My partner Fiona and I were out walking yesterday in a couple of the
small conservation reserves on the outer fringe of metropolitan NW
Melbourne. Organ Pipes National Park is a completely reconstructed
ecosystem on Jackson's Creek at Keilor - the 'bush' that occurs there
now is almost entirely the result of plantings done by the Friends group
(the park was originally created for its geological features).
Woodlands Historic Park is right beside Tullamarine Airport, and
contains a historic house (Woodlands), semi-natural grasslands, River
Red Gum and Grey Box/Yellow Box/Red Box woodlands.
Both are probably underestimated birding locations, but Woodlands is
particularly good (the box forest near Mt Gellibrand is the best). I
was a bit surprised to find Olive-backed Oriole, Eastern Yellow Robin,
White-winged Triller, Weebill and Western Gerygone there. In keeping
with this Spring's cuckoo theme - sure enough Pallid Cuckoos were
incredibly numerous and vocal - we saw 20+ in a couple of hours.
The Black Falcon at Organ Pipes was a bit of a treat too - cruising
overhead in a leisurely fashion, then stooping down into the gully in
spectacular fashion. The Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters that were so common
here about 6-8 weeks ago were nowhere to be seen on this visit.
List included below for the interest of potential visitors (all records
will be sent to the Atlas of course):
(Change font to Courier or Courier New, about 9 or 10 pitch, if the
columns appear unaligned.)
OPNP WOODL Total
Great Cormorant + - +
Straw-necked Ibis - + +
Black-shouldered Kite - + +
Whistling Kite + - +
Wedge-tailed Eagle + - +
Little Eagle + - +
Black Falcon + - +
Dusky Moorhen + - +
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - + +
Purple-crowned Lorikeet - + +
Crimson Rosella + + +
Eastern Rosella - + +
Red-rumped Parrot - + +
Pallid Cuckoo - + +
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo + + +
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo - + +
Laughing Kookaburra - + +
Superb Fairy-wren + + +
Spotted Pardalote + - +
Striated Pardalote + + +
White-browed Scrubwren + - +
Brown Thornbill + - +
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - + +
Yellow Thornbill + + +
Striated Thornbill - + +
Weebill - + +
Western Gerygone - + +
White-plumed Honeyeater + + +
Brown-headed Honeyeater - + +
Noisy Miner - + +
Red Wattlebird - + +
Jacky Winter - + +
Eastern Yellow Robin - + +
Rufous Whistler + + +
Grey Shrike-thrush - + +
Restless Flycatcher - + +
Magpie-lark - + +
Willie Wagtail + + +
Grey Fantail + + +
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike - + +
White-winged Triller - + +
Olive-backed Oriole - + +
Dusky Woodswallow - + +
Australian Magpie + + +
Little Raven + + +
Red-browed Finch + + +
European Greenfinch + - +
European Goldfinch + + +
Welcome Swallow + + +
Tree Martin - + +
Clamorous Reed-Warbler + - +
Silvereye + + +
Common Blackbird + + +
Common Starling - + +
Common Myna - + +
Column legend:
1 OPNP Organ Pipes NP, Keilor, Victoria
2 WOODL Woodlands HP, Tullamarine, Victoria
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LAWRIE CONOLE
3 Gezireh Street, Pascoe Vale South
Victoria 3044 AUSTRALIA. 37°44'27"S 144°56'17"E
Phone (03) 9354 2484; Mobile (0419) 588 993
E-mail: <>
My home page: http://www.users.bigpond.com/ocoineoil/
Twitchathon: http://www.users.bigpond.com/ocoineoil/sections/cdph.html
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