By Nola Thorpe

THE backyard bird count organised by Birdlife Australia in October each year is over for 2018 with a total of 2.6 million birds counted and 82,780 lists submitted.

Although it says “backyard” you are able to do a 20-minute survey anywhere in your local area. I was able to just sit on my back veranda and watch the bird world go by. I was never lucky enough, though, to log the flock of some hundreds of little corellas that fly over in the early morning or late in the afternoon.

​There is a wonderful app that can be downloaded onto your phone or tablet which has a timer and a field guide to make the whole process very simple

I was able to submit sightings from My Backyard, The Wonthaggi Cemetery, Tank Hill, Wonthaggi Wetlands, The Rifle Range and McMahon’s Reserve.

​As it was only for 20 minutes it didn’t take much of your day. It’s a great way to spend a bit of time appreciating the wonderful birdlife in this area.

On a recent visit to Phillip Island, Paul Cummings sighted this Cape Barren goose family between the Nobbies and Summerlands beach. The nest from which the chicks had recently hatched was still lined with down. ​

By Jack Airey
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Jam Jerrup to Stockyard Point

ON A cool, overcast and windy morning in January, 27 members of the Ringwood Field Naturalists Club and two guests from the Peninsula Field Naturalists Club met at Jam Jerrup for an excursion to Stockyard Point, identified by BirdLife Australia as an important bird area in Western Port.

Western Port is the summer home to large numbers of international migratory shorebirds – birds that breed in Siberia and Alaska during the northern hemisphere summer and migrate south to Australia for our summer. 

While in Australia, the birds spend most of their time living on intertidal mudflats and the edges of shallow bodies of water, hence the name shorebirds, feeding on the invertebrates, molluscs, gastropods and small crustaceans that inhabit these areas. Birdwatchers in Australia will regularly travel to good “shorebird sites” during the summer months to observe these beautiful and amazing birds.

By Nola Thorpe 

FOR a month or so I had been hearing reports of a beach stone-curlew being seen around Inverloch. A beach stone-curlew would normally be found around the shoreline of northern states from Shark Bay in WA to Nambucca Heads in NSW. 

It is a very large thick-set wader that is readily distinguished from all other waders by its size, massive bill with yellow patches at the base and a bold black and white pattern on its head. 

I had been down three times to see if I could catch a glimpse but with no luck. Then 
one sunny Sunday we had been down to Inverloch to one of the markets and I thought, 
“Here goes, I’ll try again”. ​