Hi all
Yesterday I happened upon a really nice little reserve near Buxton Vic
at a way-side stop by the Maroondah Highway, about 80 km north east of
Melbourne. The 17 ha reserve was created in 1978 to protect the
endangered Buxton Silver Gum, Eucalyptus crenulata, which is a small
tree to about 8 m with elongated heart-shaped almost stem-hugging leaves
that are pale blue-green in colour and have crinkly or crenulate edges.
A track starts and finishes at the car park area and does a rough
circle, much of it on board walks. The walk is supposed to take 10 min,
but I managed to stretch that to 40 without even trying. There is also
a side track to the Acheron River 500 m away, which I think would be
really good to do, but I had to leave... maybe next time.
Despite it being the middle of a hot summer's day, there were plenty of
birds about. The most numerous were Yellow-faced Honeyeaters. There
were also a few White-eared Honeyeaters and Eastern Spinebills. I had a
long staring match with a Brush Cuckoo that was peering at me around a
trunk of a tree. Both Spotted and Striated Pardalotes called
occasionally. I saw a number of Superb Fairywrens appearing out of the
thick undergrowth. There were the expected Golden Whistlers, Grey
Fantails, White-browed Scrubwrens, and Brown Thornbills. Some
Kookaburras were noisily laughing nearby and Magpies calling in the
distance. I also heard a couple of White-throated Treecreepers. I hope
that I heard a Bassian Thrush, but it was possibly a Blackbird. I have
seen quite a number of Blackbirds in various forests to the north-east
of Melbourne this summer.
The walk was very interesting with rather unusual vegetation and
certainly worth the visit... infinitely better that the usual way-side
stop.
Happy birding,
Merrilyn.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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