Cockies and Robins

Spent the weekend at the in-laws' farm in central Victoria near Lake Eppalock and took an early walk this morning. Very quiet birdwise but did manage to find a few:

A small flock of Galahs spent most of their time feeding in the short grass

Galah, Lyal

but a few sat high in the trees on lookout

Galah, Lyal

This pair of Scarlet Robins proved very difficult to get close to as they flitted back and forth between trees and fence

Scarlet robin (male), Lyal

Scarlet Robin (female), Lyal

A pair of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos sat high in the trees outside the cabin

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Lyal

Just after I went inside, they came down to feed right in front of the cabin and allowed me to get some closeups through the window.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Lyal

Fishing Egret and acrobatic Galah

I was at Pt Henry late this afternoon and found a Little Egret fishing in the shallows. Fortunately, it was concentrating enough on the fishing to allow me to get reasonably close and adjust my position relative to the sun to keep the bird mostly backlit without too many reflections off the water behind the bird.

Little Egret, Pt Henry

It's a generally accepted 'rule' when photographing birds to try and keep the sun behind you shooting the birds in full frontal sunlight. However, rules are made to be broken and white birds like egrets and spoonbills photograph really well backlit. In full light it's difficult to get a balance between the white plumage and the rest of the shot as the contrast is too high. With backlighting, on the other hand, you can get the rim of light around the bird, show detail in the shaded body plumage and flight feathers appear translucent when wings are outstretched.

Little Egret, Pt Henry 

When foraging for fish in shallow water, egrets often try and spook the fish by jumping around and flapping their wings.

Little Egret, Pt Henry

Driving home along the Bellarine Hwy in Wallington, I spotted (and heard, even at 100 km/h) a flock of Galahs on the power lines beside the road. There are always a few that seem to find it amusing to "muck about' on the wires, doing loop-the-loops and hanging upside down...

Galah, Wallington

...while others prefer to just sit and watch the world go by.

Galah, Wallington

Long weekend in Central Victoria - Day 3

We began the day with a drive through the northern part of the Whipstick Section of the Greater Bendigo NP, stopping at several locations where birds could be heard. This is a beautiful section of the park with mixed Eucalypt forest and Acacia understorey.

Whipstick Section, Greater Bendigo NP

Lots of birds seen and heard but nothing particularly photogenic. It's always a challenge photographing birds in this sort of forest as they are mostly small, dull-coloured treetop-dwellers so are difficult to see and usually shaded by the foliage with bright sky in the background.

The afternoon was a different story. We went to Bells Swamp on the Maldon-Bridgetown Road (see map). I am not misusing the word "on" here as the road is currently closed due to flood damage from the rains earlier in the year but it now provides a fantastic pedestrian access through the middle of the swamp

Maldon-Bridgewater Road, Bells Swamp

offering views of the (currently) flooded River Red Gum forest

Bells Swamp

and close proximity to the birds - in particular the parrots that became more and more active as sunset approached. This pair of Musk Lorikeets was continuously in and out of a nest-hole.

Musk Lorikeet, Bells Swamp

Musk Lorikeet, Bells Swamp

and this one posed on a nearby branch long enough for a classic portrait.

Musk Lorikeet, Bells Swamp

There were also two species of Corella

Little Corella, Bells Swamp

Long-billed Corella, Bells Swamp

and the ubiquitous Galahs

Galah, Bells Swamp

Large numbers of White-plumed Honeyeaters were doing their usual frantic rushing around but this one sat still just long enough for one frame.

White-plumed Honeyeater, Bells Swamp

As I was leaving just before sunset, I couldn't resist this shot of Brooms Lane.

Brooms Lane, Bells Swamp

For more:
The night before

Day 1 - Heathcote-Graytown and Axedale

Day 2 - Kamarooka

Heathcote

I spent the night in Heathcote on the way to a long weekend of birding and photography in the central goldfields region with the MELBOCA Photography Group (highlights from these three days to follow). I arrived in the early evening with just enough photographic light left for a short walk along one of the back roads where there is a healthy roadside woodland corridor. 15 species seen in the trees and surrounding farmland (in 20 minutes) including: White-winged Chough, Australian Magpie, Magpie Lark, Laughing Kookaburra, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Red-rumped Parrot, Masked Lapwing, Welcome Swallow, Rufous Songlark, Red Wattlebird and White-plumed Honeyeater, none of which was particularly photographically cooperative. However, I did manage to capture these:

Dusky Woodswallow, Heathcote

Musk Lorikeet, Heathcote

Blue-faced Honeyeater, Heathcote

and one of my perennial favourites, the comedian of the bird world

Galah, Heathcote

but the highlight of the evening was this Willie Wagtail sitting on a nest in an old petrol bowser inside a farm shed (the owner saw me on the road while I was photographing the Galah and asked if I wanted to see this).

Willie Wagtail, Heathcote

The weekend:

Day 1 - Heathcote-Graytown and Axedale

Day 2 - Kamarooka

Day 3 - Whipstick and Bells Swamp

Northern Victoria (Part 2)

Terrick Terrick National Park (view map) is a great place for birds in open woodland and grasslands. By the time I got there it was late morning so not a lot of bird activity but I did get a good walk around and over Mt Terrick Terrick and found this cooperative Galah pair.

Galah (male), Terrick Terrick NP

Galah (female), Terrick Terrick NP

I was tempted to hang around longer but was also keen to get to Lake Meran to check it out since the floods had filled the lake. On the way north, I spotted a group of babblers in the roadside vegetation. I find babblers really difficult to photograph as they are almost constantly moving but this one cooperated for a few seconds while trying to extract insects from under the bark on this branch.

Grey-crowned Babbler, Boort-Kerang Road

Lake Meran is a small permanent freshwater lake (well it used to be until the drought for the last decade) between Boort and Kerang (view map). Floods earlier this year and continuing recent rains have filled the lake

Lake Meran

A lot of farmland is still covered with water and many of the roads around the Lake and nearby Leaghur State Park are closed still with water covering the road. Photographically accessible birdlife on the lake was limited as much of the activity was taking place in the offshore vegetation and the walking tracks around the lake were under water. However, I did see Nankeen Night-Heron, White-faced Heron, White-necked Heron, Australian White Ibis, Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Pacific Black Duck, Eurasian Coot, Dusky Moorhen, Purple Swamphen, Whistling Kite, Peregrine Falcon. Sadly, there were very few bush birds active (probably courtesy of the Peregrine Falcon) with only Australian Magpie, Magpie-lark and Noisy Miner present around the picnic area.

I did manage to see three Great Crested Grebe in more open water.

Great Crested Grebe, Lake Meran