birding – bobmcgee

Old Haunts …

I made a brief visit to the Victorian Goldfields over the weekend and caught up with good friends that I made in the decade that I lived there. A splendid gathering of Maryborough’s finest citizens convened in the Bull and Mouth, Maryborough’s finest pub. I miss you all.

I also managed to fit in a quick visit to a few sites that that have proved productive in the past and they haven’t lost their charm. I found a Powerful Owl hidden in foliage along the Lodden River at Newstead. It was impossible to photograph the whole bird because of the way it had concealed itself but head and shoulders could be seen by means of careful contortions. These guys mostly subsist on small mammals but this one had the remains of a bird next to it on its perch.

Paddys Ranges State Park yielded a Sacred Kingfisher. This is mostly a woodland species in this region and for the most part a summer visitor. They are perch and pounce predators on small creatures on the forest floor. I don’t think they would know what to do with a fish.

Sandy Cove …

My annual report from eBird recently dropped in my inbox. It seems I have been a good boy this last year. They haven’t asked to speak to my parents. Robert submitted 747 check lists, compiled during 465 hours, in 397 different locations, whilst traveling 922.7km for a year list of 396 species. There were 252 photographs of 149 species. The lady I woke up next to this morning was my birding bestie, ie the person I shared the most lists with. And I was hers which was a great relief to both of us. The species I encountered most frequently was the Magpie-lark but the bird I saw most individuals of was the Crested Tern. And the location I birded more than any other was Sandy Cove, Port Fairy, Victoria.

Sandy Cove is a salt marsh, with some surrounding vegetation. It attracts some breeding shorebirds like Pied Stilt and Masked Lapwing and some migrants like Latham’s Snipe and Common Greenshank. Water levels dropped quite quickly as summer wore on. It’s now dry! It’s not a large reserve but well worth a visit and it’s only a couple of hundred metres from my Port Fairy abode.

As a kid my school reports always ended with “Robert can do better”. I wonder what this year will bring.

A Walk Around The Island …

A causeway joins Griffith’s Island to the mainland. It’s about a 2.6km walk to get around the island. There is a well formed path around most of it but there is a little scrambling over rocks in one spot. Much of the interior is a Short-tailed Shearwater breeding colony. At this time of the year adults are coming and going under the cover of darkness. You see nothing of them during the day except for the occasional dead one, although you may be lucky and see a flock foraging not too far off the coast. There’s plenty to see around the edges.

It’s basalt, once again, that provides a backdrop for the Heron.

Ralph Illidge Sanctuary …

There is a little slice of paradise hidden away on the road between Warrnambool and Cobden in south west Victoria. It’s owned by the Trust for Nature, preserves some beautiful riparian forest and is home to the endangered Long-nosed Potoroo. It’s the Ralph Illidge Sanctuary. Admission is $2, no dogs and closed on days of total fire ban.

I’ve been giving it quite a lot of attention lately because a Black-faced Monarch turned up there in mid December and every twitcher in the shire has seen it. Except me. Until this morning. Although the previous time I was there another birdo did show me a very nice photo on the back of his camera.

The Monarch in question is a breeding migrant to the east coast of Oz, spending winters in New Guinea. A few come around the corner to the south coast in Gippsland (eastern Victoria). This one is the furthest west I’ve encountered one, and it does seem to be on its own. There is a price to be paid for being a pioneer.

The sanctuary is an excellent spot for forest birding well worth a visit any time. The Potoroo is nocturnal and elusive so don’t count on seeing one. The sanctuary website also mentions the Rufous Bristlebird. The last eBird record was is in 2015, the Great Ocean Road is a much better bet for this species.

The photos in this gallery were all taken in the sanctuary in the last month …

Hobby …

The Australian Hobby is found throughout Australia and also in islands to the north. It’s a bird eater that likes to hunt after dawn and at dusk. They’ve adapted quite well to urban life and have been reported swooping low over roof tops to surprise birds in back yards.

I came across this guy on a country road dismantling a Starling.

2026 …

A happy and prosperous new year to everyone who deserves it, which is almost everyone after subtracting the despotic, criminal and corrupt.

January the first. A new calendar game. Go for quantity or quality? Early to bed last night up at four this morning. I decided on some forest birding and headed about 90 minutes drive east of Melbourne to Mount Worth State Park. Tall forest of Mountain Ash with Blackwood beneath and Tree Ferns in between. Epiphytic ferns on everything and enough fungi to poison your whole family. Beef Wellington anyone?

The first birds on the list were quintessentially Australian – King Parrot, Laughing Kookaburra and Australian Magpie. First native mammal was a Wombat running for its life. They run with rather more grace than you would expect from such a short legged stocky creature.

The list extended to just 21 bird species but included Lyrebird and Large-billed Scrubwren and it’s unlikely that I’ll see them again until late in the year.

For a nice introduction to the trails in the park click this <LINK> but be aware that the Giants Circuit is currently closed (cos Parks Vic, what can I say).

Melbourne …

Yeah, the big smoke for Christmas and the new year. So last visit to Braeside Park for 2025. Some of the locals were prepared to pose …

Kes …

In old colonial times there was a cheap cloth imported from China and sold in Oz as Nankeen. You could have any colour you wanted so long as you wanted a reddish brown. In time it became a handy descriptor of reddish brown and found its way into the name of two Ozzie birds, The Nankeen Kestrel and the Nankeen Night Heron. These names have survived the attempts of august committees to erase them and I hope they endure forever.

The Nankeen Kestrel is found throughout Australia and further afield in the Pacific. It is one of two Australian raptors that are really proficient at hovering, the other being the Black-shouldered Kite. I encountered this one on Griffiths Island.

Wader Season …

Roebuck Bay is undoubtedly the shorebird capital of Australia but Victoria has sufficient to keep the diagnostic skills in shape. As well, it often seems to me that they are more approachable down here. Summer is the time when the locally breeding species are reinforced by the migrants from the Arctic.

The photo above shows a Common Greenshank (not common around here, mate) that has come up nicely in black and white. Just as well, it was shot in awful light and looked shocking in colour! Below some other waders that I’ve found in the last couple of weeks.

The Red-capped Plover, Pied Stilt and Hooded Plover breed locally. The remainder are long distance migrants.

A Parrot …

Richard of York gained battles in vain. A mnemonic for the rainbow, red, orange, green, blue, indigo, violet. The male Red-rumped Parrot would be a living rainbow if I could only find the indigo and violet. I’m sure there in there somewhere, maybe under UV light. Birds can see further into the UV spectrum than we can.

The Red-rumped Parrot, Psephotus haematonotus, is fairly common in open grassy habitats in South East Australia. It feeds on the ground. The female, sadly, is quite drab.