birding-aus

Trip Report - Bellarine Peninsula, Port Campbell, and Altona, Victoria -

To: "Tim Dolby" <>
Subject: Trip Report - Bellarine Peninsula, Port Campbell, and Altona, Victoria - 7/10 - 9/10/7
From: "Dave Torr" <>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:53:06 +1000
Also very regular between Werribee and Melton (Pinkerton Forest and
Bush's Paddock) and I have recorded then around Werribee town (but my
notes don't say exactly where!).

On 15/10/2007, Tim Dolby <> wrote:
> Hi Troy,
>
> Re the Zebra Finch at Cherry Lake (Altona). I think that these are
> possibly naturally occurring birds. In the last few months for example
> Zebra Finch has been seen at: Western Treatment Plant, 2 pairs in
> Walsh's Rd area, 02/10/2007, 7 birds at Paradise Road, 24/07/2007;
> Lerderderg Gorge: 20 birds, 24/08/2007; You Yangs, flock of 40 Zebra
> Finch, northern edge of park, along Drysdale Rd. They have also recently
> been recorded from near Melton (i.e. along the Toolern Creek) and near
> the Melbourne Airport. (Not to mention the inner city birds i.e. Merri
> Creek.)
>
> Another good bird on your list is the Gull-billed Terns at Lake Gherang.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim Dolby
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
>  On Behalf Of Troy Mutton
> Sent: Sunday, 14 October 2007 11:33 AM
> To: 
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Trip Report - Bellarine Peninsula, Port
> Campbell,and Altona, Victoria - 7/10 - 9/10/7
>
> Hi all,
>
> Have been in Melbourne for work for the last week, and was able to spend
> a few days before what I had to do to go birding. Picked up my hire car
> early Sunday morning 7/10 and drove around Geelong, finding a likely
> looking place at Lake Lorne. Good numbers of ducks here, with the
> highlight being 2 Freckled, 1 Blue Billed and 2 Pink eared Ducks. Also a
> Swamp Harrier harrassing a pair of Black Swans and their chicks. It
> looked like it was trying to swipe a chick, and was quite interesting to
> watch. A Brown Falcon also did a flyby. A good start to the trip. After
> I'd had my fill, I decided to head over to Barwon Heads - there wasn't
> much about, apart from hundreds of people, but I did waste a lot of time
> chasing down a Pacific Gull to get a decent photo. A few Stints and
> Red-capped Plovers on the beach, and not alot in the lake. Headed over
> to Belmont Common after that, where the highlight was a Purple Swamphen
> flushing a Latham's Snipe immediately in front of the hide! The Common
> is very full at the moment, and I'm looking forward to a return visit in
> a couple of months when it will hopefully have a bit more mud about the
> edges. Off to Hospital Swamp after that, and as it was really full, and
> getting late I just went down the public access road to see about 2000
> Black Swans, and that was about all I could easily make out on the
> water. There was a Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo calling off to the east. I
> know it was a Horsfield's as I saw the diagnostic red spot on the tail -
> just jokes. It allowed me good extended views through the scope. Good
> book by the way Mr Dooley.
>
> Next day was off to Lock Ard Gorge to try for Rufous Bristlebird, and
> despite the belting rain on the way, as I pulled the car in at the
> carpark, there was one on the edge. Great views of it with bins, but as
> soon as the camera was out, it took off. Walked around to the Arch and
> once again, as I came back to the car there was one on the path, but as
> soon as the camera was up, it disappeared. There was also a Peregrine
> Falcon and Singing Honeyeaters about at Loch Ard Gorge. Off to Lake
> Gherang to see the Brolga, which I didn't see. There were Gull-billed
> and Whiskered Terns there, some Sharpies, Curlew Sands and a couple of
> other waders that I couldn't ID, they were just a little bit too far
> away. In my mind I was turning them into all sorts of fantastic birds,
> but in all reality, they probably weren't. I suspect that there was at
> least one Pectoral Sandpiper there, and I have no idea what the other 6
> were. I digiscoped them, but very poorly, and you can't make out what
> they are.
>
> Last day saw me out at the Swan Island mudflats at about 5.30 am with
> the low tide. Birds out and about feeding included Eastern Curlew, both
> Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits, Royal Spoonbill, and a possible
> Greenshank. It was a good 100 metres away, but took to bobbing its head
> in alarm when I trained the scope on it. I stooged around trying to get
> the camera out to take a digi shot of it, and by the time I was ready to
> take more (poor) photos, it was gone. Anyway - off to Point Cook to see
> the Blue-winged Parrots at Spectacle Lake, and see them I did.
> Magnificent birds. They all got scared and flew away as I drove in, and
> I was a bit disappointed to think that that was going to be my only,
> fleeting view of them, however as I walked in to the hide, they started
> to flyby and perch in nearby trees, and stayed around for the rest of
> the morning. There was a pair of White-fronted Chats near the bird-hide
> - a tick for me and one I hadn't even thought about before going there,
> and inside the hide, on the right hand slot under the swallow nest, a
> Black-tailed Native-Hen put in a show. There wasn't much else going on
> at the hide, so I headed off to Cheetham Wetlands. On the circuit there
> were Rufous Songlark, Singing Honeyeater, a Striated Fieldwren, and a
> pair of heart-attack inducing Brown Quail. It had been so peaceful just
> walking along listening to the birds that the explosion of them flushing
> nearly killed me. At the tower were 3 Pallid Cuckoos, and lots of
> Whiskered Terns feeding. There was also a huge flock of waders that got
> up and did a circuit, but they were too far away to ID.
>
> Off to Altona after that. There was around 30 Whiskered Terns at the
> creek mouth at the southern end of Apex Park (I don't know the name of
> the creek though!), 3 Pacific Gulls, 10 Royal Spoonbills and 3 Little
> Egrets, among the Crested Terns and Silver Gulls. Also saw a Spotted
> Pardalote on the walk to the creek mouth. At Cherry Lake, Altona, there
> wasn't much of anything, although there was a pair of female Zebra
> Finches - would these be escapees or "legitimate", wild birds? On the
> more wooded NE side of the lake was a single male White-winged Triller.
> That was the end of the trip.
>
> I would like to thank everyone for reporting their sightings and trip
> reports to birding-aus and the local birdlines, as it gave me something
> to base my visit around.
>
> All up 102 species over 3 days, including 5 ticks made for a great few
> days birding. If anyone wants a full species list, feel free to email me
> and I'll send something on.
>
> Cheers
> Troy
> ==========www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to: 
> ==========
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to: 
>
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, 
send the message:
unsubscribe 
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU