Hi Paul and Aaron and others
On Saturday 24 August, three of us participated in the Birds Australia
VicGroup birding and boneseeding day. We had a wonderful day with
fantastic weather, recorded 50 plus bird species and a few mammals and
pulled out numerous boneseed plants. We saw just one Diamond Firetail.
We were having lunch and it flew in and perched not far from our picnic
table and gave us a good view before it took off again. I haven't
seen any in that particular place before, so that was a nice surprise.
We do see them regularly in the You Yangs, but in small numbers and certainly
not on every visit. We kept our eyes and ears open for Zebra Finches, but
alas no luck.
Cheers,
Merrilyn
Paul Rose wrote:
Good Morning Birdos, Did
the rounds at Werribee this past Sunday, with a brief follow up trip to
the western boundary of You Yangs NP, as follow up to Aaron's earlier sightings
of Diamond Firetails and Zebra Finches. I have observed small flocks
of Diamond Firetails in the You yangs park from time to time over the past
few years, never more than 5 in any one group. With Aaron's
sightings and my own, his mention of past records in the Atlas seem to
sell the number of this species in this area short. Perhaps sightings
need to be documented more carefully and religiously. Anyway,
a fantastically cold morning's stroll to the tip of the sandspit at Werribee
before sunrise saw me standing in the centre (well not probably geographically)
of this wonderful mecca for birds. Very few shorebirds actually on
the tip, just the usual Oycs, Red-caps, and Pied Stilts.As
the sun broke above the horizon, 34 Red-necked Avocets flew down to the
shoreline on a receding tide.Wonderful morning colour
highlighted their gracefulness. I spent an hour
at the tip before strolling back along the beachfront. Four Neophema
sp. flew in low and landed on the fenceline before feeding on the
tips of the vegetation hanging toward the fence. I imagine they didn't
like the idea of dropping down onto the frost covered ground, preferring
much drier conditions and easy pickings off the fence line. In the
morning light, full id was difficult but I managed to identify at least
one Orange-bellied amongst the small group. As with Aaron's finches,
these birds did not seem phased by my presence, arriving and landing close
to me. While I didn't visit the Austin Rd. lagoons,
I managed to see a good number of species in the remaining areas of the
Treatment Plant. Together with a good stint
working the edge of the You Yangs western boundary along Sandy Creek Road,
I managed to tally 97 species by 12:30pm.Nothing unusual
to report on this occasion and unfortunately, no finches. With more
time spent actually in the park and some of the more common species missed
on the day, it shows you what an amazing area this is, providing 100+ species
without breaking a sweat ! Cheers, P. Paul
Rose
Year 9 Purple Team
Department of Biology and Chemistry
Wesley College - Glen Waverley
620 High Street Road
Glen Waverley 3150
(03) 9881 5426
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