Trip report: Bairnsdale - Sarsfield area, East Gippsland (Victoria)

A brief report on a weekend spent in the Sarsfield - Bairnsdale area of East Gippsland.  Sarsfield sits on the Nicholson River north east of Bairnsdale on the road to Bruthen.

We were on a block of private property adjacent to the river and managed to record over 40 species of bird plus Eastern Grey Kangaroo in adjacent paddocks and Gippsland Water Dragons in the river.

Highlights for our time at Sarsfield were: 
- numerous Wonga Pigeons feeding beneath riparian wattles (two were being stalked by a feral cat)
- Satin Bowerbirds calling from dense scrub next to the river
- Good views of a female Satin Flycatcher feeding quietly at head height on a bush track
- A single Rufous Fantail quietly foraging in riparian scrub.

It was also nice to see some native bees (Blue-banded Bees, Amegilla species) on the introduced flowers outside the house.  They were feeding next to the exotic honey bees on the same bush.

Some good pictures of these bees can be viewed at the following sites:

http://www.zeta.org.au/~anbrc/bluebandedbees.html

http://www.faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=243

Tree Frogs in the garden and an identified micro bat just before dusk were the other fauna we observed.

Nice to be woken by Kookaburras rather than the sounds of the city...

Martin O'Brien
Melbourne