Melbourne, Port Fairy, and the Great Ocean Road (1 Viewer)

Day one - 16 May
My wife Carrie and I flew into Melbourne on a drizzly morning and after checking in and spending the morning sleeping off the overnight flight we headed out to explore the city. The first birds we found in the city parks were Red Wattlebirds, typically "retiring" Rainbow Lorikeets, Noisy Miners, and a couple of pairs each of dapper Magpie Larks and Australian Magpies. The Silver Gulls at a pond in from of the Melbourne Exhibition HAllconfused me because the adults looked smaller and distinctly shorter-tailed than the juveniles, but lack of viable alternatives convinced me that there was no choice.

Dusky Moorhens, Australian Wood Ducks and Pacific Black Ducks were in the ponds, and a Little Black Cormorant was on the river at dusk as a Welcome Swallow darted about overhead and a Willy Wagtail took possession of a trash can as a hunting post. Added to these were a goodly selection of foreign interlopers – Spotted Dove, European Blackbird, Javan Myna, House Sparrow, Mallard and Eurasian Starling.

Cheers
Mike

17/18 May
The next day was tied up with work (except for a mid-meeting fly-by Peregrine. –I had to explain my sudden loss of focus - any birder would instinctively track and try to identify a raptor zipping past at high speed in a foreign city - but I'm not entirely sure they bought it.

The next day we ended up with a bonus afternoon in the city when our hire car plans fell through.

WARNING: an international driving permit is not enough on its own to hire a car in Victoria, Australia - a home driving licence is required as well.
As a result Carrie did all the driving as my licence was safe at home in Hong Kong.

The Flinders Street riverfront held eight Little Black, two Little Pied and a single Pied Cormorant a very confiding gang of House Sparrows and a couple of Common Mynas were happy to share the bread left over from our riverside pub lunch.

A walk through to the Botanic Garden started excellently with four pairs of Red-rumped Parrots in a bare tree by the grass amphitheatre as 200 Rainbow Lorikeets screamed by. Just 100 metres further on an ornamental bird bath had been passed as fit for purpose by half a dozen more screamers and four shorter-tailed Red-cheeked Lorikeets – giving me two parrot ticks in five minutes.

The lawns around the big ponds held family parties of gently strolling Dusky Moorhens and Purple Gallinules, while the water held two more fine ticks in the form of a pair of Chestnut Teals and five superb Black Swans. One of these especially came very close, neck arched perfectly and its wings part-raised to show a set of curled and ruffled tertials that are unquestionably the prototype for the black frilly knickers made famous by the can-can dancers of the Moulin Rouge. The immediately distinctive calls of several Bell Miners (tick number five) were unquestionably the signature note for the afternoon. Other birds here included a fine adult Australian Darter that circled the pond before dropping in to roost, a Rufous Fantail flycatching from an overhanging branch, and most bizarrely, and several Little Wattlebirds (tick number six) belly-flopping briefly onto the surface of the pond and flying up again – I think to wash their breast feathers. Each bird that did this showed the diagnostic brown patch on the inner primaries that help with separation from the larger, and paler-bellied Red Wattlebird.

Two Black Swans (one with white neck ring X22) and a pale headed young Australian Darter were on the towpath as we walked backed to town amidst the piebald ranks of Collingwood and Geelong Aussie Rules fans heading into town for a famous showdown. While we were a day late arriving at Port Fairy, the six ticks in the afternoon (after a rather shocking zero ticks in a city I'd never previously visited on the first two days) seemed like a pretty fair return.

Cheers
Mike

19 May: Melbourne - Port Fairy
An early morning walk along the river gave me good views of a fishing Pied Cormorant and a fourth species – Great Cormorant - flying downriver. I could not get quite enough on a high-flying large gull to confirm it as Pacific, but I did enjoy seeing some 15 Silver Gull chicks among a colony on the roof of one of the wharfside warehouses.

We then headed out along the inland road to Port Fairy. The first good birds were a squadron of five Australian Pelicans soaring above the highway, but the more usual fare was a good number each of Nankeen Kestrel and Black-shouldered Kite and a plethora of Australian Magpies. I had a likely Small Eagle perched on a dead tree and a couple of unidentified harriers and probable Brown Falcons and was able to confirm a Whistling Kite.

