Out West

Last weekend I was hoping to catch up with some Rainbow Bee-eaters in the You Yangs before they left for the season. It was pretty cool and overcast, not overly birdy, and after a while I thought I must have been too late.

Hovells Creek in the Western Plantation

Luckily, just I was walking back to the car I heard the call and briefly saw a small group of Bee-eaters flying overhead.  They were more silhouette than rainbow, but I guess that counts as successful?  And I did see a few other things too, I guess.

Next was nearby Serendip Sanctuary for lunch. With their captive birds, the resulting freeloaders, and wetlands with hides, there was some pretty reliable birdiness to be had there.

speaking of freeloaders

On the Wildlife Walk we found Australian White Ibis, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and a Magpie Goose in the Brolga enclosure.

the Magpie Goose was in a tree

this Brolga preened and ignored

And then on to the birdhide!

a very birdy view

There were lots of birds including quite a few young ones, more Magpie Geese, 17 Yellow-billed Spoonbills, some of the free-range Emus out by the lake and a Whistling Kite that flew over low and spooked a few things.

preening and photobombing

bonus Great Egret in with the other white ones

Pink-eared Ducks

young Dusky Moorhens

Black-Winged/White-headed Stilt

Also, Black-fronted Dotterels were having angry (or maybe just excited?) little meetings, which was very cute.

they were quite noisy, much like this photo

a Red-Kneed Dotterel also in the mix

The lake actually had quite a bit of water in it too and I think this is the first time I've seen it with any.  From the other viewing points I counted 60 or so Masked Lapwing. And a lot of Willie Wagtails.

Not Black Swan

And at the smaller hide there was this Black Swan which looked adult in size but was not black. But also not white like the one recently seen at Swan Bay.

Goose!

Coming out of the hide tunnel we were greeted with a Cape Barren Goose on the path, which took a slightly disconcerting run-up right towards us before just making it over the fence into the Wallaby enclosure.

What?

In the walk-through aviary Red-browed Finches and House Sparrows were having a great time getting a free feed. It made for some great superzoom practice - for birds that are pretty close and relatively tame that is.

Red-browed Finch

and another of the many that were raiding the feeder

And yes please don't think less of me but I did spend some time going through the House Sparrows to find a Tree Sparrow. I found two.

House Sparrow

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

From here it was almost time to go, but we checked out the North Arm of the lake to find it also had lots of water and lots of waterbirds.  Added Straw-Necked Ibis and Hardhead to the list.

lotsa coots, teals and some grebes out there too

On the way out, there were also a few Purple-crowned Lorikeets overhead and some Dusky Woodswallows snuggling on a branch - cute!

So things ended up a bit birdier than they'd started, and there must have been a few year ticks in there too - including the Tree Sparrow (!!) and those last minute Rainbow Bee-eaters.