pink eared 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.

I did see this lovely fungi when walking there.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

More views of their underwings. Love it.

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

Ducks

Blue billed, male and female.

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

Small group of freckled ducks.

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.

Autumn Balyang

April 27, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

The past month has been crazily busy. I’ve barely had the chance to bird – let alone go on Seth and Aunty Jade adventures. It’s been brutal for everybody. Mum is busy caring for her very ill father, so Seth doesn’t get as much one on one time with his nan as he’d like.

They came up here this Thursday with the intention of having Seth and Nan bonding time. I appreciated this, as it gave me the chance to get some work done. On the Friday, though, we decided to go to Balyang. I hadn’t been there in months and was keen to see how it changed. And, Seth loves showing off his favourite spots to others.

We saw several darters in their usual spot near the bridge. Two nests had babies in them – so cute!

I was mostly there to test out the new telephoto lens that Glenn had bought. It’s brilliant for up close bird photography, but I’m still figuring out how to use it. I love the amount of detail we now get.

The Grebes

It was sunny, so we sat in the shaded area of one of our favourite spots. It was a bit disappointing. The water was very low and none of our favourite species were there. No spoonbills, herons or ibises. I looked out and saw something that didn’t look like it was a swamphen. I was very grateful for the lens when I snapped some photos of it, primarily for ID’ing purposes.

I asked on a Facebook group and it was ID’ed as a hoary headed grebe. Apparently the eye colour is a giveaway? It feels like I’ll never get the hang of this.

We walked a different way home. We went further along the barwon and up the ‘second set of stairs.’ I was keeping an eye out on the water, looking at the eurasian coots and swamp hens. Then I saw this!

“Seth. Look! I’m pretty sure that’s an Australasian Grebe!” He was excited too, as he’d never seen one before. I took the heavy lens, and the camera, out and snapped some photos. Then nearly died on the walk home as I have no tolerance when it comes to hills

This means that Sethy and I have seen all three Aussie species of grebes in the span of three days. On Wednesday, I had joined Seth and my parents for an appointment that we quickly found out was cancelled. We went to Eastern Beach for a short while so the mister could play in the playground.

I was fuming at how much time had been wasted that week. Mum, who was under a lot of stress, always brings up how she is under more pressure and has even less time then I do when I bring up how I don’t get the chance to do things for me as much. It’s even more important for me though as my anxiety symptoms worsen if I don’t do things that calm me down.

Seth was in the playground and I turned to look at the water. I saw the usual – a tern, a cormorant. We went for a walk and I noticed a darter that was really close.

It wasn’t a darter though. Look at the feathers around the head…. it’s a crested grebe! I had to check my bird book when I got home to be sure. Seth was pretty excited! Grebes have always eluded me so it has been fantastic to knock off two lifers in one week.

Back to Balyang. While I was excited to see a grebe, I was also a little bit forlorn because I didn’t see my good friend, the pink eared duck. Until Seth shouted at me ‘There’s the pink eared!’

The little dude was sitting at the bank close to us. A rare photographic treat! I told Sethy that it is also occasionally referred to as a zebra duck which, apparently, he already knew. Watching Steve Backshall is turning him into a smart-arse.

I only got a photo of this wattlebird because Seth pointed it out. I love how the photo turned out. Not bad for a cheap lens! I’m really excited to get to know it better.

Lorikeets

I saw two lorikeets sitting next to each other and tried to replicate a photo I saw on instagram by Echidna Walkabout. Not easy with a lens that ways 2kg and a wrist that is cramping something chronic.

I’m impressed with the lighting and bokeh achieved in this photo, though I don’t know how I did it. I followed up with two awesome pics of them flying off although I cropped their wings because I was zoomed in too close.

I would marry this lens.

Swamphens

I probably should visit Balyang more before I move. Great for practicing photography! Hopefully will get down to Ocean Grove Nature Reserve tomorrow for some more adventures.

10 Months Later: Pink Eared Duck Still at Balyang

February 6, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I’m meant to be launching an ebook right now. I wonder who is procrastinating?.

After meeting R at Jerringot, I decided to go back to Balyang to see if the pink eared duck was still there. It had been three weeks since I last visited, and my nephew hasn’t dragged me there much lately since he hasn’t been here as much. Basically, I wasn’t so sick of it.

