Kimberley Reserve, Chirnside Park

This reserve is on the urban fringe of eastern Melbourne. It is probably most recognised locally as the home of the local footy and cricket clubs with two ovals at its southern end. A chain of man-made ponds extends northwards fed by storm water drainage. The reserve has a crushed gravel walking trail along both sides of the wetlands. This is well utilised by walkers with dogs - a good 50% of which were off-lead during my visit (despite signage making it clear that this was prohibited).

The eremaea list impressed me so I was bound to be disappointed of course! However nice views of this White-plumed honeyeater as well as sightings of Hardhead lifted the spirits (which weren't really all that low given it was a spankingly sunny winter's afternoon!).

It's good to see Australasian grebe getting their colour back making them easier to differentiate from their Hoary-headed counterparts!

Kings in Grass Castles

I was intrigued by these clumps of reeds. Are they planted that way or are they growing naturally. The Purple swamphen loved them

Hardhead and Grey teal

Purple swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio

Little pied cormorant

Large block residential living in Chirnside Park - where the suburbs are taking over the paddocks

Each pond had a low wall and covered drain

Urban fringe - Google Maps satellite image of Kimberley Reserve

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Birdin' in da city

I grabbed 45 minutes to visit the very metropolitan Westgate Park, Port Melbourne. Of the pictures taken I was most pleased with this shot of an Australasian grebe.

Australasian grebe Tachybaptus novaehollandiae

"Aargh! My reflective toupee has come off" 

I'm not sure why the bill of this New Holland Honeyeater looks over-sized! 

That's a little more like it!

Chestnut teal and Pacific Black Duck looked very much at home

Pacific black duck - motoring towards a prospective feed - none forthcoming!

As I was leaving I spotted this dull bird I take to be a Golden whistler (female / immature)

I invite you to click the Location geotag to see where Westgate Park fits into this very industrial area nestled amongst freeway, port and factories.

A little Instagram filter action happening in this shot!

Bird on!

Parry Creek Lagoons - Visit 2

Circumstances landed us back near Parry Creek Lagoons about a week after our first visit so we took the opportunity to have another look. The flat grassland on either side of the dry-season dirt road had become more familiar - I love it! Again pratincole were a regular sighting.

A cooperative Rainbow bee-eater provided one of the highlights.

When one can tear one's self away from the water birds there are other species to be seen in the surrounding vegetation including Rainbow bee-eater and White-gaped honeyeater. Buff-sided robin was also seen (good views, poor photo)!

Pied heron once again afforded good views but it was the close viewing of a few brolga that had us most excited ....

Brolga were readily seen on this visit.

Comb-crested jacana were a family-favourite once again and featured in the educational signage (photo by Ellen).

The higher you are, the more you see! Magpie goose and Plumed whistling-duck at Marlgu Billabong, Parry Creek Lagoons.

Intermediate egret

Nankeen night-heron

Gorgeous close-ups of Australasian grebe were possible from the viewing platform.

Bird on!

Parry Creek Lagoons - 1st visit

(The bones of this post were lifted from shanleylife blog featuring our family holiday!)

Those of you “in the know” would have been very surprised if there was not a blog entry about Parry Creek Reserve. I don’t like to disappoint so…

Our trip to Parry’s was a late afternoon day trip from Kununurra. We mucked around determining the best track in from the Great Northern Highway. We wound up getting too close to Wyndham and came in from the north. We had two sightings of brolga in the surrounding bush as we approached. 

After leaving the bitumen, the track cuts through flat grassland where we saw our first Australian pratincole. Nankeen kestrel and kites also featured.

Australian pratincole from the car

The remaining pictures are taken at Marlgu Billabong which has boardwalks and a viewing platform. There was a steady trickle of visitors – at any time there was one or two other cars with us.

Fancy not having enough binoculars to go around! Ellen is clearly disappointed! Well not everyone can have a huge camera lens and a funny hat!

Birding highlights were seeing pied heron and pygmy goose for the first time among several other “lifers”. Four lifers in four seconds without even turning the car engine off doesn’t happen often!

This handsome pelican fed right in front of us – getting down low then dipping his whole top half under the water then sorting out the muck from the dinner. Jacanas looked great walking around on the lily pads.

Comb-crested jacana

 A sheepish looking Magpie goose mixed up with the Plumed whistling-ducks

There was a huge flock of plumed whistling-duck as well. After Marlgu we explored locally looking for the other Parry Creek lagoons but these turned out to be dry.

The trip was also punctuated by some close range experience of the Kimberley on fire. This shot taken from the car window as we drove along the highway north-west of Kununurra. The impression was of a controlled “cool burn” but there was no overt supervision. When we returned to Kununurra it was dark and the rows of flame made for a dramatic scene.

We were treated to a typical east Kimberley sunset as we drove past the ruins of a telegraph station near Marlgu Billabong. 

Another memorable afternoon!

Bird on!