A brief report of a 10 day trip from Melbourne to St Arnaud (west of
Bendigo), Ouyen and Mildura.
Late October and early November was an ideal time to visit some
box-ironbark habitats south of St Arnaud (eg. St Arnaud Range Nat. Pk.)
and the Victorian mallee districts. There was plenty of evidence of
breeding birds at many sites we visited. North west Victoria has a suite
of large and small bushland, nature and flora/fauna reserves throughout
the countryside.
Armed with Chris Tzaros' great book on the box-ironbark, Geoff Durham's on
Wyperfeld, Atlas of Victorian Wildlife species lists for various reserves
and plenty of topographic maps for navigation we camped in St Arnaud Range
Nat. Pk. then moved onto Wyperfeld N Pk, Mildura and finally Ouyen as a
base for a few days. Murray-Sunset and Hattah-Kulkyne Nat. Pks were
visited along the way.
Some highlights were as follows:
- Regent Parrots at Wyperfeld camp and Lake Hattah
- Redthroat (3), Southern Scrub-robin and a field-wren on the Discovery
Walk at Wyperfeld. Unusually, we also got 2 Black Wallabies here.
- Cockatiel's, Bluebonnet, Pied Butcherbirds carolling and Mallee Ringneck
at Tiega Bushland Reserve (west of Ouyen)
- White-browed Treecreeper in native pine just north of Walpeup
- A suite of waterbirds at Lake Yerang in Hattah-Kulkyne N Pk. (eg. Great
and Intermediate Egrets, Glossy Ibis, Whiskered Tern in breeding plumage)
- Yellow Rosella and Regent Parrot at the Hattah N Pk information centre
- Great views of a pair of Crested Bellbird (male feeding a female) on the
road near Cardross Lakes south of Mildura
- Chestnut-crowned Babblers at Carwarp Bushland Reserve south of Mildura
- Powerful Owl heard calling at Teddington Reservoir camp site, St Arnaud
Range Nat. Pk.
- Great views of a Wedge-tailed Eagle on a rabbit kill at Bryces Rd.,
Narraport (east of Birchip)
Many of the mallee remnants we visited had mixed flocks of thornbills,
Southern Whiteface and sometimes White-winged Trillers and robins as well.
Great to see young thornbills being fed by adults at many mallee sites.
There was plenty of Brown Treecreepers, Rainbow Bee-eaters, Pied
Butcherbirds and woodswallows about but few Rufous Songlarks.
Our most commonly encountered bird would have been White-browed
Woodswallows in association with at least two other species of woodswallow
(Masked and Black-faced). The most widespread bird was the Red-rumped
Parrot. Remarkable to see how far the Common Blackbird is now in north
western Victoria. House Sparrows were also encountered in Black
Box/Lignum woodland remnants, living quite independently of man ....
All the above sightings have been forwarded to the Atlas of Victorian
Wildlife.
The Victorian mallee is a superb place for birding ...
Refs:
Durham, G. (2001) Wyperfeld: Australia's first mallee National Park. CSIRO
Publishing, Collingwood.
Tzaros, C. (2005) Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country. CSIRO Publishing,
Collingwood.
Martin O'Brien
Melbourne
Notice:
This email and any attachments may contain information that is personal,
confidential, legally privileged and/or copyright.No part of it should be
reproduced,
adapted or communicated without the prior written consent of the copyright
owner.
It is the responsibility of the recipient to check for and remove viruses.
If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by return
email, delete
it from your system and destroy any copies. You are not authorised to use,
communicate or rely on the information
contained in this email.
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
===============================
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:
===============================
|
