My Nature Blog
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.
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.
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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 🙂
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
Today, Glenn and I went to Werribee Zoo. I’d gone there last year for my birthday and thought Glenn would get a buzz out of it. Yes, I did have the ulterior motive of birding. The primary goal though was to let Glenn have fun with the telephoto lens.
It was a bit hit and miss. A couple of animals weren’t on display. There were primary school students there – screaming and crying – so we didn’t stay in some sections as long was we liked. Most of the animals were just sleeping, which doesn’t make for interesting photographs. I felt like I’d made a mistake recommending that we go here.
Fortunately, the safari experience made up for it. So many birds of prey!
Black kite. Mama knows how to ID those.
The above two are whistling kites. I had to consult my guide as I’m unable to ID these just by looking yet. I like how I got a shot of the top of the wings too. I have noticed that the western suburbs have a lot of kites. It is probably a bias, as I haven’t explored it in depth. I’m basing it on 3 visits to Serendip, todays trip and last week when I saw two black shouldered kites.
I got a glimpse of this fella, or lady, while we were on the tour bus. I only got a glimpse of it and instinctively snapped two shots just in case. The bus was very bumpy and the lady was going quicker at that point. I tentatively ID’ed it as a nankeen kestral, with a slight possibility of being a light coloured brown falcon. This was because my gut said kestral when I first saw it and falcons… have no idea about those yet.
As usual, I posted it on a bird identification FB group. I’m so amazed at how people can tell what a bird is with such little data. It apparently holds itself more like a falcon, and Nankeen kestrals aren’t that common in the area. The ‘chest was too large and the body proportion wrong.’
I love how people know so much. I fucking love this hobby. I don’t know how people are able to hold all this information in their heads. I probably wont add this to my list yet but still. Learned a lot. Especially at a time when my priority was making sure Glenn got the awesome photos.
I had checked out a map online, and asked on Facebook, and knew to concentrate on the areas that had a lot of water. The photos we got were of birds that may be considered generic but I don’t care. I love baby and juvenile birds.
Dusky moorhen plus chicks. It looked like one of the birds were still on chicks. The photos aren’t the best as I took them using the Nikon. I wish I could have gotten some close ups of the chicks. They looked very young, and it looked like several birds were working together to feed them.
Young swamphen. I was confused as to what it was, thinking it might have been a crake. Then I saw the adult. This was in a wetland area of the Aussie animal section. There was a bunch of annoying teens screaming and swearing as they walked through the section that made birding difficult.
The buff banded rail. Got several long looks at this little guy and had a lot of opportunities to get good photos. Glenn got these, because he knew that I really wanted them. I could have spent most of the day photographing it.
New Holland Honeyeater. We photographed this guy after walking around for half an hour. Glenn made a comment about how it was just like what we do at home – photographing common birds. The birds here were more used to humans and allowed for really great shots. This is blurrier then I would have liked but I was letting Glenn use the Canon.
Blackbird. Loved the contrast with the beak
Ducklings. Because they’re ducklings.
There was a section of the wetlands where there was a grey fantail and a silvereye having a bath in a stream of water. None of the photos really turned out but I loved watching it. I also saw a red browed finch in the area. Common… but I want to see how many of the alleged 160 species in the area I can find.
It was recommended that I look out for black chinned honeyeaters and purple crowned lorikeets. I had no luck but didn’t get a chance to properly explore. I did see two species of ibis and pelicans flying over.
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I would like to return again so I can birdwatch properly. African animals in an artificial settings don’t really intrigue me. I did want to see the serval cats but that presentation was cancelled.
Also wanted to go to Truganina afterwards but someone had chewed up the memory cards. Fair enough, I’ll be doing so much birding over the next week to make up for it!
Anyone who is close to me knows that I’ve been obsessed with Serendip Sanctuary lately. It’s named as one of the best 100 birdwatching sites in Australia and allows you to get extremely close to many of Australia’s native animals. Oh, did I say that it doesn’t cost anything?
The main issue preventing me from getting there was the logistics. It would require a bus, a train to Lara AND a taxi. Fortunately, I had the mental mojo on Friday to handle such logistics. I convinced Glenn to come, packed the cameras and away we went!