Our first stop was at Winchelsea, which was worth it amazing pumpkin tart at the Winchelsea Larder (www.WinchelseaLarder.com.au) alone. As we got out of the car a small flock of Crested Pigeon landed in a bush in a field 80 yards away, and as we returned to the car after lunch a huge cacophony of sound burst out down the road and a flock of several hundred Long-billed Corellas poured overhead. We tracked them down to a couple of trees on the edge of a school playground – and right next to a grain store on the western edge of the town and got terrific view of them crammed together and taking off with raucous abandon before settling again – a real Australian experience! I also had a couple of vibrantly pink-breasted Galahs.

A little further along we found a road down to the edge of Colac Lake. The shallow fringes held a few Australian Pelicans my first (and only) Yellow-billed Spoonbill and a few each of Black Swan, Australian Shelduck, Australasian Grebe and Chestnut Teal. The other highlight here was the eight or so Black-fronted Dotterel spread along the shore. They were a real delight with a black mask, white face and upper breast and a fine black “deep v” breast band topped by a streaky grey-brown crown and upperparts with broad dark braces. Other roadside birds included groups and Straw-necked and Australian White Ibis and occasional parties of Cattle Egrets. We arrived at Port Fairy just after dusk…

Thanks Mike

Lovely pics of the Corellas brought back happy memories of being in Aus and having birds fly TOWARDS you (as you know, that doesn't happen very often here).

Looking forward to reading more.

Cheers.

Shi JIn

Great stuff Mark. I've never really spent much time down south birding. I'm clearly going to have to get my arse down there some time!

20- 23 May – Port Fairy
. . .and woke to find a superb location looking out over a low cliff to the surf of the Southern Ocean crashing onto a reef of black basalt rocks about 100 metres offshore. We were incredibly fortunate to be able to stay at the beautiful beachfront house of a generous work colleague, which meant that every one of our four days here began for me with a scan beyond the surf to see how many albatrosses were on view! Yes you did read that right – albatrosses! I had been disappointed to learn on my arrival on Friday evening that the planned pelagics would not be going and I resigned myself to once again missing out (after twice being denied by the weather in Cape Town) on a trip that would likely deliver these wonderful birds. Enjoying up to a dozen - two Black-browed and ten Shy Albatrosses and my first Giant Petrel sp. (albeit an all-dark juvenile that even in my greatest flights of optimism I could not identify to species) made a terrific start to each day – especially as many of these birds were planing majestically along no more than a couple of hundred metres offshore. I learned that the best way to separate them was on the width of the dark borders to the underwings (Shy = narrow, Black-browed = broader) and the more yellow toned bill of Black-browed. I searched in vain for the smaller and mostly black-billed Yellow-nosed Albatross, which is also supposed to be one to look for inshore, but this really didn’t matter as having such a spectacle without even leaving the house was the real highlight for me of the whole trip.

A bit further offshore a shearwater was passing in small numbers. They were too far away to be safely identified as either Hutton’s or Fluttering Shearwaters, but were certainly one or the other. Australian Gannets were more identifiable – but this was a rather easier ID challenge due to the lack of alternatives – although Cape Gannet have bred along the Victorian coast in the not too distant past.

Other birds on the basalt rocks in from of the house included, a couple of both Sooty and Australian Pied Oystercatchers – a regular 70 Greater Crested Terns, a smattering of Silver Gulls, a pair each of pale-footed Kelp Gulls and the fabulous Pacific Gull, with a humungous orange wedge of a bill and all dark primaries. I thought I had a small wader as a monochrome small bird flipped onto one of the outermost rocks. My hopes it might be a Hooded Plover were dashed when on landing it revealed an all-white face and big black breast band like a leucopsis White Wagtail – except it had no tail – leaving me completely baffled. What on earth was a piebald blobby passerine doing bobbing around on the wave-washed rocks? A few minutes later a group of four of these striking passerines landed within 30 yards of me, and my frantic flicking through the pages of Pizzey and Knight resolved my conundrum – the terrific White-fronted Chat. Any thoughts about the birds appearing either in this habitat or this time of the year would be most welcome.

