Hi all
On Tuesday we decided on a “short day’s birding” in the You Yangs Regional
Park, south-west of Melbourne. Monday had been busy and Wednesday we were
off to WTP for a full day of twitching, so we decided on a late start and an
early finish.
We arrived at the You Yangs at about 1000 and were met by a sign that said
all roads and tracks, other than the sealed summit road were closed due to
flood damage. This meant that 80% or more was beyond easy reach. Not to be
deterred we drove in and parked by the ranger’s office and had a look
around. Beside the dam was a very vocal Restless Flycatcher, and a
Black-chinned Honeyeater we could hear but not see. In a small tree outside
the ranger’s office was an ooh-aaah event. Two Tawny Frogmouths were cuddled
up together in the crotch of a branch looking, from one angle, like one bird
with two tails, and a third bird sat just above them. After many photos and
the painful excitement of inadvertently standing on an ant’s nest (I jumped
all over the place but the frogmouths barely opened an eye) we left both
birds and ants in peace.
A drive to the summit and back gave us Yellow Thornbills, a Little Eagle and
Red-browed Finch amongst the Silvereyes, thornbills etc and a meeting with a
volunteer and the Koala, Pat, who she was watching. Pat was trying to sleep
in her favourite tree while her young joey climbed all over her.
A bonus half-way down the hill was to stop to watch a very busy flock of
Yellow-rumped Thornbills and find that they had in tow a young Horsfield’s
Bronze-Cuckoo. The cuckoo was very shy and kept itself well hidden in the
middle of the black wattles and other scrubby trees as it tried to pretend
it wasn’t really there at all.
For lunch we left the park and drove back to a side road that ended at the
park boundary and allowed us to walk in to a more remote area. Here we found
Scarlet Robins, Grey Fantails, Chough, some honeyeaters and Superb Wrens
etc. To brighten this stop we found one of the most strongly coloured Rufous
Whistlers I have ever seen and it sang and showed off, just as though it
knew it was extra special. We were only at the You Yangs for a few hours but
it was well worth the visit.
I have put some images from this outing on BOCA, and will add some from WTP
tomorrow, at
http://boca.org.au/photogallery/album/1
cheers
Jenny
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