whistling kite

Ebirds Global Big Day 2016: Western Suburbs of Geelong.

May 18, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Ages ago, I emailed a mate telling him about the cool frogs we’d found at Balyang. I didn’t got a response to that, but I did get an email in early May asking me if I’d like to join him and another GFNC member birding around Serendip and the You Yangs.

I immediately said yes. My cat had been missing for a couple of weeks at this point and I had been feeling shit. While nothing could replace the Beej, birding may take my mind off him for a bit.

It was just before 8 when we arrived at Serendip. It was earlier then I had ever gotten there before – normally I get there around lunchtime.

I highly recommend you visit there at ungodly hours. I normally avoid being up too early as it triggers migraines but in this case it was worth the risk. No-one else was there and the staff were still feeding the animals. The magpie geese hadn’t moved away from some of the common ponds yet and were sitting a lot closer then they normally would. Next season, I’m definitely returning to get some good photos. Alas,we didn’t have much time to take photos today.

We had just gotten out of the bird enclosure when I noticed these two tawny frogmouths in a tree. I felt so proud of myself. I can’t do bird calls and struggle with a lot of species, but I can always spot movement or when something looks different. Apparently they can be very hit and miss here.

We walked along a back here, behind a waterhole. It had dried up. I saw a group of bones that had once belonged to a roo.

We went to one of back ponding areas.

Two shelducks and a shoveller! Woohoo! I really wished I had my proper big lens that day, and I’d been able to photograph them pooping.

I got a good view of its underwings as well.

We left and started driving towards the you Yangs, when Jeff stopped suddenly.

There was a pair of whistling kites eating a carcass.

I didn’t get that many photos at the You Yangs. We went off the path a bit and the bush bashing was pretty tricky. Some of the bits were steep, which is normally fine. It’s less fine if there is no defined path and the dirt is slippery.

I was too busy trying not to fall over to focus on the birds. Have a couple of scratches from that day – my legs are showing a lot of signs of my clumsiness! I was so pleased with myself, I pushed myself really hard and didn’t get sick at all.

We went to a couple of other haunts in the region before going to Avalon Beach. It was so great to return there, I hadn’t been there in a long time.

There was a decent number of banded stilts there which was great to see.

Also a pied oystercatcher.

It was a phenomenal day, my report doesn’t do it justice. I very much need to improve my fitness though if I’m going to go on more of them.

I’ve learned that one of the reason I don’t see as many birds is because I tend to stick to the paths. Often, some of the best birding can be found off path.

We ended up seeing around 100 species which was pretty awesome. I saw so glad to get home that night though!

Whistling Kites Chasing Cormorants At The WTP

April 15, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Recently, I was at the treatment plant. We were looking out to the ocean when we saw a group of whistling kites hanging out on the rocks. They were hanging out quite close to the cormorants and I was quite surprised that they were so close.

Then, one flew up. The little black cormorants nearby also flew up and landed in the water. I captured the whole scene.

My photos are mediocre but it’s one of the reasons I definitely need to get out more often.

Final Winter Visit To Serendip

August 21, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Glenn and I went to Serendip. I’d been hankering for a proper adventure in a while. The trip to the Gold Coast didn’t count. I wanted to be immersed in the bush for a couple of hours. I wanted to be able to watch the same species for a while. Heck, I wanted to be around Glenn without feeling panicky about the impending weekend of doom (which is what conferences often feel like.)

We got there and I could just feel my body relax. The carpark itself was calming. It’s brilliant that we have such a place fairly close to home.

One of the priorities for the day, as you’ll quickly work out, was photographing the young cape barren geese. I know it sounds silly but I want to get them at different times in their life cycle so I can establish patterns in terms of growth/behaviour/feather changes.

Plus who doesn’t love photos of baby birds? Fortunately Glenn got into it too. A lot of the photographs are focused on the goslings with their teeny weeny mouths open.

There were young that were slightly older. These guys must have bred really early!

Look at the detail on their tiny wings! Can’t wait to see the down drop and older feathers come in.

A good shot of a fairy wren jumping. Glenn could be around the most amazing rare bird and would still try and get the ultimate wren shot. Would love to take him and see some of the different species of wren. Just not emu wrens as their elusiveness would probably drive him nuts.

Buff Banded Rail

In the past, Glenn would have focused on the easy birds with his photography. In our first visit it was all emus and marsupials. I’ve been working really hard with Glenn lately to focus on watching the bird for a while and really capturing their behaviour. It hasn’t come naturally to him but he has improved so much. I’ll tell him a bit about the bird and what to expect, and he’ll go into an area with an idea of the type of photography to get.

He was photographing something else in here when I saw these two rails sitting down. Their behaviour was interesting, very loving. It was like they were rubbing their beaks together but not actually feeding. I thought the mother might be sitting on a nest.

Interestingly, I saw a slightly older rail chick when visiting here in September last year. Wonder what they do if they get too many? There are about 7 in here as it is.

I do want to emphasis that I was on the path at the time. I was already sitting down trying to photography my one true love, the musk duck. If you look in the third photo, you can see a baby peeking out from under it!

