know if that is a seasonal thing. I’m thinking of returning soon by myself to see what photos I can get.

Sethy loved it, because the birds were accessible. I’m running out of places to take him to! Fortunately, people at the field nats are helping out with ideas and even things to pass onto him.

I’m feeling a bit unsure about what birding adventures I’ll go on next, especially with the impending move. Hopefully it wont impact me too much and I’ll get back into the birding/hiking scene.

Filed Under: Bellarine Peninsula Tagged With: black swan, freckled duck, pink eared duck

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