Over the weekend a few of us (me, Stuart Dashper, Scott & Cecilia Chandry)
went up to Rushworth (near Nagambie in central Victoria) for a spot of
birding.As most Ozbirders probably know already the Rushworth State Forest
is Victoria's largest remaining tract of Box-Ironbark forest. We were
especially lucky to be up there during very fine weather immediately
following a period of good rains & were fortunate to witness something
rather unusual - that is, flowing creeks & very full dams. The birding was
excellent as usual with notable sightings being Chestnut-rumped Heathwren,
Spotted Quail-thrush and Crested Bellbird. Also of note were large numbers
of Olive-backed Oriole which seemed to be calling in every corner of the
forest. Fuscous Honeyeaters, which we failed to record at Whipstick during
the Twitchathon, were in abundance.
On Saturday night we whiled away the evening knee deep in a dam looking for
frogs, which seem to have responded very well to the rains. We caught 4
species - Pobblebonk (Limnodynastes dumerelli), Plains Froglet (Crinia
parainsignifera), Peron's Treefrog (Litoria peronii) & Common Froglet (C.
signifera). Two of the Pobblebonks had huge red & black leeches attached to
them that were at least as long as the frog itself making me wonder how
they don't kill the poor things by sucking them dry!
Anyway, as usual I highly recommend this area. Also, if anyone else has
done much birding up this way I would be particularly interested in hearing
of any Crested Bellbird records that you may have.
cheers,
Susan
Susan Myers
phone: +61 3 9819 2539
Email:Susan Myers
|
