sacred kingfisher

Birding at the You Yangs Western Plantation

October 25, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Friday, Carolyn contacted me to see if I wanted to go birding. Did I ever! I was hoping to go somewhere that day but had been trying to figure out what adventure would cause me the least amount of stress. I was tossing up between the stormwater harvesting lake, and Mcleods Waterhole, when I got her message.

Saved!

Turned out Saturday was a bad anxiety day so it was really nice to be in the bush. I met Carolyn at Lara train station at 9am and we headed towards Western Plantation.

I don’t believe I’ve been here before. I’ve had no reason to. There are a lot of horse riders there and it isn’t the type of environment I’d usual explore. That is probably what makes it so good.

I got two lifers in this location – the first being the below jacky winter. I have no idea how people can tell what it is and will be putting it on the list of birds to look into later. Regardless, it was a lovely surprise.

I also got a lifer with this horsfields bronze cuckoo. Some people had suggested that I had seen one at Paradise Picnic Ground, but were unable to definitively say so due to my poor quality photos. This lovely one was incredibly coorporative – and also signals the need for me to take photos in raw! Carolyn was lovely and able to explain the differences in calls to me, which is one of the easier ways to tell them apart. We did hear a shining one later on but I was too knackered to track it down.

Plenty of dusky woodswallows there. I was keeping an eye out for white browed, mostly because people say they have seen them in the region, but no luck. I feel weird asking about them sometimes, like all I care about are lifers, but really I’m just trying to piece together all these random bits of information.

Then we saw a rainbow bee eater! Which oddly has a call that sounds a bit like a frog. I thought it was weird I heard frogs in a dried creek bed. The photo is meh but I don’t care, it is always worth seeing them again. I’d love to be able to photograph them at length and get one of the photos of them with an insect or bug in their mouth. Even better – I’d love Glenn to photograph that!

It seemed like they were inspecting a nest – I got a photo of one of their butts coming out of this hollow in the side of the river bed. I never knew they nested like that 🙂 It’s awesome. I was confused as to why the birds here seemed to be nesting later then the ones at Balyang…. until it was pointed out that Balyang has a continuous water source. Some things take a while to sink in.

Red wattlebird

I struggled to figure out what this was, I was hoping it was one of the many honeyeaters I haven’t seen that like to hang out at the You Yangs. I figured out it was a wattlebird when I saw the mother feeding it. I’ve gotten a number of photos like this in the past, and am still seeing wattlebirds being fed, but I thought it was lovely.

Rufous Whistler

I was also fortunate enough to see, and photograph, a male and female rufous whistler. I never get sick of seeing these. It was great to get such clear photos contrasted against the background; it really helps me see the details of various markings.

Final bird? Sacred kingfisher! There were other birds here but the kingfisher was especially awesome. I hadn’t seen one in ages.

I highly recommend coming here for birdwatching. Would love to return here with Sethy. Warning: It IS snake season. We were lucky but we did see a tiger snake about a metre from the path.

Yea Wetlands

December 14, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I went to my great grandmothers funeral in Mansfield a month ago. It was a long drive from Geelong and I had a bad cold, so I kept an eye for interesting stuff along the side of the road. I saw a number of wetlands and a rail trail. I made a mental note to research and visit those places later – although I didn’t think I’d be able to until 2016!

One of those places was the Yea Wetlands. Or, depending on who is sharing the car with you, ‘YAY!’ I’d never properly birded in that area and had no idea what to expect. It ended up being one of the highlights of the day.

Tawny Frogmouth

We saw this tawny frogmouth sunning itself on a log across the river. It was so close. We were on a suspension bridge so all of us turned around and started snapping photos of it. They are some of the clearest I’ve ever gotten and that includes the photos of birds I’ve taken in free slight aviaries. I loved being able to capture the detail on it’s feathers. It wasn’t there on our return.

Sacred Kingfisher

Another highlight was seeing a sacred kingfisher with a lizard in its mouth! I’ve been wanting to see something like this for some time. This is only the second time I’ve seen a sacred kingfisher and any kookaburras I’ve seen have been well camouflaged

The detail of the lizard is poor quality. I spoke to a couple of people about lenses during the weekend and they confirmed what I’ve suspected: there must be something wrong with the lens. Even when they put it on the right manual settings the photos turned out crap. Glenn and I are thinking about upgrading the lens anyway. I mostly want photos to ID whereas Glenn wants the great shot.
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Bell Miner

I was very excited to see the bell miners! The second photo shows a number of juveniles under a nest. This means that I don’t have to go to the botanical gardens in Melbourne to track down these guys and the Eastern Spinebill. (I loathe leaving the house – and especially going to Melbourne – so am grateful for any excuse to avoid an area :P) Their call and colouring was different to what I expected.

Others:

I think this is the White-throated Gerygone. It’s probably the rufous whistler; I know I saw and got a photo of the gerygone but am feeling too overwhelmed at the moment to double check. The gerygone looked way different to what I thought it would be, a lot smaller. It was rather difficult to photograph.

(I’m certain it isn’t the gerygone but I’m going to pretend it is – I’m tired!)

Like the flycather, it was smaller then expected. I expected it to be mostly one colour with a white throat. It mates for life. Can resemble the fairy gerygone and younger ones can look like a weebill. I’m not sure these are something that interest me that much yet, I normally stick to the groups of birds I’m passionate about. Still, always fun seeing a new bird.

Brush tailed possum tail sticking out from a hollow. I know a 6 year old that loves possums and knew he’d dig this.

The above photo is a leadens flycather. Someone questioned the ID on Facebook later that night but apparently the undertail is diagnostic?

