Victorian thoughts

["martin butterfield" <>]

We've have just visited Victoria and had a few (to me at least) interesting sightings.  Although not in the area usually covered by this list there have been some recent posts about most of the spots I'll mention.

 

We stopped for the first night at Marlo, near Cape Conran and I added striated fieldwren to my life list in the dunes near the mouth of the Snowy.  In much the same area white-fronted chats were very evident with a very spirited distraction display suggesting nesting in the area.  A very flagrant copulation by pied oystercatchers was also observed.

 

The core purpose of the visit was running the Melbourne Marathon and I was very surprised to see, near the 8km mark, black-winged stilts on a nest in the Albert Park lake.  I don't think hallucinations had set in by that point.

 

We visited the new National Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne and they were excellent.  As well as the formal Australian Garden (not many birds but one 60cm tiger snake, returned to the bush by garden staff) there is an interesting area of heathland available for walking.  Many birds in there.

 

On the way back to Carwoola we paused for lunch at Chiltern Mount Pilot National Park, stopping for a stroll at the Cyanide Road dam described in Thomas and Thomas.  There were a lot of birds around but little diversity.  A local resident said that there was no blossom from the gums (yet,) so no swift parrots nor regent honeyeaters.  Turquoise parrots were not yet back.  Another observer reported having seen 4 painted honeyeaters in mistletoe at the start of Lancashire Gap road but we couldn't find them.  A highlight here was a koala with a joey within 50m of the picnic tables.

 

Martin