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

The Main Yarra Trail runs through the reserve but there are also some narrow dirt paths through the bush areas. Following one of these I first came across a pair of Pied Currawongs.

they were looking for grubs or spiders in the leaves, the ones that bind the leaves together

have you seen any?

oh yep, yum!

The tracks take you along one side of the billabong.

...which is empty

It's always been empty when I've visited this reserve, so no water birds in it again this time, but there was a single magpie singing and surveying.

Australian Magpie

just keeping an eye on things

A sign along the Main Yarra Trail says that there are rehabilitation works for the billabong underway and that water will be pumped into it from the Yarra to help. Turns out it had been filled a few days before I was there but the water had already disappeared. It'll be interesting to see what turns up here if the billabong does get some more permanent water.

But anyway, this Little Raven appeared, just strolling down the path. This is something Red Wattlebirds apparently cannot tolerate and so there was some swooping.

Little Raven

And I heard a rustle in the leaf litter which turned out to be two ibis foraging around. I was a bit surprised to see them there and they were a bit surprised to see me too and took off. I found them again later with more more ibis in an open grassy area - I think that's a more familiar scene.

Australian White Ibis

Through the screeching from a couple of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos I managed to make out the calls of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and saw at least three sail over the tree tops - always great to see them locally!

In other parrot news there were of course lots and lots of Rainbow Lorikeets.

this one was feeding with some friends

Before returning to the car, I checked the river for ducks (or platypus!?) but instead caught a Little-Pied Cormorant flying downstream, and there was also a Wille Wagtail hanging out along the bank.

Willie Wagtail

Next, I headed over to Bolin Bolin. Checking eBird I realised the last time I went birding here was four years ago!

At the entrance just off Bulleen Road there was a sign detailing rehabilitation works for this billabong too - yay!

through the entrance gate 

and the billabong

On my previous visit here I remember the billabong being quite full but this time there was only a rather small pond of water that was a kinda weird orangey-brown colour. The few ducks that were there didn't seem to mind though.

Pacific Black Ducks

Grey Teals

Along the first stretch of the track around the billabong I found a lot of the usual small birds like Brown Thornbills, Grey Fantails and Superb Fairywrens.

some plantings happening around the billabong

I could also hear a Rufous Whistler calling and then... Yellow-faced Honeyeaters! I was able to catch a brief glimpse of two of them as they moved through the trees over the path, another new 5MR bird for the day!

As well as the track around the outside, another grassy path takes you to a loop of the 'inside' of the billabong's bend (not sure if there's a name for that).

luckily the weeds are mown to provide a path

I had a brief glimpse of a Swamp Wallaby in here, and there was lots happening bird-wise.

another Grey Fantail

Red-browed Finches snuggling

and snoozing! 

a Sacred Kingfisher

and second one

And I also caught up the the Rufous Whistler which turned out to be a lovely female.

Back completing the circuit of the outside and I came across a Common Bronzewing on the path.

Hi!

I tried to keep to pigeon-pace so as to not scare him away when he insisted on walking along the path in front of me. But then I got distracted anyway by another new 5MR bird calling above me - a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo! Unfortunately I think me being there spooked it and it flew away before I could see it.

Nearly back at the carpark and I had another little pigeon friend on the path who again seemed to want to continue its walk along the path ahead of me.

Crested Pigeon

This was a pretty cute way to finish the walk and I ended up with a list of 30 species. I'll be back here more regularly I think!

The last billabong I'd planned to check out was one I'd never been to before - Kew Billabong in Winsmere Park. It's surrounded by a lot more open grassland than the other billabongs and there were quite few more Noisy Miners here.

Winsmere Park

the billabong hidden in the trees at the back

This billabong did have a lot of water though, and two Dusky Moorhens here were the first I'd seen that day.  There is a little bit of bushland on one side, however being right next to the freeway it was a bit more difficult to pick up the sounds of the smaller birds.

Dusky Moorhen

I did also see a couple of Laughing Kookaburras, another bird I hadn't seen at the other billabongs, but in the end I only managed to find 9 species here.

Probably the most interesting sighting here was when I noticed something strange about this tree.

a tail

A Common Ringtail Possum had clearly not found a big enough place to hide and had just smooshed itself into some kind of crevice in this tree. I wanted to check it was ok, but I saw it was breathing and when a little pink nose appeared I quickly left it alone hoping it could wait it out there til dark.

little possum is ok

But back to the birds... all up I saw 45 species across the three billabongs, and it turns out five of them were new 5MR birds! As well as the Mistletoebirds, Shining Bronze-cuckoo and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, I realised later when I submitted my lists to eBird that a Fan-tailed Cuckoo I'd heard at Burke Road Billabong Reserve and the Striated Thornbills I'd seen at Bolin Bolin were also new to my radius list.

So it had been a very good day for local birding, with a couple of cute mammal friends too.