The native bushes in front of the house delivered a few trash birds – Eurasian Starling, European Greenfinch, European Greenfinch, but also some local quality in the form of a pair of Singing Honeyeaters, while a trio of Masked Lapwings patrolled the lawn on either side of the road, and on the final morning a couple of Nankeen Kestrels and a Collared Sparrowhawk kept the Australian Magpies in good voice.

Cheers
Mike

A few pix from my watchpoint.

There is one each o Black-browed and Shy Albatrosses in the pic - the darker-backed Black-browed at left shows a more orange-yellow bill, while the Shy with its wings spread at the bow of the boat is paler -backed and the bill has a greenish-grey tinge.

The video link captures the watchpoint and Australian Magpies that came each morning to see if I was going to give them any food.

http://youtu.be/otfSIE3gjfAhttp://youtu.be/otfSIE3gjfA

Cheers
Mike

Interesting trip account. It has got me thinking that a visit to Port Fairy would be good for my next trip to Australia.

White-fronted chats threw me the first time that I saw them!

Allen

Many thanks Allen, Chowchilla and Shi Jin a bit more to come . . .

20 May: Telegraph Hill
On each day we made forays to various sites nearby. First up was the terrific Telegraph Hill reserve about ten kilometers east of Port Fairy. This is a remnant volcanic crater about three kilometers across that holds a shallow lake and a well-wooded central hill. As we stood on the upper lip a couple of Long-billed Corellas perched on some overhead wires and I was thrilled to pick out first a group of Grey Kangaroos and then, standing slightly nervously at the edge of the clearing, my first Emu. Over to the left there were good numbers of birds on the water – these included good numbers of Black Swans, Australian Shelduck, a few Dusky Moorhens and among a group of eleven Black-winged Stilts a single Banded Stilt.

Once we drove down into the reserve a little pishing pulled in a gang of Superb Fairy Wrens, a Grey Fantail, Brown Thornbills and White-browed Scrubwrens. These same species appeared to respond well to every pish here, along with Silvereye. In fact there variety of passerines was rather limited here – with just New Holland Honeyeater and Yellow-faced Honeyeater and a couple of Red-browed Finches.

The real delight here was having wonderful close-up views of four different Koalas. Two were typically fast asleep, but of the other two one was perched high in a eucalyptus and having an occasional scratch, while the other was feeding in a sapling just a few feet from the ground giving a wonderful opportunity for capturing it on film. We saw several Emus, including an adult and a youngster feeding on yellow fruit the size of a cherry tomato they were pulling off a tall leafy shrub – which I also filmed. I also added a very approachable Swamp Wallaby sunning itself on a lava tongue to the Grey Kangaroos we saw earlier.

Cheers
Mike

Wow, looks and sounds like a really nice area! Hard to decide if sleeping koala, staring koala or baby roo is cutest! I'm sure that seeing an emu in the forest must be so different than at the zoo.

Thinking about what a "gang of Superb Fairy Wrens" looks like - seems like some sort of paradox to have all those words together!

The emus were terrific Gretchen - very tame - they had to be shooed away from the picnic tables!

I meant to include a couple of videos from Tower Hill.

I love the emus feeding on the bush - really primeval, and a very confiding Koala showed superbly. Anyone know how to turn this right way up?

Cheers
Mike

21 May - Great Ocean Road – Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell and Peterborough
The most famous attraction on the Great Ocean Road is the set of stacks steadily being eroded into oblivion misleadingly known as the Twelve Apostles (there are no more than nine still standing). The carparks along the road, which provide viewpoints of the apostles and a number of other impressively eroded stretches of coastline are a prime site for finding the range-restricted Rufous Bristlebird. I didn’t. The nearest I got was a Grey Shrike Thrush scavenging for scraps in the carpark and a few distant Australian Gannets and albatrosses offshore. A lunch stop in Port Campbell was enlivened by Little Wattlebirds and New Holland Honeyeaters and a gang of Silver Gulls and the familiar Australian Magpies and Masked Lapwings loitering on the breakwater. The highlight was a couple of Red-rumped Parrots that zipped over at high speed.

