Hi all
Bob Cook mentioned Breamlea a few days ago - today I had a quick look there at
the end of the day and was surprised by the number of birds here - many more
than I've seen around this spot in previous years.
Breamlea is between Torquay and Barwon Heads on the Victorian "Surf Coast"
south-west of Geelong. There are two main wetland areas within about 2km of
each other. On the road into the Breamlea township itself, about 500m before
the Bancoora beach turnoff, there is an area of heathland with shallow water on
both sides of the road. Today this was dominated by larger waterbirds, both
Spoonbills, AW Ibis and Great Egrets (up to about 4-5 of each), a surprising 7
or more White-necked Herons, and more than 30 White-faced Herons. From here you
can take the road to Torquay, and after about 2 Km there is a large expanse of
water to the north. Here there were large numbers (> 1000) of small waders,
mostly Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and some Red-necked Stints. There were a few
dozen Black-winged Stilts, lots of Grey and Chestnut Teal, a few Swans &
Shelduck. Whiskered Terns were abundant, and I saw 2 White-winged Black
Terns. A closer inspection over the next few days might reveal !
some more birds of interest - maybe some Pec Sands perhaps? There was a fair
amount of unrest caused by a Swamp Harrier and Brown Falcon, and a couple of YT
Black Cockatoos flew past as well. Other usual birds like masked Lapwing, RC
Plover, WF Chat, etc were easy to find. I didn't see Red-kneed Dotterel or
Black-fronted Dotterel here (they may well have been - I was in a bit of a
hurry) but these were both easily visible from Lake Road near Hospital Swamp.
Whiskered Terns and Great Egrets were very visible in a number of places along
major roads in the area.
---
Russell Woodford
http://web.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/music/auralonline.html
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