Birds of Sugarloaf Reservoir

Wedge-tailed eagle, Sugarloaf Reservoir Park (31 July 2013)

I think I have found a place close enough to home (which is in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne) that provides birding a little different from my immediate haunts. The bush around Sugarloaf Reservoir has sections of dry open forest and grassland. This provides for different birding from the tall forests and dense fern gullies of the Dandenongs for instance.

Here is a Park Guide. I have just visited for a second time. On both occasions the visit was in winter and I enjoyed walking the first 1km or so of the Chris Phillips Walk (leaving from the Saddle Dam Picnic area).

Pied currawong

White-winged chough have a great habit of nonchalantly wandering away from the observer - slow enough to get you interested but rarely presenting a favourable perspective! 

Missed the opportunity! Out-of-focus White-winged chough

Crimson rosella

White-eared honeyeater

Brown-headed honeyeater

Golden whistler

Superb fairy-wren 

Female Scarlet robin - the "insurance shot"

Managed to get a little closer to the male - Scarlet robin

"Bye!" Scarlet robin

Australian pelican

Great habitat for bush birds!

Eastern grey kangaroo

Bird on!

Birding Binalong Bay, Tasmania

Back in April our family enjoyed an hour or so exploring the rocky shores and beaches of Binalong Bay, Tasmania.  We all had our cameras out trying to capture the late afternoon Autumn sun playing on the rocks. This township is at the southern end of the Bay of Fires, the whole area noted for the bright orange lichen covering the granite boulders (amongst other things)!

My lens was focussed on our feathered friends as usual ....

Little pied cormorant with some Bay of Fires colour

Australian pelican are just awesome! 

Such a wing-span!

Crested tern landing 

Crested tern on some of the yellower lichen-encrusted granite 

Silvereye wins the berry through sheer perseverance

Superb-fairy wren also contemplates a meal (or a drink)

Black-headed honeyeater recently identified to me by a guide who pointed out a useful ID feature in the black "epaulettes" 

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Pelican pouch yoga, Phillip Island

A few interesting observations were made on a gloomy morning at Fishers Wetland, Phillip Island recently. First was the overall impression of a whole heap of pretty happy birds all feeding. We (Richard and I) did enjoy spotting a single Pink-eared duck amongst a mass of Eurasian coot.

Methinks not unlike a Freo supporter amongst the Collingwood coots!

Eurasian coot, Fishers Wetland, 29 December 2012

You know how the bird standing on one leg always brings out the other one just when you conclude it is lame? This one never seemed to and the leg on view seemed huge! 

Cape Barren Goose drinking the brackish Fishers Wetland water

Now on to some pelican behaviour ...

I've not seen this before!

 A little "quality" Internet research brought me to this National Geographic article by David A O'Connor which states:

Pelicans perform strange-looking exercises to stretch and maintain their pouch in a brand of pelican yoga. They will gape, holding their mouths wide open. In another pose, they point the bill straight up to the sky, stretching the pouch. Or most evocatively, a bird will turn its pouch completely inside out by forcing it over its breast.

Teal, dotterels and stilts all happily feeding at Fishers

I've not seen this many Red-kneed dotterel at Phillip Island before

An Australasian shoveler amongst the teal

I leave you with some of the comings and goings. In flight we see Australian pelican, Swamp harrier, Australian shelduck and Cape Barren geese.

Fishers Wetland, Phillip Island, 29 December 2012

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!