Birding trip to Victoria (October 2000)

(part one - Melbourne)

by

Tom and Marie Tarrant

 

Due to a combination of circumstances (decrease in value of the australian dollar, friends to visit, new birds to see) Marie and I decided to take our well-deserved holiday in Victoria in late-October 2000. The itinerary was to fly to Melbourne and spend the first weekend with our friend Brett Lane, enjoy the first week in Port Fairy (south-west Victoria) with friends (fellow birders and motel managers) Harry and Eleanor Zawacki then return to Melbourne and drive to the northern Victorian mallee country with Brett and our close pals Mike and Linda Lewis who had just returned from a 'gruelling' 7 month-stint birding in Europe!

 

Twelve Apostles

Pink Robin

Twelve Apostles

Male Pink Robin

 

We arrived at Melbourne on a pleasant Saturday morning and were met by Brett who took us to his home in Burnley, just east of the CBD, we were immediately struck by the size of the city and the numbers of 'imported' birds such as Common Starlings, Indian Mynahs and Spotted Doves. Indeed my first species in the car-park at the airport was a singing Blackbird!

Our first 'expedition' was a trip up Bridge Road to the CBD, we spent some time searching Fitzroy Gardens for Captain Cook's house (brought brick by brick from England) We failed to catch up with Song Thrush, but saw plenty of Red Wattlebirds, Blackbirds and a Sacred Kingfisher. The weather was very warm and almost touched 30 degrees (this was not to last long....as anyone who has visited Melbourne can testify!)

Later in the afternoon Brett drove us down to the area around Altona and Point Cook, on stepping out of the car I immediately heard some familiar calls....European Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Skylark. There wasn't much to see at Altona though there were a couple of distant Pacific Gulls. The area around Point Cook was more productive, here I saw my first Banded Stilt amongst a group of Red-necked Avocets. At nearby Spectacle Lake we entered a hide whilst Whiskered Terns flew courtship displays above us.

 

Banded Stilt

Whiskered Terns

Banded Stilt (right) and Red-necked Avocet

Whiskered Terns

 

Black-fronted Plover

Hoary-headed Grebe

Black-fronted Plover

Hoary-headed Grebe

 

From the hide we had great views of Whiskered Tern, Black-fronted Plover, Hoary-headed Grebes and a species that I was keen to catch up with White-fronted Chat, though they were a long way off here as were some Black-tailed Native-Hens. As we left the hide Brett spotted a Tiger Snake disappearing into the undergrowth and on passing through the gate showed us a "Beware of Snakes" sign!

 

Spectacle Lake hide

Beware of Snakes!

Spectacle Lake hide

Beware of Snakes!

 

The following day was colder and wetter and Brett drove us to the Toolangi State Forest north-east of Melbourne, this is an area of Mountain Ash (the world's largest flowering plant!)

He had told us that the entrance gully was a good place to look for Pink Robin, another new species for us....we were amazed minutes later when we found a pair on constructing a nest!

We took a walk through the rain-forest and along a trail through the Mountain Ash, Superb Lyrebird, Eastern Whipbird, Crescent Honeyeater and Pilotbird were heard but not seen, Rose Robin and Golden Whistler were plentiful, and a Grey Shrike-thrush confused us with an odd-call.

 

Toolangi State Forest

male Pink Robin

Toolangi State Forest

male Pink Robin

 

female Pink Robin

White-browed Scrubwren

female Pink Robin

White-browed Scrubwren

 

After the Toolangi Forest we drove down through the Yarra Glen wineries and stopped to look at some Waratahs and butterflies, then had lunch at an excellent small winery.  From lunch we drove to Sugarloaf Reservoir and took a walk through rather different habitat, here we saw (amongst others) Common Bronzewing, Buff-rumped and Striated Thornbill.

 

Waratahs

Jezebel

Waratahs

Imperial White

 

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Part 2 | Part 3 | Species List

 

 

 

This page created by Tom and Marie Tarrant November 2000

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