Some More 5MR Birding

After a pretty good start to 5MR birding, I've managed to find a few more species.

The first Saturday of June a Brown Gerygone and a pair of Scarlet Robins were reported at Studley Park in Kew. I always love seeing robins and the gerygone is a great record anywhere around metropolitan Melbourne so I went out early on the Sunday for a look.

a misty view over the Yarra

I didn't know where to look but finding some Tawny Frogmouths and also this gate spurred me on to explore the whole area - another new 5MR spot for me.

I assumed this was an imperative

I didn't find the gerygone or robins that day so I went for another look the next week. Again I walked around the whole Studley Park area, again with no sign of any gerygones or robins. But, I decided to have 'one last look' up a trail from the boathouse carpark where I'd started and there were the robins:

Mr Scarlet

Mrs Scarlet

I was happily watching these handsome little guys when I was distracted by some movement in the dense bush nearby. I'm pretty sure I caught a glimpse of some antlers - a deer!?  It somehow disappeared before I got a proper look. This seemed quite close to the city, and in a pretty built-up area for a deer. But I've heard a lot of talk among birders about how the feral deer keep expanding their range, there is the Yarra River corridor and there was a sighting of a Sambar Deer near the river in Ivanhoe in 2016 according to ALA. Hmmm....

Albert Park Lake

One windy morning more recently I trammed it to Albert Park Lake, home of the Melbourne Grand Prix and the MySwan tracking project. I'd never been there before, probably because it's so close to the city, but part of the lake falls into my 5MR and thus it is now my duty to bird it.

Pied Stilts x 3

One of the birds I was hoping to add to the 5MR list here was Pied Stilts and there they were in the first section of reedy stormwater ponds on the south-east side of the lake. A single Red-Rumped Parrot also came down for a drink.

male Red-Rump

There were also some Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos struggling to fly and land in the pretty intense and annoying wind.

when they managed to land in the palm trees they found some snacks

In the northern stormwater ponds I found another two Pied Stilts, as well as Little Pied Cormorants and an Australasian Darter drying its wings.

Pied Stilt x 2

In the northern part of the lake there were a lot more Black Swans, many with collars.

S70, for example

I reported most of them via the app which gives you all the info on the individual swan and what it's been up to. Though it said one swan I reported was dead...

the ghost of G97?

On the return walk I found another new 5MR bird when, back at the first stormwater pond, I spotted a Little Grassbird hopping along the edge of the reeds. I got some great views of it out in the open, something which you can not often say about Little Grassbirds, and then it went back into hiding.

a more typical view of a Little Grassbird

In July I got another chance for a Brown Gerygone when Oakley Germech reported one at Darebin Parklands. He also saw a Grey Goshawk flying over!? The goshawk was not reported again but more sightings of the gerygone on eBird (including some great photos) were encouraging. But the first time I went to look I couldn't find it where everyone else had seen it... I was worried it had moved on but luckily I managed to find the little cutie on my second attempt and then saw it again last weekend.

And while on my first search for the gerygone I happened across a pair of Tawny Frogmouths. I always love finding a new frogmouth spot! Last weekend a third had joined this pair, and who says no to an extra frogmouth?

Tawny Frogmouth

I went back to Darebin Parklands today with Leigh, it is his local patch after all. We didn't see the gerygone and could only see one frogmouth in this spot. But then we happened across another pair just as we were leaving, in another new location - yay!

So my 5MR list is now at 93. And I know where quite a few more frogmouths are hiding.