Pretty little things

At Oswin Roberts Sanctuary, Phillip Island on Sunday morning and it was pardalote city! Maybe I should bird before 11 more often because by 9am the place was alive with Striated & Spotted pardalote, Grey fantail, Brown thornbill, honeyeaters, Superb-fairy wren, Red-browed finch & the list goes on!

Spotted pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus)

Adult male



Striated pardalote (Pardalotus striatus). I eventually twigged (!) that this dead branch emanated from a hollow that I suspect would make an ideal nesting site (see below right).



Although not as becoming with the close-up views provided by its spotted counterpart, Striated pardolote amazed me with their prolific numbers and activity. On several occasions I saw groups of striated pardalote numbering 10 or more.

Grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa)
I must have been stirring up some insects as this fellow looked to land on my lens ....twice!
(It didn't seem aggressive!)

Brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla)

Black-faced cuckoo-shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae)

Finally there was also distant views and calls of Satin flycatcher (Myiagra cyanoleuca) and Fan-tailed cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis).

Terrific Terrick!

If you make a triangle out of the Victorian towns of Bendigo, Echuca & Kerang then the Terrick Terrick National Park sits in the middle. It contains an unfamiliar environment with native pines and grasslands with a few areas of rocky outcrops. Similarly the birding was unfamiliar & I'm sure that many more "ticks" could have eventuated if we had more local experience or a little homework under the belt.

The 45 minute drive down from our digs at Torrumbarry resulted in stops to view brown falcon, white-fronted chat, Australasian pipit, brolga (did I mention?) &  long-billed corella.

In the cool temperate rainforest & other bush surrounding Melbourne you can't leave a track, even if you wanted to, without a machete. It was strangely satisfying to walk in and amongst the actual bird habitat rather than view it from a track. Although I did do less of this after we saw several long reptiles.

Native pine and grasses

The Mitiamo cemetery section

Climbing Mt Terrick

The team!

The day was warm and we were there from about 10am until 3pm - not ideal for birding. Several sightings were lifers (of these a couple were suspected at the time but confirmed by photograph later on) but I feel we really dipped on a variety of honeyeaters that are often seen.

Black-faced cuckoo shrike -
the immature birds still get me thinking I might
have something new!

Rufous songlark (above & below)
AKA Noisius buggeris

Red-capped robin

Hooded robin

Mistletoebird (after a big night I think)

Southern whiteface (needs a wash)

Hannah was great company and started keeping her own list. She pays greater attention to bird counts than I can be bothered with at times!

Written while driving on gravel
Please excuse hand-writing!

To the north of the forested section of the Park are some areas of designated Park described as native grassland. We had a brief look at the grasslands (didn't get out of the car) where people try to see Plains wanderer (at night I think). We found them difficult to distinguish from the farmed paddocks - some of the locals indicate that they are farmed paddocks (or have been).

I am very grateful to Peter Allen & Keith Stockwell's birding guide for Terrick published via Echuca BOCA's website:

http://users.mcmedia.com.au/stocky/TerricksGuide(WP).pdf

And thanks to Tim Bawden for suggesting the place.



We were also hoping to see Diamond firetail but that's another story....