A brief report of a cycling and birding trip to Balook and Tarra-Bulga
National Park in the Strzelecki Ranges of Gippsland, Victoria undertaken.
We cycled from Morwell to the Grand Ridge Road then down to the Tarra
Valley Caravan Park where we were based for the week.
This area has patches of remnant Cool Temperate Rainforest and drier tall
eucalypt forests amongst large scale exotic pine and Southern Blue-gum
plantations. We spent most of our time in the rainforest, especially the
Tarra and Bulga park blocks.
Forest patches were looking superb after the recent good rains in Victoria
and the birding was similarly good. Highlights were
- large numbers of Rufous Fantails heard calling from almost every gully
(the most we had ever heard in Victoria from one area)
- lots of Rose Robins heard calling (but no confirmed records of Pink
Robin this time)
- some superb song medleys by Lyrebirds right next to our park cabin
- 8 species of honeyeater
- several Blue-winged Parrots along the grassy edges of certain forested
roads
- Large-billed Scrubwren in the Bulga park near Balook
- Pilotbird along the Bulga park walks but also heard calling from dense
regrowth 'forest' (which had been burnt or logged) along the Balook-Tarra
Valley Rd.
And most interestingly, lots of new locality records for Brown Gerygone
which continues the extension in range of this species into southern
Victoria since the 1980s. We recorded them at a number of locations up
and down the Balook-Tarra Valley Road (plus a few other locations), always
in dense shrubby understorey habitats of rainforest.
Our 'caravan park list' got to 48 species by the time we departed camp.
All or observations will be forwarded to the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas
for inclusion.
I can recommend this area for birding and sightseeing and their are a
variety of local accommodation options to choose from with the Fernholme
caravan park a good base as it is near lots of good habitats. Cycle
birding was by far the best way to see and hear everything as you
travelled along the roads. We encountered Echidna and saw two species of
(road-killed!) antechinus.
Happy to provide more details for those interested.
Martin O'Brien
Melbourne
Link:
Tarra-Bulga National Park Visitor Guide (Parks Victoria) -
http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/315647/Park-note-Tarra-Bulga-National-Park.pdf
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.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
