Hi all,
Had a great day meandering along the first part of the Great Ocean Rd out
from Melbourne today. Started rainy and overcast, but there was enough gaps
in it to make it worthwhile to get out and do some serious looking.
My first really good bird was a single white-morph Grey Goshawk just before
Pt Addis, my first white morph actually. What a great bird! Not to
disparage the grey morph, which is lovely, but the white morph really took
my breath away.
Stopped briefly at Pt Addis on the way out, and again on the way back to do
some sea watching. Had the following:
2 Australasian Gannets
2 Fluttering Shearwaters (plus lots of unconfirmed that were probably also
Flutterings)
10+ Shy Albatross
2 Yellow-nosed Albatross
1 Black-browed Albatross (confirmed, I think there were a few more a bit
further out)
100+ Crested Terns
Dolphins (unidentified, very spotty)
I then headed off to Airie's Inlet to chase up a Rufous Bristlebird, which
dutifully put in a brief appearance on the cliff path, but didn't hang
around for a photo. They were calling reasonably frequently but apart from
the one sighting were a fair distance from the path. Also managed to ID
some Forest Ravens (my first for the mainland), based on their highly
distinctive deep calls.
I had one last stop at Anglesea Heath to have a bit of a poke around behind
the coalmine, and found a surprising variety of woodland birds, the best of
which (for me) were Crescent Honeyeater, Bassian Thrush, Yellow Thornbill
and a single female Scarlet Robin.
A pretty good day in all. One brief note on the sea watching, I was
surprised in that I couldn't even see albatross with my binoculars when I
first got there, but with the scope could pick them out well enough to ID.
So if you're thinking of going out looking, you'll definitely need a scope.
Regards,
Chris
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