On Sunday 21 Spetember, the BOCA outing to Mud Islands had to be
cancelled due to strong winds and rough seas. Instead, many of the
participants visitng Point Nepean. This area is now a national park
byut was formerly occupied by the Department of Defence and contains
many fortifications dating back to at least the first world war. We
left our cars at the visitor's centre and walked along the road
approximately 2 km to Gunner's Cottage, recording Yellow-faced
Honeyeater, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Eastern
Yellow Robin, Grey Fantail, Rufous Whistler, Australian Magpie and Brown
Falcon along the way. The carpark at Gunner's Cottage is the limit of
where private vehicles are allowed in the park, and it appeared that the
fascination of birds for carparks was true with Brown Goshawk, Swamp
Harrier, Golden Whistler, Crescent Honeyeater, New Holland Honeyeater,
Brown-headed Honeyeater, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Red Wattlebird and
Spotted Pardalote all recorded there. We then visited the beach to find
that the winds had dropped and the seas had calmed. Australasian
Gannets were flying past, close to the beach and a few Little Penguins
were diving just off shore. We next walked along Coles track,
surrounded on both sides by dense ti-tree and the purple flowers of the
even denser South African bush Polygala. Up the steep track to the
lookouts on Cheviot Hill we had magnificent views of Bass Strait and
Port Phillip Bay. From the second lookout we saw a pod of at least 5
Bottle-nosed Dolphins swimming inside the bay just off shore towards the
Heads. There are appaently Peregrine Falcons nesting somewhere along
the cliffs east of the third lookout but scanning through scopes failed
to find them. However, whilst walking along the road from Cheviot Hill
towards Fort Pearce the agitated alarm calls of birds hidden in the
vegetation alerted us to a Peregrine Falcon zooming over the tree tops.
It spent some time gliding back and forth over the headlands. Once past
Fort Pearce, a Nankeen Kestrel was seen suspended in the air over the
road, occasionally starting a stoop and then stopping and rising again,
and Singing Honeyeaters were calling from the tops of some of the low
bushes. We eventually reached Fort Nepean and the end of Point Nepean.
Great Cormorants and a Caspian Tern were perched on Corsair Rock and
just past them, in an area of relatively calm water off the rocks, a
small group of Australian Fur-seals were basking, with their flippers
held up in the air and their bodies underwater. A Black-faced Cormorant
flew out through the Heads and a Pied Cormorant was perched on the
breakwater. The group then caught the transporter from Fort Nepean back
the 7 km or so to the visitor's centre. Although we didn't get out to
Mud Islands, we still had a great day with 49 species of birds being
recorded (full list follows).
Regards,
Tania
Little Penguin
Australasian Gannet
Little Pied Cormorant
Black-faced Cormorant
Pied Cormorant
Great Cormorant
White-faced Heron
Australian White Ibis
Straw-necked Ibis
Swamp Harrier
Brown Goshawk
Brown Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Nankeen Kestrel
Pied Oystercatcher
Pacific Gull
Silver Gull
Caspian Tern
Crested Tern
Spotted Turtledove
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Superb Fairy-wren
Spotted Pardalote
White-browed Scrubwren
Brown Thornbill
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Red Wattlebird
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Singing Honeyeater
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Crescent Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Eastern Yellow Robin
Golden Whistler
Rufous Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Australian Magpie
Little Raven
Welcome Swallow
Silvereye
Common Blackbird
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