Gippsland Trip 2017 - Part II: Cape Conran

On the third day of our trip Karen and I headed out to Cape Conran Coastal Reserve as early as we could. We possibly didn't get to the heathland at the start of the Estuary View Walk as early as we should have for maximum Ground Parrot potential, but there was no one around and I think we were the first ones to walk the trails that morning.

Ground Parrots in there somewhere

We covered all the tracks we could find through the heath but any Ground Parrots were eating their breakfast well under cover.

Despite the lack of Ground Parrots an Australian Hobby flying over was a good addition to a trip list pretty light on raptors, and a Fan-tailed Cuckoo singing its heart out from the powerlines gave good views.

estuary views, as promised

The sound of Fan-tailed Cuckoos was pretty constant as we followed the trail away from the heath into the bush along the Yeerung River where, among other things, we found another Bassian Thrush and Rose Robin, with a Great Cormorant flying over every so often.

no birds here, but pretty

The estuary and beach at the end were pretty quiet, except for a welcome but distant White-bellied Sea-eagle.

there was some evidence of bird activity on the beach

After the Estuary Walk the plan was to try for Turquoise Parrots along the recommended Old Coast Road but we got bogged in sand on the way via East Yeerung Track. We got out ok and continued but when we reached a bigger patch of suspicious-looking sand we realised my car wasn't going to make it the rest of the way.


Instead we back-tracked and found some more Black-faced Monarchs at Yeerung Gorge and went to have lunch at Sailor's Grave picnic area where there was quite a bit of bird action: both wattlebirds, Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped Honeyeaters as well as a White-throated Tree-ceeper and Superb Fairywrens.

the male

A couple of the Superb Fairywrens were very interested in their reflections in the car windows and side mirrors. I've seen birds doing this before, and usually assumed it's the male thinking he's taking on the competition. But after watching these little guys for a while it seemed that the female was the one instigating here.

the female

Both wrens would be happily hopping around on the ground, as they do, when the female would fly up to the rear side window, apparently attacking her reflection. Or maybe she just really didn't like my car.

the cute couple at the side window

and in attack mode

The male would quickly follow, often joining her at the back window but usually moving on to the side mirror.

Where'd she go?

At some point the female would decide that that was enough and fly back down to the ground and get back to hopping around, and the male would follow.  This pattern was repeated a few times while we were sitting around eating our lunch. Interesting!

view from East Cape Boardwalk

In the afternoon the aforementioned bird action had died down a bit. We didn't see much along the East Cape Boardwalk except for nice views. And pro tip if you're doing this walk: the marker that tells you where to follow the trail off the beach is not that obvious if you're doing the walk in the direction that requires you to follow the trail off the beach. This is the second time I've done this walk and the second time I've got lost doing it, even though this time I thought I was keeping an eye out for that marker - fail! Sorry Karen!

FYI this is the marker, from the west, obvious once you realise you've gone too far and are coming back

Anyway, later we found some Black-faced Cormorants and Sooty Oystercatchers at West Cape, where the nice views continued.

West Cape

super hazy Sooty Oystercatchers, Crested Terns and a Silver Gull

Then we got in a bit of whale-watching when a couple pointed out some Humpbacks breaching way out off Salmon Rocks. With the scopes we were able to get better views and I made my whale phonescoping debut. Major distance and haze meant the results were not too pretty.

before

after

also: fins

Scoping again later for any possible Beach-stone Curlews back on East Cape, one of the legs fell of my scope's tripod. We both just kinda stood there looking at it lying on the beach like WTF? I hadn't even had it a year yet! Luckily though, Karen had brought her scope with her so we were still prepared for any distant birds. But still, that was a bit of a bummer.

venturing into the heathland in the late arvo

We hung around til dark for a little spotlighting, entertaining ourselves with a picnic dinner and the Heathland Walk.  After dark we were hoping for Sooty or Masked Owls but only heard a rather distant White-throated Nightjar. They do sound pretty cool though, so not a bad way to cap off this part of the trip.

The next morning we would be heading further east to the birding hotspot of Mallacoota. Unfortunately just as we'd got just about everything packed up and the car loaded to leave I noticed we had a flat tyre. This was not a fun discovery, especially since I was still mourning the loss of my tripod's leg.

sad reacts only

But thankfully we weren't delayed too long after a prompt visit from the RACV and a pretty quick stop in at the local tyre place (fortunately there actually is one in Orbost!) We were soon on our way - Mallacoota ahoy!