Hi Anthea
In the school holidays I visited the Grampians and was, like you, surprised
to see so many white-necked herons, a rare visitor to the foothills of the
Dandenongs here.
The Grampians recieved more than six inches of rain in September so there
were many wetland areas spreading out of Halls Gap. Most of the agricultural
land was soaked and there were large numbers of waterbirds...... in five
days I saw more than 50 white-necked herons, along with numbers of
yellow-billed spoonbills, graet egrets, white-faced heron and both common
ibis species. I encountered three parties of black-tailed native hens [up
to 12 in a group] and there was even a small group [6] on a lake island in
Stawell township.
Obviously the conditions for waterbirds were just right!
Laurie Living
Brian Fleming wrote:
> For reasons which are irrelevant to others, I spent a lot of the first
> week of October moving round between Geelong and Ballarat.
> I was impressed by the large number of White-necked Herons seen in the
> country south of Ballarat. They seemed more numerous than White-faced
> Herons. We seldom see them these days in the Heidelberg area though they
> used to be regular winter visitors.
> Likewise, almost every small dam seemed to have one or two Yellow-billed
> Spoonbills. This was particularly noticeable along the Highway between
> Ballarat and Pike's Creek reservoir.
> Anthea Fleming in Ivanhoe (Vic)
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