G'day everyone,
Last weekend a few of us Melbournites (Stuart Dashper,Scott
Chandry,Cecilia Chandry & myself) escaped to the north to one of our
favourite spots - Chiltern. For those who aren't familiar with the area,
Chiltern is a box/ironbark forest situated just south of Albury-Wadonga
on the Vic/NSW border. The weather was cool but fine with the wind
gradually strengthening over the weekend and some rain on Sun AM.
As usual Chiltern lived up to expectations with a number of goodies
being observed,as follows:
Powerful Owl - holding the bottom half of a very large Common Ringtail,
observed during the day.
Barking Owl - called in by tape
Turquoise Parrot - a total of eight birds seen
Swift parrot - not in large numbers but brilliant views of one feeding
in a flowering ironbark
Little Lorikeet - quite common
Painted Buttonquail
Brown Goshawk - quite common
Noisy Friarbird
Little Friarbird
Black-chinned Honeyeater
Regent Honeyeater - 4 birds seen altogether,no evidence of breeding
observed by us (but who knows,not enough time...)
Speckled Warbler
Jacky Winter - a declining species in Vic,about 6 seen in one spot
White-winged Chough
& Yellow-footed Antechinus - very cute!
Of course we also observed all the usual common woodland species.
Chiltern is possibly one of the best birding spots in Victoria, it will
be declared as a national park very soon (the first area of box/ironbark
forest in Vic to be afforded such protection).Well worth a visit.
cheers,
Susan Myers
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