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

Both possible rosellas were around to brighten things up and also frustrate me in trying to get the camera to focus nicely with all that colour happening.

Crimson Rosella

Eastern Rosella

Pardalotes were calling a lot, especially the Spotted ones. And I did see a couple disappearing into the ground in two different places, which mostly likely means some super cute baby pardalotes are hidden away in tiny burrows.

a view along the track

On the opposite side of the creek the vegetation gives way pretty quickly to paddocks and thanks to this open space I got Welcome Swallows, Flame Robins and a just-made-out Yellow-rumped Thornbill on my list.

luckily a male Flame Robin stands out even at a distance

Further down the track I heard calls that led me to two Sacred Kingfishers. They were a bit far away but my first sighting for the season!

a kingfisher letting me know they're back

Other spring returns were plentiful Yellow-faced Honeyeaters all along the trail and I saw a Rufous Whistler but a Fan-tailed Cuckoo and more distant Olive-Backed Oriole were heard onlys.

There was quite a bit of evidence that wombats like this walk too:  some messages left in prominent positions along the track and a nice big burrow on the opposite bank.

a cosy wombat home

I made it to the end and after watching a pair of low-down Yellow-faced Honeyeaters for a bit, turned around and headed back. I don't think I saw any new birds on the return walk but did notice some of the flowers.

Yam Daisy (or at least I think this is a Yam Daisy)

and is this a Chocolate Lily?

There's a lot more information on the vegetation in Smiths Gully in this Wild Melbourne post (turns out there's a native buttercup you can find there!?)

The return walk is supposed to be about 1.5 hours, but more likely 2 if you are easily distracted by birds or plants. Either way it's a nice walk, go have a look!