Well there are book reviews and film reviews so I don’t see why not a bird hide review. This is in 3 instalments and concerns the “Gulpa Creek Reed Beds Bird Observatory” (one of your longer names for a bird hide). Part of my purpose is to suggest some lessons for new hides at our own wetlands – a recurrent topic. You should visit this hide if you are travelling between Echuca and Deniliquin. It is about 5km out of the village of Mathoura. The hide is screened from the car-park by an expanse of R Red Gum swampy regrowth traversed by a bitumen path and a board walk. The first part of this ornamented by a little displays on a dozen individual bird species mounted on rotating discs. If you turn the disc you get a quite loud audio of the bird call. This might be confusing for the actual live birds - especially the sea-eagle noise – but I suppose they are used to it. An important feature is that the last part of the board-walk is screened on both sides by palings. This is sensibly angled so there is not a through-view until there is minimum back-lighting
Below is a view of the approach to the hide. Inset is a kingfisher perched above the fairy-wren information disc. Note that the hide is substantial, and has 2 levels.
