you yangs

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.

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.

Birding at the You Yangs Western Plantation

Red wattlebird

Rufous Whistler

Visiting the You Yangs and Avalon Beach

You Yangs

Avalon Beach