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).
(iii) an Agile Antechinus (Antechinus cf. stuartii) feeding on a
Messmate at the same time as a White-throated Treecreeper).
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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