birding – bobmcgee

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.

Kelp Gull …

Back in Port Fairy now and one of the first birds I encountered was the other large Gull that is frequently found around Australia’s southern coast. Points of difference from the Pacific Gull in adults include

The bill looks less of a weapon
The bill has a red dot on the lower mandible only
The legs are a different yellow
No black band in the tail
A white margin around the black in the wing

Immature birds of both species have black bands in the tail, bill shape is then your best guide.

This guy had a vigorous bath then flew to the rocks to preen. Birds use their bill to distribute oil from the uropygial gland through their feathers.

Pacific Gull …

I toddled down to Ricketts Point early, it’s good to get there before the dog walkers to the extent that you can. It was cold and very windy. I didn’t see a dog and indeed most of the birds were hunkered down, head into the wind, reluctant to fly. The exception was a young Pacific Gull that was not going to let the weather stop it from repeatedly dropping a mussel from a great height. It was at a bit of a distance and I’m not sure whether it succeeded in smashing it open or the wind carried it into the water.

When it found itself in need of a new mollusc it came quite close to me. I was able to photograph it coming in and while it tried to prise a mussel from a hollow in the rock. While I approved of its choice of mussel it didn’t work well for the gull. After a while it flew off with an empty beak to try further away.

It takes four years for a Pacific Gull to arrive at adult plumage and even then there may be some buff feather margins to give it away as a relative youngster. By my reckoning this is a second year gull. Back in March it would have been browner overall and the bill base would have been white. Now (November) the yellow parts have good colour but the bill tip is near black not red.