3 of us left Sydney on Friday and drove to Torquay in Victoria. On the
Saturday morning we went to Point Addis and looked in the Tea tree scrub for
Rufous Bristlebird. Gerry & Lucy saw it here but later we wandered up to
the top, tar sealed carpark and watched a Rufous Bristlebird collecting
insects from around parked cars. It inspected every car and walked like a
Roadrunner between the cars. It looked like it was a territory and a
regular spot to see the bird. We were watching it just before 10am and
assume that if there were cars in the carpark, the bird would appear. After
this we saw 2 more at another location and heard more birds along the Great
Ocean Road.
We drove further down the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. On the sand spit
where a creek runs into the ocean we saw 2 Hooded Plovers (both banded),
about 14 Red-necked Stints (one of which was still in breeding plumage and
another had an orange triangle flag on its right leg), 4 Double-banded
Plovers and one Red-capped Plover.
We drove through the evening to stay at Wangaratta. Next morning we visited
the Chiltern Box-ironbark National Park. It seemed full to the brim with
honeyeaters. We saw 11 species all told. The highlight for us was a pair
of Regent Honeyeaters at the Cyanide Dam which is at the Honeyeater Picnic
area. We walked around the dam and at a point almost opposite our car, we
had the Regents. They were chasing Red Wattlebirds and gathering something
from the bark of the gums (cobwebs or insects?). Let's hope they are
nesting.
My thanks to Ian Montgomery and Lawrie Conole for tips about the
bristlebird.
Trevor Quested
Sydney, Australia
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