golden whistler

Birds along the great ocean walk

April 23, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

It was the first week of the holidays. My parents did their semi regular trip to Apollo Bay, and I thought I’d try to knock out a couple of parts of the great ocean walk. I was lucky enough to do this on two of the days – you can read about those adventures here.

Shelly Beach to Marengo

The first part of the walk was from Shelly Beach to Marengo, accompanied by the little dude. There was a lot of rock scrambling and sitting to watch the waves, so the emphasis wasn’t on birding like I would have liked.

Still, I reckon we managed to do pretty well.

We saw this hooded plover family about halfway back. It was pretty exciting to see. We also saw a number of plovers converging at Barham Beach. It’s so comforting to know that the young here have a much better chance then those around Geelong.

Decent numbers of sooty oystercatchers! Annoyingly, some people have even seen a beach stone curlew recently along this stretch of coast. The area is taunting me!

We were also fortunate enough to see the striated fieldwren above. 🙂 A lifer for the little dude.

The walk was actually fantastic. I wouldn’t mind exploring the area properly and going beyond what we originally saw.

Blanket Bay – Cape Otway

I have no idea what the above bird is. I spent about an hour at Blanket Bay just trying to find the olive whistler, before giving up. Fortunately, others on the Vicbirders group couldn’t ID it either. While that sucks, it means I’m not a moron. Huzzah!

Beautiful golden whistlers.

This guy is apparently just a young common garden skink. Huh!

OLIVE WHISTLER!

I was sitting down on the side of a steep bit, trying to catch my breath. I saw this little guy and swore in my head. It was phenomenal and I wasn’t even trying. I’d spent a lot of time on previous trips trying to find this guy and here it was, just sitting out in the open. Thank you, birdy!

The birding was a tad substandard on these parts of the walk, but that was mostly because I was multi tasking to try. The first time I was watching a 7 year old and we were focusing on EVERYTHING. The second time I got so caught up in macro photography that I had to rush to catch the shuttle back.

I have read that the birds get even better along the other parts of the walk. It sounds like that if my goal is birding, I should just stay in the ONE area for a couple of hours rather then doing lots of little areas. It is a brilliant place to learn.

Birdwatching at Paradise Picnic Ground, Apollo Bay

October 3, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

One of the first places many people recommended I visit while in Apollo Bay was the Paradise Picnic Ground. It’s hard to find much information about it online, despite there it being on one of the signs in Apollo Bay.

Basically, it is a teeny picnic area about 7km out from Apollo Bay.

On arrival one picnic area is located near the carpark and toilets. We recommend you follow the track across the road which will lead you to a beautiful picnic area aptly named ‘Paradise’. Here there are a couple of picnic tables set beside the creek under an ancient tree fern canopy.

via GreatOceanRoad.com

It is incredibly beautiful and a lovely place to do photography, and is a bit closer then some of the walks a bit further out. There isn’t much of a walk – although some people have created an unofficial path by bush bashing.

I wasn’t sure how to find birds here so basically just wandered around for an hour, sitting and listening to the sounds. The eastern yellow robin was a frequent visitor.

I actually went there twice. I went there for a 10 minute walk with my parents on the first day, to see if they’d be interested in exploring. Seth was starting to play up so we decided I’d return the next day ‘to visit a friend.’

If you like eastern yellow robins, I highly recommended it. They were so photogenic. There were a number of grey fantails hanging around so I ignored some of the birds around that size who had similar behaviour. I regret doing it as I nearly missed out on this yellow faced honeyeater!

The honey eater was flitting around about a meter from the ground and feeding from flowers. I’m pleased with how the photos turned out

I did see a bronze cuckoo of some description, but there wasn’t enough of it to be able to tell what species it is. I was so surprised when my friends ID’ed it because it was a lot smaller then I would have thought. The tail is completely different.

I wonder how many times I may have seen it in the past and dismissed it because it was the ‘wrong size’. I’m hoping to see both of them over the spring/summer birding season. I’m not sure I will, as I don’t know enough, and there is just so much to learn.

I’m not fussed about not being able to add something to the life list because I did learn something! This is despite falling over there (the ground was wet and slippery) and being pretty sick with a cold.

Bog standard brown thornbill – even though the above photo didn’t really look like a thornbill to me. I find little brown birds to be so confusing. Bring on ducks. Ducks are easy.

I also saw a white throated treecreeper there. In the third picture, it looks like it has something in its mouth.

When I saw this I realized that there is a lot of similarity between here and the brisbane ranges. The treecreeper, robin and honeyeater are all ones I’ve seen in both areas. It was interesting because they are completely different types of forest. Probably not so different in terms of the the trees and flowers, but different in the climate.