I nearly screamed. I told Glenn to turn around to try and get a photograph. I knew he’d love it.

I love photographing baby birds and various behaviour. There is so much to learn and I’m so grateful for Serendip.

Other captive

I did have ulterior motives for going here. I wanted to photograph the freckled duck again! I thought the captive area would be great for other practice, but was surprised at just how much Glenn got into it. I’m such a proud girlfriend. It’s bloody hard to get good at bird photography and he’s giving it his all.

I got the above shot of it flying. Glenn got the below photos. It’s funny, these were so easy to get. In other area, I spent about 15 minutes trying to get a photo of the same species of bird, only wild, trying to catch a fish. All of them turned out crap.

Mostly because I had the boring normal lenses but whatever. Glenn’s the better photographer and he works 5 days a week.

My favourite duck. I found him! I could easily come back here and spend all day in this enclosure. The lighting was horrid and the freckled duck wasn’t as visible this time.

Look at his tail, though.

Glenn got the above one. We both wish the lighting was better but just look at that shot. This is how I know that Glenn will be successful. He needs work understanding the technical camera stuff, and I want to start teaching him about presets, but look at what he captured.

Female freckled duck.

Suspect the above birds are scarlet chested parrots. I need to see more parrots in the wild!

Elsewhere:

A displeased swan confronting a grebe.

A bug that initially scared the poop outta me.

Close ups of a whistling kite. It is an artform trying to get someone else to see where a bird is in a tree. We do need a superior lens for shots of birds in flight.

This magpie was a complete butthead. We were waiting at the entrance for a taxi when I saw this angry looking bird swoop me. I sat down and it did it again!

Glenn thought it was hilarious, even after he told me how much it hurts. He also tried to get a photo of it, despite it trying to go him. We had moved away and tried to be respectful of it. We had to catch the taxi!

Glenn got a good photo, and a glare, from me.

We got other photos and I’m still planning to visit here quite regularly. Birding would be so much easier with a car! There is so much that I want to check up on and photograph.

I’ve also gotten more work lately. It’s a bit difficult trying to balance everything but I know this is a short term thing. Get the work out of the way and I can do more adventures. It’s spring.

I also need to do more research into the technical side of things to help Glenn.

Lake Lorne in May: Cold Yet Awesome

May 14, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, I got a text message from Carolyn asking if I wanted to go birding. I was having a bit of an anxious day but ended up saying ‘Yes’ – provided we didn’t visit somewhere along the Barwon River.

Now, I love the Barwon. It’s a beautiful area. It’s also an area I’ve explored WAY too much with a very adventurour 6 year old. On childless birding trips, I want to go further afield. Fortunately, Carolyn was thinking along the same lines, to the point where she suggested the same two places I have been wanting to go to for a while. The latter idea was Lake Lorne…. which I’ll be writing about first because internet downloads are SO slow!

It had been raining on and off all day. It was raining on the way there but cleared up as soon as we got there. As soon as I got out of the car I immediately regretted not bringing the zoom lens.

Look at that spoonbill! Beauties like that deserve the close up treatment. We were lucky enough to find two spoonbills on the day

There was a large number of ducks on the lake, more then I had seen on the previous visits. The lake is quite large so it is easy to overlook just how many different species there are. In this photo, wood ducks and freckleds were scared off by our presence.

We were so fortunate. There was at least 3 whistling kites circling overhead. One ended up landing on a dead branch in on a tree in one of the lakes islands. I loved hearing their call. We also saw a black kite flying off from a tree. It was so quick, I didn’t have the time to get my camera.

The yellow spoonbill was quite close, I was so annoyed that I didn’t bring the zoom lense. I was also happy to get closer to a yellow one. They don’t seem to be as common, nor as friendly, as the royal.

More photos of the kite. Could have spent a lot longer photographing them if I had the time.

Eastern Rosella. I’ve noticed that these are the most common in this area.

Large number of straw necked ibises flying in to roost at this time. It was just before 5pm.

It was also awesome to get this photo series of an egret catching a fish! It was also fascinating how these two birds banded together and worked together to get food. I wonder if this is a common pairing?

Some of the ducks. Carolyn saw blue billed, shovelers and plenty of pink eareds. It was so amazing to see all my favourites.

The ibises roosting.

It was an unexpectedly fantastic twitch. It was so different compared to previous visits. I think I need to visit here a lot more frequently to properly understand it.

It can be very hit and miss in terms of what you get from it. Perhaps it is more interesting in winter? I guess I’ll be learning a lot more about it in the coming months 🙂

Birding the Barwon With My Nephew

January 5, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

It is the 5th of January. So far this year, I have gone on three separate adventures with the nephew exploring various parts of the Barwon River. I’ve been trying to familiarize him with places beyond just Balyang. A lot of the birding has been generic but you know what? The little dude loved it. Sometimes, that’s all that matters.

Belmont Common + Balyang

On Thursday I was planning to go to Bunyip area with a birder who had contacted me the day before. It would have required an early start. I woke up at 4.30 after a horrid nights sleep and knew there was no way I could do the trip without getting sick. I hated calling it off but I’m glad I did, considering the hot weather caused many sleepless nights on the weekend.

