The conditions have been very dry on the Bellarine over the past few weeks, while other parts of Australia have been experiencing record flood levels.
What strange times we are living in. In keeping with ‘strange times’ I was left without a car for a week, so could only bird watch in the local area, which was lovely, but perhaps the only exciting sighting I had was seeing a recently fledged wedge-tailed eagle with two parent birds on the corner of Banks and Shell Roads.
I saw these birds at close range, and I just couldn’t believe how big their wing spans were. It was so exciting to view these three birds less than a kilometre from my home.
Speaking of birds of prey, Sophie from the Bellarine Landcare Group (BLG) organised an information session to celebrate our local birds of prey at Marcus Hill Hall last week.
The display was presented by the wonderful Martin Scuffins from Leigh Valley, Hawk and Owl Sanctuary and accompanied by his birds. Martin shared with
us his knowledge of the lives of these important birds and their role in our landscape.
BLG is part of an increasing number of groups seeking to increase public awareness of the dangers the ‘new’ quick-kill rat and mouse baits pose to our birds of prey that are available at hardware stores.
Nick Carter, from Deakin University, also shared his PhD research into the impact these ‘quick-kill’ baits (technically ‘Second-generation anticoagulant
rodenticides’ – SGARS) are having on powerful owls, another magnificent bird of prey.
I received a few emails from Kevin, who drove to Winchelsea where he observed the many little corellas that roost around the Barwon River. Kevin also came across white-browed scrub wrens and welcome swallows.
Kevin also saw quite a few crested terns at St Leonards, as well as at least one male Pacific gull, a few pelicans, a large flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos, some white ibis and silver gulls.
Later, Kevin took a trip to Queenscliff and found “birds galore”. Kevin informed me about a new viewing platform that has been constructed between the Queenscliff Train Station and the boat ramp, where he photographed 11 little egrets feeding together.
The little egrets have been breeding alongside nankeen night-herons in the park near this area, and they can be observed flying from this park to Swan Bay to feed.
Kevin also saw a small number of white-faced herons, a few crested terns, two nankeen night herons, two superb fairy wrens, in excess of 40 little cormorants, one female Pacific gull, a few pelicans, a couple of crested pigeons and a few masked lapwings.
I received an email from Alan, who has been photographing birds at Blue Waters Lake with his new camera. He has seen several eastern rosellas from afar, but did manage to get a few photographs of them.
Alan must have a big zoom lens on his camera, as his photos have a very shallow depth of field, thus the photo has one bird in focus, and the other nearby out of focus.
One unusual photo was while Alan was waiting for a rainbow lorikeet chick to stick its head out of the nesting hollow in the willow tree, an eastern rosella landed on the branch by the hole and actually jumped up and stuck its head in the hollow.
Luckily the parent rainbow lorikeets returned shortly thereafter and their chick fledged soon after.
