Billabong Birding

A few weekends ago I set out for some local birding at a few of the billabongs along the Yarra River.

the first stop

I started at Burke Road Billabong Reserve, which is tucked in between the Yarra and the Eastern Freeway on the western side of Burke Road. A lot of work has been done in the reserve by volunteers to get rid of weeds and revegetate the area. It's looking pretty nice!

human visitors are catered for with a shelter and table; bats and other friends get nesting boxes

pretty native flowers thanks to the reveg works 

many have labels with info about the species, but I forgot to check these ones, oops!

I'd only just got out of the car and got my eBird list going when I thought I heard the sound of a new 5MR bird. And yep, a male Mistletoebird flew straight over and landed in the tree just in front of me. A female flew in to join him too. Yay!

male Mistletoebird

From Smiths Gully to St Andrews

Not last weekend but the one before I did a little bit of birding along the Smiths Gully-St Andrews Heritage Trail. It was my third visit there and the birdiest yet with a nice round total of 30 species.

It starts (or finishes) at Peter Frank Reserve off Smiths Gully Road in Smiths Gully and finishes (or starts) on the unsealed Proctor Street in St Andrews.

there's a creek crossing at the Smiths Gully end

and it's well signed with info either way you start - yay maps!

After lunch with Superb Fairywrens, Brown Thornbills and Grey Fantails in the picnic area at Peter Frank Reserve, I headed across the creek and accidentally flushed a White-faced Heron - oops!

Along the start of the walk there were quite a few more small birds like White-browed Scrubwrens, Striated Thornbills and more Superb Fairywrens.

a not-white-browed White-browed Scrubwren