I saw darters on the next. The babies seem to have fledged and, well, more darters are busy creating new ones.

If you look at the next photo, you can actually see the two heads from the birds mating. Young love 🙂

The following photo was pretty exciting – actually seeing eggs on the next! It got me wondering about how many clutches darters raise in a year. I read that they breed all round, although most of them breed in spring/summer. It seems like these nests are always in use.

The water is significantly lower in the lake area closest to the bridge over the river. I got some lovely pics of swamphens walking through the mud. I also got some photos of babies, although I was careful not to disturb them. The mum would ‘honk’ if I got too close and the chicks would rush into the reeds around the island.

This heron was around, although it was a bit skittish. Possible the one that I normally see at Jerringot?

I also saw my favourite, the pink eared duck! This means that he has been there for about 10 months and that the one at Jerringot is probably a separate one.

His/her behaviour is pretty consistant. I often see it on the side of the make lake/swamp area. You’ll probably need a scope or binoculars to get a decent look.

Sometimes, he is on the small island with the large, dead tree. On Tuesday, he swam near that area and came very close to the main area where people are. I got some brilliant views.

I noticed it ‘sleeping’ while floating, but it frequently had its eye open. I don’t know if it’s normal behaviour but was still fascinating.

The trip to Balyang was pretty generic and I don’t see myself rushing back, but I *should* take advantage of living so close to it before I move. I really love getting to know an area intimately and learning how it changes with each year and season.

Planning to focus on Jerringot and Belmont Common in the coming months. Hopefully will have a telephoto lens for the camera soon which should definitely help things!

Lathams Snipe at Last!

January 29, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

… I think. I can never be too sure.

I had gotten to the end of a stressful but somewhat rewarding birding session at Jerringot. I’d ‘dipped’ on all my target species and was somewhat frustrated. I paused to look at some swamphens when I heard a new birdcall and saw a flash of movement. I was too busy saying ‘shit! SHIT!’ in my head to get a photo in time. I was sure it was a snipe as it had the right body shape.

I think this particular bird was but alas, I wasn’t confident enough to ID it. Later, I was going through my photos when I saw this:

I’m fairly certain that I’ve just crossed the lathams snipe off my list!

It’s hard to describe just how difficult it has been to find this bird. I’ve visited once a month since they’ve meant to have arrived and have had no sightings. I’ve had very few sightings of many of the birds commonly seen here. It’s demoralizing and I’ve felt like a fake birdwatcher.

It’s also highlighted the importance of getting a pair of binoculars and maybe even a scope. I have no idea how I’m going to afford it but I’m learning that it is a definite necessity. My current method is get photos of any shapes or movements and look at the photos later. I miss out on a lot of birds this way.

I have no idea what to look for or how to even start the research.

Slightly off topic, but I was telling Seth about the sighting and he started telling me about the fictional birds he had seen. The funniest was the ‘booby snipe’ 🙂 I love his enthusiasm but there is a little bit of guilt there as I always get the giggles when he mentions birds with ‘boobie’ in the name.

Back to the birds!

I’m not sure what these two are. I’m guessing juvenile wattlebirds? They were very cute!

Again, I’m not sure what these are. I need to consult a proper field guide. They don’t match any birds that are normally seen at Jerringot.

Another one that stumps me. Maybe a dusky woodswallow? Really hard ID’ing animals when a five year old has ‘borrowed’ your field guide.

This is one that I am really excited about. A pink eared duck! I love them but have never seen one here. I don’t think it is usual as there are no reports on eremaea. I don’t know whether I should tell anyone about it as there is the resident one at Balyang.

A great egret (I think.) All the birds seem to have moved from the site at the golf course, as it is drying out, to this area closer to the road. There were about 5 herons today, more then usual.

Rabbits are generic, and a pest. This image is purely for my nephew who still gets excited when he sees one. We’re city kids.

Black winged stilt. It is seen here about 1/5 of the time so it’s no ‘big deal’, but it is still the first time I’ve seen one locally. Pretty exciting. It flew off when it saw me enter the hide. I located it at the back of the swamp with the ibis and spoonbills.

It was a very productive visit. Still no sign of the crakes and rails! It’s hard sneaking in birdwatching with all this hot weather we’ve had lately, I try not to be outside too much if it gets above 30. Am contemplating returning to Serendip and maybe even join a local birdwatching club! Birdwatching gives me such a high.