On the night of Friday 21 February, Stuart Dashper, Susan Myers & I camped
at the Sharp's Track camping area, in Angahook-Lorne State Park, near
Lorne in SW Victoria. We were on our way to Portland for the pelagic
trip, and decided to do a bit of owling & birding on the way. A late
night search for Masked Owls on nearby Garvey Track was unsuccessful, but
we heard/saw Southern Boobooks, Common Ringtail Possums, Sugar Gliders,
and Yellow-bellied Gliders. One unidentified noise might have been a
Powerful Owl, or a Yellow-bellied Glider reacting to the playback of
Masked Owl calls.
We birded from first light (about 06:30 am) until about 08:00 am on
Saturday morning around the camp on Sharp's Track, an area of Blue Gum
tall open-forest on a ridge, overlooking wet gully forest of Blue Gum,
Manna Gum, Messmate Stringybark etc.
Although Rufous Bristlebirds are generally associated with the coastal
scrub strip, in the Otway Ranges they occur well inland into wet
open-forest. At Sharp's Track I estimated about 6 pairs of bristlebirds
along 1 km of track; some good views were had too.
Other highlights included
(i) 2 pairs of Blue-winged Parrots feeding flying young.
(ii) several species of honeyeaters feeding on phloem sap from the trees
incised by Yellow-bellied Gliders (Red & Little Wattlebird, Crescent &
New Holland Honeyeater).
Other birds:
Australian Owlet-nightjar, White-throated Needletail, Laughing Kookaburra,
Brush Bronzewing, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo,
Gang-gang Cockatoo, Crimson Rosella, Australian King-Parrot, Forest Raven,
Pied Currawong, Grey Currawong, Satin Flycatcher, Rufous Fantail, Grey
Fantail, Grey Shrike-thrush, Crested Shrike-tit, Golden Whistler, Rufous
Whistler, Eastern Yellow Robin, Rose Robin, Red-browed Finch, Striated
Pardalote, Spotted Pardalote, Striated Thornbill, Brown Thornbill,
Brown-headed Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater,
White-eared Honeyeater, White-throated Treecreeper, Satin Bowerbird,
Superb Fairy-wren, Tree Martin, Silvereye.
A pleasant interlude .......
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Lawrie Conole
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
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