My Nature Blog
Another highlight of visiting the Property was seeing this female scarlet robin. She was a little spot in the distance (especially with the 18-200 lens). I wasn’t able to tell until later that she was carrying some nesting material.
I didn’t see as many robins as I would normally see. Treecreepers had taken over, with the occasional group of spotted pardalotes.
Hope to see more more robin nesting behaviour over the coming months but alas, I don’t think that is likely.
I’m going to the Gold Coast in two days for work. It’ll be two days of travel, two days at a conference with maybe 1-3 hours of sneaky birding. As usual, I’ve been feeling pretty anxious about it. At least I was on the weekend. I couldn’t slow my heart beat nor get much down.
Fortunately, the fabulous Carolyn offered to take me adventuring for the day. I would have planned to go somewhere myself but the weather forecast was meant to be bad. I thought it would be handy to have a car there just in case it suddenly poured down.
We were lucky. We had great weather. We went to the Brisbane Ranges. It was a rough day in terms of anxiety management but ultimately, very therapeutic.
Our first stop was a walk along orchid and tea tree tracks. I think. The birding was more difficult then I’m used to but it was still pretty awesome
Scarlet Robin. There were a number of these floating about which gave me a chance to practice my sphotography. I was so hoping to see a flame. Alas, I missed. I’m not sure if I’ve missed my chance to see them – or double banded plovers elsewhere – but I’ll try when I get back.
Grey Strike Thrush. The call may have confused me – again!
The above is a white eared honeyeater. I’ve seen them before, it was nice to see them again. I don’t know why I like them more then the white naped honeyeater. Perhaps the red eye annoys me? They were pretty tricky to photograph, they flew very quickly
Blurry wedge tailed eagle. I don’t see them that often and it was flying very low. I was so stabby that the camera wouldn’t focus in time.
Eastern Spinebill. These guys were here in pretty decent numbers. Further away then the ones at the botanic gardens. It was interesting, seeing as I know nothing about their behaviour and what type of habitat they like. I didn’t think the ranges was wet enough. But the plants they liked at the botanical gardens were more for the food they provided.
I love the accidental learning. I so have to learn more about photographing these guys.
I was playing around with creative auto (to get nice backgrounds) when this guy flew off. I think the setting could be useful in rushed situations. Hoping to experiment with it more.
Brown thornbill? A couple of types were seen here, I’m just in no rush to ID them.
Another robin, or probably the same one I’ve photographed earlier.
This is quite likely a lifer. Carolyn did say she saw a grey headed (or grey?) honeyeater but I couldn’t see quick enough. I’m not even annoyed I couldn’t see it, I only get annoyed later when I missed the potential flame robin. Even then, I was just cranky at the camera.< img class=" aligncenter" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/422/20423457246_6b4aa3a709_z.jpg" alt="IMG_7406" width="640" height="427" />
Treecreeper. I could photograph these guys all day.
Not sure what this is. Probably something common. Maybe a pardalote?
We didn’t have much luck with birds in this area. I took photos of all the signs so I’d remember to read up on it when I got home. I did notice it was the start/end of the Burchell track. I’d given up any hopes of walking it because it isn’t really accessible and involves more hills then other walks I’m interested in. However, I may be able to pay friends for a lift there. I’d need to improve fitness and figure out how to work around my selective eating. I’d given up most thoughts about multi day hiking with all the stress of the past year. I’m pretty excited about all the potential nature adventures I can go on. So many, so little time!
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It was a really good trip. It definitely lessened the anxiety. I’m finding I’m feel better in general now I’ve moved.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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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?
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.
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.
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
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 😉
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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 🙂
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of birding with Carloyn. She had offered to take me to Avalon Beach to look for the elusive tattler and then it hit us. Why not go to the You Yangs and Serendip Sanctuary while in the region? I’d been wanting to go to both for a while now and Carolyn is very knowledgeable about her local patch. It was one of those accidental adventures that turned into awesome day.
