The weather at the end of spring has been cool, windy and damp, which has been quite pleasant.
It’s lovely to see so much water around at this time of year.
The only outing I had over the past fortnight was a drive to Point Addis, where I had a close encounter with a singing rufous bristlebird, which was just beautiful.
I saw a small flock of red-necked stints and Pacific golden plovers at Blue Rocks at the end of Thirteenth Beach on my way to work one day.
It was lovely to see these migratory shorebirds on the beach, but it is a worry that there are such small numbers of these birds around this year.
I can only hope that the decent rainfall around the country has resulted in birds not having to fly this far south to feed and rest over the summer.
Ocean Grove local George Appleby saw a rainbow bee-eater near Ocean Grove Nature Reserve.
The rainbow bee-eater is a magnificent bird that has green, blue, chestnut and yellow plumage.
Bee-eaters are a familiar sight in northern areas of Australia, where there are seen flying between raised perches such as trees, chasing and feeding on insects such as bees, wasps, dragonflies, butterflies and other flying insects.
Rainbow bee-eaters typically spend the winter in northern Australia, then in spring flocks head south, but they are rarely seen this far south on the Bellarine Peninsula.
I received an email from Kevin, who observed a family of white-browed scrub wrens at Barwon Heads. They were difficult for Kevin to photograph due to low light and their timidity.
Kevin also took a trip to Swan Bay Jetty where there was a family of white-fronted chats, along with a few other lone birds such as the pied oystercatcher and the sharp-tailed sandpiper.
