Cape Barren geese. Photo: Pauline Wilkinson By Nola Thorpe
ALTHOUGH the forecast was anything but promising, nine keen birdos decided to take the risk and spend the morning walking around the tracks at the Wonthaggi desal plant.
ALTHOUGH the forecast was anything but promising, nine keen birdos decided to take the risk and spend the morning walking around the tracks at the Wonthaggi desal plant.
We were well rewarded and the outing was quite fruitful, not so much in the number of species seen but in the special sightings we had of some of them. There were flocks of skylarks swooping and swirling over much of the track that we took to the bird hide. Also a couple of flame robins sat quietly on sticks bordering the path; always good to see.
Getting close to the bird hide a bird could be seen sitting on the top. This turned out to be a nankeen kestrel, which stayed quiet long enough for us to have a really good look. Standing on the board walk we had clear views across the wetland to the farm paddocks beyond. To my great surprise, a pair of Cape Barren geese were feeding alongside the cattle. I hadn't seen them here before.
It was a good day for raptors as we also saw a swamp harrier and a little eagle from the hide. The kestrel showed off by hanging around for the rest of the walk and later, as we neared the end of the track, we spotted a brown goshawk sitting on a low shrub. We had a really good view of this bird as he obviously had his eye on something nearby and was not a bit concerned that all these people were observing him.
There were swans and two species of grebe, a black duck and some fairy wrens close to the car park. About 30 species altogether. I intend to visit this site more often.
We managed to have lunch before it started to rain.
Getting close to the bird hide a bird could be seen sitting on the top. This turned out to be a nankeen kestrel, which stayed quiet long enough for us to have a really good look. Standing on the board walk we had clear views across the wetland to the farm paddocks beyond. To my great surprise, a pair of Cape Barren geese were feeding alongside the cattle. I hadn't seen them here before.
It was a good day for raptors as we also saw a swamp harrier and a little eagle from the hide. The kestrel showed off by hanging around for the rest of the walk and later, as we neared the end of the track, we spotted a brown goshawk sitting on a low shrub. We had a really good view of this bird as he obviously had his eye on something nearby and was not a bit concerned that all these people were observing him.
There were swans and two species of grebe, a black duck and some fairy wrens close to the car park. About 30 species altogether. I intend to visit this site more often.
We managed to have lunch before it started to rain.
Superb fairy wrens. Photo: Pauline Wilkinson