The taxi driver wasn’t quite sure where serendip was. Fortunately I had the address, but he only dropped us off half way to the car park. We walked the rest of the way up surrounded by birdsong.
There was an emu walking around outside the entrance. Glenn was able to get pretty close to practice his photography.
I don’t know if it classifies as a wild one but my gosh, it’s so brilliant to be able to get so close.
We walked past a tinsy winsy stream. There were a lot of people looking at something that was darting under the bridge. A MUSK DUCK!
I would have been willing to travel several hours just to catch a glimpse of one of these birds. I don’t know why I’m obsessed with ducks, especially weird looking ones. Seth (who joined us later) loved it. It made him laugh, it was so weird looking.
We had barely gone past the visitors centre. But oh – whats that? Just a whistling kite.
We went to Jirrahlinga (at Barwon heads) for my birthday a couple of years ago. Glenn fell in love with the call of a whistling kite. I’ve been wanting to see one in the wild ever since. The markings are distinctive and make it a lot easier to identify.
Later on, we saw three birds of prey together. Two of them sort of fought in the air with their talons. It was so amazing to see.
This walk is awesome. It starts near the info centre and takes you through various areas where you can get close up to animals. You can walk through decent sized enclosures with animals such as emus, swamp wallabies and cape barren geese. There are signs in a couple of places that help explain things like animal poop and ant lifecycles. It’s very educational.
Technically, I have seen swamp wallabies in the wild. We were at Ocean Grove Nature Reserve and could never quite get a clear photo of them. We enjoyed being able to get up close to them. Most of them were in groups in the shaded areas.
Seth may have been excited to see swamp wallaby poo. I may have several photos of animal scats.
Now, originally it was meant to be just Glenn and I there. I had phoned mum up asking if Seth wanted to come but we couldn’t figure out the logistics. Later, my sister decided that she would take Seth and join us there. It was a bit of a surprise, seeing as we’d probably have to cover the same ground.
It was then that we realized we’d had the camera on the wrong setting the entire time. All of our photos had that blue tinge. The unexpected arrival turned out to be a blessing as we got another chance to get photos.
We also got a chance to see the tiger quolls. Seth and I LOVE tiger quolls. Part of it is because of Chris Humfrey. The other is due to a museum.
Museum Victoria have this really cool app that is a field guide to Victorian fauna. It has photos of the animals, distribution maps and audios of the animal calls. It’s really popular here. Mum and Seth used it to identify animals they saw in the Apollo Bay rockpools. We regularly play animal calls and just talk about our favourite animals.
So. We were playing animal sounds and I heard what sounded like someone grunting while going to the toilet. It was hilarious. Seth kept on playing it because he knew it would give me the giggles. Quolls became an obsession.
We didn’t get to see the quolls the first time. We did the second time, when my good luck charm/nephew was there. I don’t know whether they were the kittens that recently made the news. Still: QUOLLS!
The geese were roaming freely throughout various enclosures and in the paddocks outside of Serendip.
There was also a number of walk-in aviaries which allowed you to get close to bush stone curlews and tawny frogmouths. Great photo opportunities!
Another highlight was seeing the brolgas up close.
There were a number of bird hides along the wildlife walk. There are two separate walks that take you to other wetland environments but this was the most accessible. I loved watching the emus drinking.
I also got my first photo of a yellow billed spoonbill. I’m sure I had seen them previously at limeburners lagoon but I had lost the photos. I only noticed the bird when going through my photos afterwards.
Baby ducklings.
I love ducklings.
Black tailed native hen. Another lifer.
Dotteral. Now seeing them all the time. Buttheads.
It was a great way to spend a couple of hours. Glenn got so many photos and Seth already wants to go back. I want to go back by myself and spend a couple of hours at the wetland areas looking for new ducks. I also want to see the little and purple-crowned lorikeets which are found in the area.
I highly recommended it.
It can be a bit of a pain to get to if you don’t have a car. The taxi fare from Lara Station was less then $12.
. Echidna Walkabout have a tour that visits here and the you yangs in the same day. I believe that a tour is the best option for overseas visitors as you will learn a lot more.