This golden whistler was a lot of fun to photograph. Look at the detail and brightness in that photo! And this was in a dark area!

It took a while to get a good look. I was hoping it was a crested shrike tit, even though I don’t think they’d like this type of forest. Even Sethy said the photo was beautiful.

I didn’t have much luck with other types of birds but darn, the area was great for photography. It has been overshadowed by places like Maits Rest and Melba Gully.

This adventure wasn’t as good as it could have been for birding. It’s partially because of lack of information online but mostly because of my inexperience. I struggle with bird calls, have no idea about behaviour of many species and was walking around there wondering if I even deserved to call myself a birder.

I pulled myself out of the funk pretty quick – it was mostly because I was sick and feeling sorry for myself. And, I told myself to go easier on myself. Birding isn’t my life. It keeps me sane but it also causes pressure. Because I need to ask stupid questions online, because there are social nuances in the birding community and because I’m just not able to do the huge birding days/trips that others can do.

It is so overwhelming going to new environments. It’s something I haven’t done for a while, at least for the primary purpose of birding. That’s one of the reasons I stopped and just took shots of the scenery.

I was impressed with how the lens handled it. I don’t know whether the photos are better then they would have been with the kit lens. There are definitely better then they would have been with the Nikon!

Hope to return one day, at a point where I have more experience 🙂

Exploring the Brisbane Ranges in Winter

July 5, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on the 26th of June

I woke to the sound of my phone buzzing. It was a text message. It may have been around 11am.

“Want to go birding around the Brisbane Ranges today?”

You bet I did! I was exhausted and burnt out. Barely up to being social. But I have some sort of spiritual experience when birding. It calms and refreshes me. It makes me feel excited about life again. It reminds me of why I push myself through so much, even though I’ll probably never fully recover from anxiety.

I LOVE the Brisbane Ranges area. We explored it a little bit as a kid. My parents, or my grandparents, would take us out there for adventuring. I was interested at how the terrain was different and how many rocks there were. I wasn’t interested in birds or flora at the time, which is disappointing. Past Jade could have learnt a lot!

I haven’t been able to get there as an adult. It’s one of those places that is difficult to get to without public transport. I’m very much intrigued and would love to explore it properly.

Lower Stony Creek Reservoir

I’ve struggled to find much information about this area. Maybe I’m confused with the Stony Creek Picnic Area? I know we started at a picnic area and walked down the lower reservoir.

Animal poop we found – suspect rabbit? Still interested in learning more about animal droppings 🙂

There was a yellow robin there. I don’t understand what type of environment they love as I’ve found them in a couple of different types of forest. As always, it was rather photogenic.

A very unique type of fungi. The stalk thingy looks different to other types that I’ve seen. I definitely need to educate myself more about fungi. Carolyn was saying that someone she knows uses a dental mirror to look underneath the fungi. That is a great idea and something I may think about doing.

Yellow Tufted Honeyeater!

I did see one in the past at Chiltern…. just before I killed the camera. I was so upset as this is such a beautiful bird and I really wanted photos. This photo is mediocre but it was awesome to see one again. I really want to study this bird more and get much better photos. I also want to see the helmeted honeyeater subspecies.

Golden Whistler. It may be a generic bird and it is one that I am seeing more and more often, even close to home. It was fun to get some photos of it doing something different instead of just posing like it normally does.

Burchell Trail. I took a photo of this sign to remind me of my previous love of hiking and how I’d love to do this walk one day.

More poop. Suspected wallaby or kangaroo.

Lower Stony Creek

This area, in particular the dam, is very significant to the history of Geelong. Well, the water supply. It may be boring to some but I thought it was interesting and so, as usual, took a photo.

You can get more information about the history of it at Barwon Blogger.

This map is blurry and may not be useful to anyone. I added it, as I always do, to add context. The following couple of photos are intended to show what the reservoir looks like when there is no water in it. Glenn could have gotten some really awesome photos there.

Yellow faced honeyeater. After much thinking, I’ve decided that these birds are awesome. (I either love, or hate, honeyeaters. Don’t ask.)

A different angle.

Eastern spinebill. Took forever for me to see my first one but now they are popping up all the time. Definitely worth researching 🙂

White naped honeyeater. This is one of the species that I don’t like, although there is no logical reason. Possibly because it is so difficult to photograph with very little reward 😉

White browed scrubwren. Definitely want to research subspecies and behaviour as they are awesome.

More fungi. There was much more fungi there that I didn’t photograph. It is so interesting, I wouldn’t have thought that such a dry area would have had fungi!

