Hi All,
Yesterday I had a pleasant day birding at the Wonthaggi Heath &
Coastal Reserve. The reserve lies 140k southeast of Melbourne, 25k
east of Philip Island and southeast of the township of Wonthaggi. I
parked the car at the end of Campbell St/Chisholm Rd. My target was to
see 4 species: Hooded Plover, Southern Emuwren, Tawny-crowned Emuwren
and Beautiful Firetail. I was on the beach at 830am and within minutes
I found a couple and their juvenile a few hundred meters south of the
sign 'Emergency beach no 20'. I uploaded a photo on the Eremea
website. The birds flew off once two dogs ran past. From here I
wandered along the tracks and within 15 minutes walking distance from
the carpark I found party of 4 Southern Emuwrens. Three female-type
birds and one with a white bib. Does anyone know if this is a juvenile
male or their winter plumage? Soon after I found another party. This
time 3 birds with a white bib. Next stop was the fire dam on the track
betwen the carpark and Harmers Haven. This turned out to be an
excellent spot. After lunch I hid in the bush, set up my scope for
digiscoping and saw lots of good birds. Unfortunately, but not really,
2 Beautiful Firetails landed only 5 meters away from me. I wasn't able
to make a photo! A few minutes later a bird dropped in on the other
end of the fire dam and at that moment I had the videocamera on my
tripod. Spectacular birds! Other species that came in for a drink
were Brush Bronzewing, Yellow-faced, Crescent, White-naped,
White-faced, New Holland Honeyeaters, Little and Red Wattlebirds,
Eastern Spinebill, Red-browed Finch, Brown Thornbill, 1 female Pink
and Yellow Robins. Just awesome to see all these birds close-up. Best
time was after 4pm when it looked like your favourite pub at Fridays
after work. A constant stream. May be I should have stayed till after
dark to see if any pigeons, quails or parrots would drop in but I
still had to drive for almost 2 hours to get home.
Missed out on Tawny-crowned HE but those firetails made my day.
Regards,
Albert Vrielink
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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