It moved so quick that I struggled to see it, let alone get a photo. I was really surprised when I got home to see that I got a clearish shot! It is so much smaller then I expected. I thought it would be willy wagtail sized. Someone else said they had originally thought the same thing. This makes me feel less stupid 🙂 I’ve been wanting to see a flycatcher for sometime although, as usual, I know nothing about them.

It’s apparently misidentified a lot. Graeme Chapman has info on telling them apart. It prefers drier habitats then the satin. Would these wetlands qualify as dry?

Was a very big day and I still feel like I’m recovering from it. I loved being with others that had a similar passion not just for birds but for all things nature. People would stop to get photos of bugs and skinks and fungi. My primary interest is birds but I am fascinated by other animals – I just don’t have the energy to pursue that passion. People would talk at length about camera settings. I felt like I was amongst kindred spirits – something I haven’t felt in a long, long time.

I was getting exhausted by the end and did rest a bit. I was paranoid that I was being rude during times when I wasn’t overly social. I mostly felt relaxed which is a lovely break from my normal feelings of anxiety. It confirms that I need to find a balance between career and my love of nature.

I need to explore everywhere and learn as much as I can. Australia is so fascinating. And the birders I met yesterday were so generous with their knowledge.

Now to sleep off the exhaustion 😛

Buckley Falls With Glenn

October 25, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Glenn hours at work have changed. By the time it gets to his weekend, he’s exhausted. Last Monday, I told him he should come with me to Buckley Falls. I had visited there the week before and noticed that there were a lot of fairy wrens there.

Long story, but Glenn has been trying to get the elusive shot of a fairy wren. They move so quickly that it is hard to get a clear shot. I was sitting there being taunted by the other birds that were hiding on me so I decided to call Glenn.

“They are teasing me. Oh, how they vex me! By the way, you should come here. Reed warblers too, if you can find the ****ers”. I’ll be writing about that trip shortly.

He was hesitant about going but was feeling better by the afternoon. We caught the taxi there and he was immediately gripped. He didn’t know where to go. Wrens everywhere! I haven’t gone through the photos yet because, well, he takes so many photos and it should be his job.

I did hear this little guy with a beautiful call though. I wasn’t sure if it was a bird I had seen before. I got home and youtubed the sound. Yep, definitely a grey strike thrush. I saw another one of them near Fyansford. I know they are generic but I don’t find them much around home.

We walked closer to the falls. Glenn got distracted by a great egret and a heron. He sat down on the rocks for about half an hour to get photos. It was difficult as people kept on walking past and scaring it away. An older man even walked past Glenn to get closer to the bird. Which is fair enough, but I felt for Glenn. He got some interesting photos. A friend in a FB bird group got brilliant photos of one eating an eel though – and his camera isn’t even a DSLR! We really need to investigate the lens situation.

Another FB friend observed a night heron there. Even though it’s a taxi ride away, I’m thinking I have to visit here more and suss out the birdlife. I’ll have to budget for taxis.

We got to Fyansford and saw some interesting birds overhead. Well, I did. I assumed they were just straw necked ibises, as they were pretty far away. Once I got home I realized that they were pelicans! I should have told Glenn and gotten some photos with the zoom lens of doom. Oh well.

I noticed this nest that looked like it belonged to a crow. Couldn’t get any better photos, but was an interesting find.

Sacred Kingfisher

Glenn was on a bridge. I was about to cross it when I heard a call that sounded different. I walked slowly so as not to scare the bird away. I was standing Glenn and looking at the bird that had the interesting call.

“Oh Glenn. I’ve been looking for a kingfisher for ages. You’re my good luck charm.”

He was snapping away a lot of photos while asking further questions about kingfishers – ones that I were unable to answer. I’ve only been back into birding for a year!

We got some interesting and clear shots. Well, Glenn did. I was too busy rambling about how happy I was and how life now made sense.

Birdwatching can trigger my anxiety but often, the payoff can be so worth it. This day was worth the times I’ve been stuck on a train crying because I wasn’t coping. It was worth the migraines and self doubt, and feeling so depressed because I can’t even leave the house to bird. It was so beautiful. People had mentioned seeing them along there but I didn’t think I’d be so lucky.

The sucky-eater

I saw flashes of yellow in a tree so snapped away, hoping that it would prove to be a stupid shrike tit. I ended up submitting these photos to a bird identification site. One of the photos was definitely a white plumed honey eater, a bird that I had seen on multiple occasions. I couldn’t figure out what the bird below was though. Maybe that shrike tit?

After lots of back and forth, I realized that this was the HONEYEATERS BUTT. It looks like a beak and head but no. You can clearly see the leg.

I felt like an idiot but hey, I learned a lot!

We ended up catching a taxi back from Fyansford. Glenn was boring and didn’t want to explore further. We were walking towards the hotel when I saw a bird of prey. I grabbed the camera off him – he wouldn’t have had time to find it. I had seconds to get a photo that would capture enough detail. And it worked! It wasn’t perfectly clear, but was clear enough for me to learn that the bird was a black kite.

Definitely want to return to Fyansford and explore the common. I want that area to be as familiar as Balyang Sanctuary is. It may be difficult if I end up moving before the end of the year. I don’t want to move from this area, the wildlife is magnificent. My nephew and I were walking back from Balyang and saw two different species of possum. In suburban Geelong! That would never have happened in Corio.

Glenn and I are are getting increasingly frustrated with the Sigma lens. I’ve been looking at the quality of the photos from other people in the photography group. They tend to have lenses that cost 8-20k. I’m thinking that we stick to this one until we increase our technical understanding and then get a 400m Canon. Not the best option, but is affordable and meant to have much sharper photos. I worry that I’ve led Glenn astray with the sigma purchase but we have gotten some fantastic shots with it. I guess it’s a testament to how much we’ve improved.