On the way home I added good views of two Wedge-tailed Eagles soaring over the hills just outside Port Campbell, which added substantially to the distant views of a bird on the way into Peterborough in the morning.

The best birding was a stop in the fading light at the mouth of Curdie’s Inlet at Peterborough. My attention was initially drawn by a couple of Australian Oystercatchers and a Sooty Oystercatcher, but to my great delight a couple of small waders puttering along the edge of the sandbar by the bridge turned out to be a pair of Hooded Plovers – another range restricted species whose survival is precarious. Under the bridge a Great Egret lurked, and my only Royal Spoonbill of the trip was the highlight amongst a few Australian Pelicans and some too distant waterfowl.

Cheers
Mike

22 May Bridgewater Bay
Next morning I finally dragged myself away from the balcony to explore Griffiths Island. First up was a Little Pied Cormorant perched on a rock just at the beginning of the causeway. Even better was a Buff-breasted Crake poking along the edge of the vegetation, which helpfully stayed around long enough for a decent photograph. I enjoyed a Greater Crested Tern loafing inside the lagoon with a few Silver Gulls and a juvenile Pacific Gull.

There were several carcasses of Short-tailed Shearwater on the turf along the path. They breed here in their tens of thousands, but those that survived are currently swanning around the northwest Pacific at the top of a migration that will take then down the US west coast before returning.

Two adults and a juvenile Kelp Gull were making a rather poor job of disemboweling a drowned rat on the beach. They poked about and followed it up and down the beach with the surf, but were not able to get through the skin and eventually gave up.

There was a Forest Raven making its presence felt at the tip of the island in one of the Norfolk Pines and on the way back a Brown Falcon and a Nankeen Kestrel gave my best views of both these species.

After a visit to the petrified forest at a windswept Cape Bridgewater we stopped in the remote hope of an early Southern Right Whale and the more tangible expectation of an ice cream at the stunning sweep of Bridgewater Bay. The wind on the Cape was clearly too much for the birds – and even for scanning offshore - but we did have a single Swamp Wallaby underneath the giant wind turbines and a party of Grey Kangaroos another 200 yards further along the road.

The more sheltered bay was more promising – 14 Greater Crested Terns and four were roosting on the beach right in front of the carpark, and there were a few each of Australian Oystercatcher and Sooty Oystercatcher, but the best bird was a splendid Pacific Gull foraging in the surf as it rolled up the very gently sloping beach. This was my first chance to get a really good look at one. The outstanding feature is the huge orange bill that looks ideally suited to hacking beach-washed carcasses into bite-sized pieces, but it appeared to by trying to catch the broken pieces of jellyfish that littered the tideline. It also showed all-black primaries, a black tailband and orange-yellow rather than pale yellow legs that also separate it from Kelp Gull.

Cheers
Mike

Buff-banded Rails are very common in Cairns. I sometimes see them wandering across busy highways in the middle of the city in the middle of the day. They are less skulky than many other species.

After a slow morning Carrie and enjoyed the fine spectacle of the waves breaking close to the lighthouse and the odd Australian Gannet and albatross distantly offshore from the lighthouse on Griffith's Island, and I finally got close to a White faced Heron. We also enjoyed wonderfully close views of a small group of Swamp Wallabies.

Our farewell to Port Fairy was a walk along the river at dusk. Apart from being truly picturesque – heritage buildings, funky modern pads and a range of boats tied up along the banks, the river also closed a gaping gap in my list that had survived two trips to Indonesia and another to Australia – a couple of Nankeen Night Herons hunched on the quayside across the water as the last of the light trickled away into darkness.

And that was it. Not the birdiest trip, but to be remembered forever for the albatrosses from the balcony, the wildlife at Tower Hill and the blue wide open beauty of the southern ocean under endless skies.

Cheers
Mike

Great photos - I've always want to go to Oz, but this makes it even more appealing. Glad you guys had such a great time.