Woods Reserve, Tuerong

'Enjoyed a half hour wander through part of Wood's Reserve at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula recently. We walked through a noisy colony of Bell miners (Manorina melanophrys) and as our eyes became accustomed the individual birds responsible for that wonderful "tink" materialised!

Bell miner Wood's Reserve, Tuerong. I find it's like watching the night sky. Initially the birds are hard to spot but once you get your "miner eyes" more and more birds materialise!

I have a few shots with Bell miners leaping in this fashion with little use of their wings.

A nice recording of Bell miner calls & a valiant attempt to film these near-invisible birds can be seen here (a Canadian punter's youtube account):

Other birds seen included a pair of Wedge-tailed eagles, Yellow robin, Grey fantail and a wealth of other honeyeaters including Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped.

Grey fantail 

Yellow-faced honeyeater 

This is one of those "nearly shots"! It nearly has Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped Honeyeaters all in the one shot (see particularly out of focus White-naped at bottom left)

 Bird on!

Getting to know a bird. Emu-wren.

Southern Emu-wren Stipiturus malachurus to be more precise.

Southern Emu-wren (male), Yambuk

The Port Fairy Folk Festival has become an annual March pilgrimage for us. In the last three years I have visited the Yambuk lakes area and / or Deen Maar and have managed to hook up with this quirky little bird.

This has been a learning experience from scratch.

1st year - didn't know what was seen until checked photos (my gosh that tail)!
2nd year - expected to see them. 'Knew where to look but had fleeting contact with one bird only.

On this year's visit I was just about to declare a disappointing "dip" when I was alerted by a call and flutter of foliage. In the ensuing 20 minutes a family of 3-4 emu-wren tormented me (and I in turn probably tormented them!) as they moved largely unseen around the reeds and heath.

So I have learnt the following about Southern emu-wren:

• They are extremely difficult to photograph!
• They are quite happy to hang around the observer - however the only observations are of moving foliage!
• Noting sufficient discerning features for ID may take a while!
• On the ground or lower branches of heath, emu-wren are confident in their obscurity and may even approach (you just won't see them).
• A bird in flight may give quite a buzz! - just to see the bird in full view with it's ridiculous trailing tail! Of course too brief and too much head rush to contemplate even trying to photograph the thing.
• They seem unlikely to get more than 60cm off the ground (this may help me quickly sort out next time some of the 100+ fairy-wren sightings before the first emu-wren)

Anyway some pictures. I think I'm inclined to waffle more when the photos are lousy!....

Show's over, I'm off! (It was a very brief show)

Another typically difficult view of a male bird. At least the tail feathers can be made out.

From what can be seen of this bird I think we may have female.

Bird on!

A Hobby visits

We were walking as a group along Silverleaves Ave on Phillip Island today. Twelve year old Hannah spotted it first.

"What's that Dad?" She does seem to have the knack of recognising something a bit different. We had a five second view, in flight, before the trees of the bushy Silverleaves area obscured the view. It was enough for Hannah and I to leave the group and backtrack. We were rewarded with further views.

I'm not great with raptors but I am now able to state in the field several birds that this was not and that did leave Australian Hobby. Cropping and enhancing images of this dark, fast-flying, smallish bird didn't result in pictures of any great quality but did leave no doubt about the ID.

Australian Hobby (Falco longipennis - I do wonder about that scientific name*)

Trees - you gotta love 'em but gee they can get in the way!

Then .... close to focussed just before passing behind an electricity pole!

Also at Silverleaves today this mature Rufous whistler was seen tending to an immature bird. Always good to see new generations coming along.

View Larger Map

I visited the lookout at the end of McIllwraith's Rd, Rhyll which allows views of the Observation Point spit. This is the politically correct way of viewing the shorebirds that visit - which is OK as long as you are not planning on identifying any of them.

I believe the dots below will include godwits, terns (caspian and crested), a sizeable group of Pied oystercatcher, a few eastern curlew. Some even smaller specks belie the presence of Red-necked stint. A few extra large dots represent a couple of lads who have jumped off the family boat identifying the shallow waters surrounding the protected spit as a great place for a rollick.

* From Debus' Birds of Prey of Australia:

The specific name ('long feather') alludes to the long wings (primary feathers).

Bird on!