We asked if we could go to our local haunt, ‘The Wetlands’ when my parents were going to Bunnings. They have been super busy lately so I’ve tried to take Seth on adventures that don’t require much of their time.

Seth LOVED it.

He may have gotten distracted by the rabbits, though.

I don’t mind. He’s 6 and it is still something of a novelty to him. We’d checked out a lot of the usual haunts and there wasn’t that much to see. There was a random person sitting in the hide with multiple bags – he didn’t look like a birder. Up the back there was stilts, ibises and spoonbills. The water looked too high for crakes and rails so I decided to just let him be a kid.

It meant I didn’t get to look in the trees as much as I liked, especially as an oriole had recently been reported there. But sometimes it’s more about the adventure.

I showed him my secret spot where we flushed five Lathams Snipe. We walked back to the hide. I heard the sound of lorikeets. I followed, hoping that they were purple crowned.

They weren’t. Musk lorikeets are still a new bird for Seth. He learned more about walking quietly so they wouldn’t get scared. Hopefully learned about telling the difference between birds.

That night he still had way too much energy so we went for a wander around Balyang. We explored Balyang, the nearby boardwalk and the area where the Tawny Frogmouth is. We ended up being gone for so long that my parents were worried. But, there was a lot to see.

There was baby ducklings. Afterwards, my mum was telling Seth about how mother ducks, and other birds, can get incredibly protective. We spent about five minutes watching them from a distance and Seth was able to observe the behaviour. I dunno, there is something cool about seeing something instead of just hearing about it.

I saw a duck that I hadn’t seen there before. I’m not sure if it’s a domestic one but if it is, it’s new. I thought the markings on the face may make it a domestic/teal hybrid?

Saw this heron. It was moving it’s feet in the water as if it was either trying to find something with its feet or trying to find a safe place to put it. Was interesting behaviour.

Got some very poor quality photos of the frogmouth having a stretch. I don’t want to invade its space.

Walking from Buckley Falls to Queens Park

Yesterday, I decided to give my parents a break for a couple of hours and offered to walk from Buckley Falls to Queens Park. It would be about 3km and would allow me to walk along an area I really liked.

Seth decided he wanted to walk on the other side of the river, starting at Baums Weir. There were two people there when we got there but they told us about a valley where we could see a wallaby and how we may see platypus in the river. I wouldn’t have believed you could find either so close to suburbia but this little section was so secluded and lovely. I want to walk in the opposite direction next time and see where it takes us.

We walked to Fyansford without much happening. We did manage to see two birds of prey though!

Whistling kite. Always get confused when trying to ID them

Nankeen kestral. Another lifer for the mister. I struggled to ID it initially as the tail wasn’t spread out like it was in the field guide. However the black band on the tail helps you figure it out.

Seth was excited to see it, that kid has really good eyes. We saw other birds, like grey fantails and a black faced cuckoo shrike that hung around for a while. We have to double check if they were lifers. We found a very fluffy caterpillar! He really enjoyed the walk, talking about how the hills changed and how their were different types of trees. It makes me want to learn more about the area so I can give him the right answers.

Buckleys to Balyang

Today I woke up hoping to either go to Truganina or Serendip. Glenn didn’t want to do either and I wasn’t sure if I had the mojo to go anywhere on my own. The decision was taken away from us when we realized our budgeting snafu: we didn’t have any money and weren’t getting paid until tonight.

Glenn was in a bit of a huff and went to have a nap. I decided to make the best of the situation and asked the little dude if he wanted to go for a walk. He loved the walk we had done yesterday, and was curious to see what was on the other side of the river. We went down the steps and very slowly walked.

It was a warm day and the kid has little legs. He has a lot of energy but less so for walking longish distances in warm weather. We had to take frequent breaks but made the most of it. We saw a guy set up a tightrope between two trees and practice. We saw a small green spider and bugs mating. We heard an interesting call and looked on youtube to see if it sounded like a sacred kingfisher (it didn’t.) We went down any side paths we could.

It was meh in terms of birding – which was to be expected with a little dude hanging around. He loved it though.

We heard a bird call in a tree close to the bridge to red gum island. I looked and saw a shape in a tree. Maybe it was a bird of prey!

It was another tawny. I’m fairly certain it was separate to the one we saw close to Balyang. It looked younger. It was about 3 metres away from the path so we walked under the tree and spent 15 minutes just watching it. It watched us back, for a while. Then it yawned and pretended that we weren’t there.

We were getting closer to Buckley Falls, thankfully. But wait – what was that? A darter!

One of the first things it did when we saw it was do a poop. I didn’t get my camera out it time to capture it, but I did capture the aftermath.

You’re welcome.

And we saw a turtle. Oh yeah.

Buckley Falls was a bit of a let down. Too many people. We didn’t find any skinks and someone was loudly annoyed by it.

Seth has enjoyed the adventures but I’ll be glad to return to birding without him. Sometimes he’s awesome but sometimes…. my gosh. It was fun having a good excuse to see more of the Barwon, though.