(Most birding days are awesome but you try telling that to my anxiety disorder. I dread EVERY time I leave the house.)
We did a walk from the information centre to the base of big rock. It was really interesting for me I had gone to Big Rock with Sethy in September, 2014. I love the You Yangs but I haven’t had the chance to explore it properly. I could easily see it becoming a regular haunt… if I drove 😉
One of the first birds we saw was a striated pardalote. I couldn’t tell them apart by looking at them until I got home and was able to see the differents between spots and, well, slight streaks. I can’t tell them apart via call yet. This will hopefully come in handy! I got photos of the bird from multiple angles to help me ID it later 😉
I was also fortunate enough to see a large group of white winged choughs. I think that they are a bird I’d love to get to know better, they have interesting personality. They are a very social bird and are easy to tell apart from ravens.
Oh hi white browed treecreeper. Didn’t know how awesome the You Yangs were, or that tree creepers liked this type of bush. This is why I love group birding so much.
This may be the rufous whistler. Was so thankful to Carolyn for explaining the colourings to me. You can get more information about them at Birds in Backyards. The following two pictures are much, much clearer:
An Australiasian Grebe we saw in one of the dams. As an aside, have people looked into the quarry activity at the You Yangs? Is it doing any harm? (My anxiety brain worries way too much.)
Female rufous whistler. Possibly the same one I saw earlier.
I love the work that Echidna Walkabout do. I hadn’t seen the extend of the boneseed problem due to, well, not visiting. It makes me wonder if it’s ever possible to get control of it. I weed to help me keep calm. Would it be possible to eradicate it if we did a huge volunteer effort, rather then the small bits that are currently done?
It’s something I want to look into, although we pulled out some of the smaller pieces we saw.
Female Scarlet Robin. I saw at three scarlet robins and got many lovely shots of them. I could spend a whole day here just photographing the robins. I’m keen to return here in winter to see the flame robin. I initially thought this was a flame robin because I hadn’t seen enough individuals to tell the difference. The female is meant to be paler, the white patch on the forehead wasn’t as visible from the angle.
My final thoughts: I’m gonna miss the bee eaters
I’ll cut to the chase – I dipped on the tattler and red knot that had been seen earlier in the week. They would have been birds I’d be adding to my life list for the sake of it, though. I was mostly fascinated by the banded stilts.
Apparently they had been there in much larger numbers a couple of days earlier. Seth was hanging out with his mum on the weekend, so I asked if he could visit here with them. He loves stilts and seeing white specks in the distance at the moolap saltworks isn’t enough. I can’t 100% verify the sightings but this will have to be one of the cases where I just trust him.
Was interesting seeing their wading behaviour, I wasn’t able to see this when I saw the stilts at Truganina.
I took this photo to show that there were still significant numbers, even if from a distance. They were in the ponds closest to the beach which made things easier.
I was sharing these photos with friends and someone commented “Wow, a lot of stilts and magpie geese. Yes, but this stilt has it’s mouth open! Small things amuse small minds. Imagine the type of shots I could have gotten if I’d spend ages there 😉 Stupid train timetables.
An avocet that ISN’T missing its leg. I was so sure that it had! The remaining photos don’t really need explanation. I was mostly trying to capture clear photos of the band from different angles. I rarely get to see so many of them this close. They are such a beautiful bird.
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I had such a fun day. I hate asking people for favours when it comes to trips like this, I can also be uncomfortable socially. It was lovely just to be with someone else wish similar interests. My legs and butt are disgruntled at me for the slight inclines I walked at the You Yangs. I love the You Yangs. It’s a place of magic.
I didn’t even care that I only got two lifers for my list that day. Fuck lifers. It was fun just observing and learning. I could easily go back to any of the places I went to today to get to know some of the bird behaviour better. I so badly needed to bird. Better then any therapy or medication.