Steigletz

It was so fascinating going to Steigletz. We went through the township, including going past the church. I’d definitely love to return to the area and learn more about it. I don’t think it’s feasible anytime soon but man, it is beautiful.

A scenic, but otherwise useless, sign.

Unsure, but suspected grey strike thrush. Or female golden whistler. Normally I use the wings to tell them apart.

Scarlet robin. We saw two, a female and male, in different areas here. There was also a large number of crimson rosellas but they were fairly skittish.

White throated treecreeper. We heard a number of them around that day. I haven’t found a consistent type of environment they like but it was always awesome seeing them.

More fungi!

Loved this trip. Am so very grateful that Carolyn asks me on these adventures, even if it means going out of her way. I love learned about new areas and she has been a fantastic mentor. So much knowledge about the various parts of nature! She also understands my social limitations and it makes it so much easier for me.

I can be an agoraphobic people hater but still get lonely.

Anyway! Brisbane Ranges is really interesting. It’s amazing how you can have so many different environments in such a small area. Visiting here helped place a lot of the other areas in context and gave me something to compare other places to. I’ve been focusing on areas close to the ocean – mostly because they are serviced by public transport.

The natural world is so diverse and I’m so fortunate to be able to experience it as much as I have lately – despite my many limitations. I love birding.

Change of tone from yesterday, hey?

Exploring the property with Mr Sethy

June 1, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Mr Sethy and I went to my parents bush block with, well, my parents. I was initially thinking of taking the little dude to Eastern Beach, or even trying to get him down to Point Addis. Then mum said that they were planning to go to the property.

I instantly asked if I could go. I had gone there last year with my family and it had proven itself to be a pretty good place for birding. I wanted to explore it in depth looking for birds with Seth, and also looking for fungi and bones.

Birds

Sethy was very excited about adding a couple of lifers to his list, and the property certainly didn’t disappoint. We went to one of the back corners and the birds all showed up.

First, there was this white naped honeyeater. It would be awesome to visit here more frequently and monitor the various types of honeyeaters that call the property home. Alas, I don’t think that is possible.

He was pretty stoked to see this scarlet robin though. I’ve learned how to tell the female robins apart – the flame has red that goes all the way up to the chin. Seth was pretty excited to see this. I’ve seen and photographed it several times – and always love it! – but Sethy doesn’t often get to go to as many places as I do. We got extended views of several male and females.

I got a photo of what I’m presuming is a grey strike thrush. The picture turned out blurry, as the bird was moving pretty quickly, but the bird was eating a moth 🙂

Got a really beautiful, clear photo of a male golden whistler. Seth had seen the female in the boardwalk near balyang, but nothing compares to the bright colours of the male. Methinks I’ve passed on a whistler obsession to the little dude.

He also saw his first white throated treecreeper! I’ve been seeing this guys a lot lately, but I loved showing Sethy their behaviour. We also got to see the little red dot on their cheek, which I’d only learned about three days prior on my birthday.

This little guy is a varied sitella. Another lifer for Sethy and only the second time I had seen one! I struggled with the ID initially and had to ask for help. Fortunately the people on the facebook group were super helpful.

I was told to watch out for their distinctive way of feeding, which is apparently by spirally down a tree. They are also meant to hang out in groups, which is curious as I’ve only ever seen the two by themselves. It could just be because I take so long to find and identify the birds. I need to get better at ID’ing them quicker so I can watch for their behaviour.

Not sure I am fond of them yet but hey, I love learning.

Fungi

The fungi was a definitely highlight, although nothing will ever match that one brilliant year we had their. I have no idea what we found. As such, there will be no commentary ;P

Other

Sethy discovered this large mosquito, which we eventually learned we everywhere. Later, he found one caught in some sundew.

He also discovered what he called a bush cockroach and asked me to get photos of it. Darn his love of science.

A spider in the door. I hate spiders

We stopped off at a picnic area near a creek in steigletz while driving back and found these wallaby bones. It was fun trying to figure out what they were from.

We did also find bits of bones, which we decided must have been from the sheep that live in the opposite paddock. I didn’t think mum would approve of any more bones 😉

Sethy had fun. He’s becoming quite the nerd that is fascinated by everything. At the start he was awesome too, uncharacteristically quiet. I didn’t get to suss out the whole property, as one of the neighbours was cutting down trees and scaring away the birds.

We did find a complete rabbit skull though. We were able to definitively ID it from the book. Sethy has also watched some of the interviews of Jakes Bones and has decided he wants a similar collection. My work here is done 🙂