striated pardalote

I was lucky enough to have a 6am sleep in this Sunday morning. We were up early, hoping to see the regent honeyeater in better light before heading off and exploring various locations in north east Vic.

Now, I hate trying to do ‘big days’ of birding. I’m thankful for them, because it’s a braindump of birding genious from a bunch of very kind and generous birders. However, I prefer getting long, close looks at my favourite bird species. Sometimes, it feels like the goal is to just add various birds to tick them off your ‘yearly state list’.

Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this day. Yes, it was a bit of a slog. Yeah, it was disappointed that the view we got of the plumed whistling ducks was little more then a glimpse. But I learned loads. And the company was great 🙂

We picked up these white-backed swallows on a read heading towards Rutherglen. I couldn’t tell you were. Philip saw them and our convey suddenly stopped. They were fairly high up and it was hard to get good views of them. I don’t think I’m a fan of swallows yet. They were beautiful birds but their behaviour wasn’t that interesting.

We headed to Rutherglen where we stopped for coffee. This city looked lovely – very similar to Chiltern, but with more shops. I’d have loved to have spent a couple of days here. I can hear you asking, why would I mention something as boring as coffee? Because we found an Eurasian tree sparrow in the outside dining area, which was a lifer for many.

Lake King

Lake King, in Rutherglen, is meant to be a great place to see birds. I can’t recall why we stopped here. I certainly wouldn’t seek this location out but it was a lovely place to go looking for species. I got my first photos of a yellow billed spoonbill landing on a branch! I could watch spoonbills all day.

Kings road swamp

I honestly have no idea where this is. I also wasn’t paying too much attention to the birds here, I was too distracted by the reptiles.

Tip: if you love reptiles, go birding with a snake catcher.

I’m not sure what frog this is. It was hiding under a rock. I did see another frog, but didn’t get a photo in time.

This photo is quite possibly of a robust skink. The lens was too long to get a really great photo and he was a quick little bugger!

The above two photos are of a dead brown snake that we found. I found to emphasis that Matt is a professional snake catcher and gave us a lot of warnings. It was fascinating getting a close look at it.

I learned on the weekend that I’m actually a skilled birder. Yes, I suck with calls and identification. But I’m good at finding random movements and tracking them with the camera.

This is apparently a different subspecies of the striated pardalote. I need to do more research into this. Regardless, such a beautiful bird to photography.

We had really beautiful views of these diamond firetails. I’m not overly interested in them as a species yet but they are really lovely to photography.

Another time where I had no idea where I was. Half the group went off to look for double barred finches and dipped. I was at the car where I saw a fox (missed the photo!), a kangaroo getting caught on the fence (it got free) and this wedgie! There is something so majestic about seeing such a large bird. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.

I did get to see plumed whistling ducks, which were a target bird for the weekend. I didn’t see the point in searching for them once I realized that they were little more then specks in a distance on my 500mm lens. We had to stand on a log – and have someone supporting us – to be even able to get those views. This isn’t a complaint, moreso a warning that it’s worth doing research. I would much rather travel to Queensland to get up close beautiful views of this bird, and spend my time getting awesome views of one that is local. Still… I love whistling ducks.

We also saw this barking owl. I’m not giving away the location. I was warned that this can be dangerous, as not everyone is as respectful of the birds as we are. I did ask about what other situations I should be careful about sharing, as my default response is to share the knowledge. Basically, in any situation where the bird is endangered or rare in the state. Also if certain types of species are breeding. This warrants more research.

We got to get really close and spend 15 minutes photographing it. It was such a beautiful bird. I would have loved to have spent more time with it and gotten other photos. Still, such an honour. My first owl! And so close!

It was a stressful weekend for me, but was also amazing. I learned so much. At times, I was more relaxed then I had ever been. It was exhausting but oh so worth it. I’ll need more time to digest the awesomeness of it.

I do know I need to return to Chiltern. I’d love to learn more about the local area. I’d also love to go birding with many of the people I hung out with. 🙂 I love nature

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.)

You Yangs

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

Avalon Beach

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.

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.

Day 3: Our Final Day In Chiltern

Kings road swamp

Visiting the You Yangs and Avalon Beach

You Yangs

Avalon Beach