Swift Parrot Surveys - Part 1

Last weekend we were having some very cold, rainy, wintery weather - a good time to catch up on blog posts!

And as well as cold, rainy weather, winter also brings us Swift Parrots! Each year they migrate from Tasmania to spend the colder months on the mainland with us. And like many birders I like to try to catch up with the Swifties at least once each year while they are here. Back in April I had my first (very brief and unsatisfying) sighting of four in flight at Jells Park.

Then in May I volunteered for the first of the biannual Swift Parrot surveys. My allocated area was Yarra Bend Park where as far as I know Swift Parrots haven't been sighted in recent years (or ever?) and there are no records of them there on eBird at all.

But that's ok! Yarra Bend Park is in my 5MR! And there are flying foxes!

the first stop

I started at Bellbird Picnic Area where the Grey-headed Flying Fox colony is. Checking down by the river, I found a Pacific Black Duck and some Australian Wood Ducks and the first of many flying foxes.

Then I headed up the path to the observation platform where there was nice new signage with lots of bat facts.

cute pic!

There were also Little Ravens, a Tawny Frogmouth and a pair of Eastern Rosellas. But no Swift Parrots.

the Tawny

Stockyard Point

So it seems to take me a while to get around to posting about things on here, for example, this post is about a little birding adventure from about two months ago... eep!

I'd been meaning to take my mum birding at Stockyard Point for a while and so way back on the Labour Day long weekend in March we finally made it down.  We were hoping to see lots of waders before they left on their long journeys north, and maybe some in pretty breeding colours too. 

mangroves near Jam Jerrup

First up, there were about 85 Cape Barren Geese in the farm paddocks just before going through Jam Jerrup. I'm not sure I've ever seen that many together!

Then, after parking the car, we set off down the beach. You need to time your visit to Stockyard Point just right: waders use the point as a high tide roost, and you need get down there early enough to walk along beach before the tide comes in a blocks off access.

the walk down

Usually on the way down you can see some birds in a bit of a wetland over a farm fence, but it was totally dry that day.

no wetland birds today

5MR in March

After only adding one bird to the 2019 challenge in February, I thought I should get out and try to find a few more in March.

back to the Botanic Gardens

Conveniently some Rufous Fantails had been reported in the Royal Botanic Gardens so I went for a look early on Saturday of the Labour Day long weekend. Up to five had been reported during the week but I was still super pleased when I found just one of them. It flitted about only allowing brief clear views and definitely no photos. And it was hanging around with a large flock of Silvereyes which were constantly moving around and feeding.

Silvereyes + snacks

I also found another 5MR year bird - a Golden Whistler that was also possibly associating with this flock.

the whistler was a bit shy

5MR Update

Here's a little update from the first two months of my 2019 5MR challenge!

I got off to a pretty good start in January. I tried to make some grey bars into green bars and got out to a few local places in the weeks they were missing eBird lists.

At Burke Road Billabong Reserve I found some pretty nice local birds like Red-browed Finch, Sacred Kingfisher and Common Bronzewing in the first couple of weeks.

Eastern Yellow Robins can also be found along this path 

and here is a cute little Fairywren near the picnic table

and a female Red-Rumped Parrot from just over the river

The Challenge Begins!

This year I'm going to attempt Jen's 2019 5MR Challenge. That is, to try to find as many birds as I can in my 5-mile radius during the year.

To kick off my challenge, I decided to get out early to the Royal Botanic Gardens. I've only birded here once before, and figured there'd be less people around on New Year's morning than on a weekend when I'd probably usually go.

mmm... look at all that lush greenery through the gate!

I got there just after the gates opened at 7.30am and straight away there was a lot of small bird action. A Grey Fantail appeared, there were some White-browed Scrubwrens in the undergrowth and I noticed a couple of Spotted Pardalotes high up in a tall gum. A whole bunch of Silvereyes also flew in and got some little fruit snacks on one of the bushes.

a sweet little Silvereye

I started around the Ornamental Lake where I found some ducks snoozing on the small landing that the punts leave from.

Pacific Black Duck

Australian Wood Duck

A Wagtail for Christmas

The day before Christmas, an Eastern Yellow Wagtail was reported at Balbirooroo Wetlands in Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula. Very good news. This was a species I had unfinished business with.

Technically I'd seen an EYW twice before. Once in 2013 at Bremer Bay in WA which turned out to be a major birding fail that has been haunting me ever since and which I'd rather not talk about. I also had an unsatisfyingly brief glimpse of one flying over our group on a BBO course in Broome. I had been hoping I'd get another chance to see one - properly!

Unfortunately though I saw the post on the Australian Twitchers Facebook group too late on Christmas Eve to make it down to Balnarring that day. Luckily though the bird, which had been initially spotted on the 23rd, seemed to be hanging around with many birders seeing it on the 24th and again on Christmas morning. My mum and I hatched a plan for a Christmas afternoon twitch!

Welcome to Balbirooroo!

Balbirooroo Wetlands is actually one of my favourite birding spots on the Mornington Peninsula. There is some bushland around small wetland, and there are also two dams on the adjoining private property where most of the waterbird action usually is. And this is where the Eastern Yellow Wagtail was hanging out.

the Balbirooroo wetland

and the view over the fence

We arrived at about 4.50pm, followed the short bush track down to the wetlands and at the first break in the vegetation started scanning the muddy banks of the dams. Almost straight away a different-looking bird caught my eye. I quickly set up the scope to check and yes, the wagtail! My mum and I both got good views of the bird preening before it moved off and walked about bobbing its tail - very cute! We felt very lucky to have go onto it so quickly as other birders had waited for a few hours before seeing it.

Eastern Yellow Wagtail - phonescoped from a distance!

Platypus!

It had been a while between platypus so last Saturday night I headed over to Finns Reserve in Templestowe. The footbridge over the Yarra here is a very reliable place to see these little monotreme friends.

the view upstream

I knew the river would be pumping after the crazy rain we'd had so wondered if this might decrease our chances of seeing any platypus. It did not.

Hello!

We'd only been on the bridge for about five minutes when I spotted the first one, and watching over the next 45 minutes determined that there were definitely two and very likely a third.

one of three?