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Message: <blockquote data-quote="podargus" data-source="post: 2947379" data-attributes="member: 109359">16/02/12I had another overnight bus journey, but before reaching Melbourne I had a 5am change at Ballarat, before catching a 6.30 bus to Geelong. From here I had to wait until 10.30 for a bus to my next destination – Anglesea. Anglesea is a town on the famous Great Ocean Road, and it’s a beautiful spot. As well as the spectacular coastline, there are some really good heathland areas on the hills behind. There are lots of good birds here but I had one main target – Gang-gang Cockatoo.Heading over to my campsite, I very nearly walked straight past a flowering tree full of chattering Musk Lorikeets, assuming that they’d be Rainbows. Indeed, this turned out to be the only place that I visited in Australia where Rainbow Lorikeets were not the standard Lorikeets, with Musk Lorikeets being common around the town instead.After setting up my tent I headed down to the sea. The beach itself was quiet, but a scrubby patch behind had Red and Little Wattlebirds, New Holland Honeyeaters and, best of all, a cracking male Crescent Honeyeater. After this, I headed up through a wetland area towards the heathland on the hills behind the town. There were a couple of Little Grassbirds in a swampy patch, and some wailing Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos went over. I didn’t get particularly far into the heathland on this occasion before I started heading back, but it was good to see a Grey Currawong (ssp. versicolor, which is actually grey unlike the mallee subspecies) in a wooded area, and in the same patch there were two Scarlet Robins, including one beautiful adult male. Back in the wetland area there were a few White-eared Honeyeaters and Dusky Woodswallows, and a brief glimpse of a Spotless Crake moving through the reeds was an unexpected bonus. As I started heading back towards town, I heard the ‘creaky door’ call and looked up to see a pair of Gang-gang Cockatoos flying over - all Cockatoos are brilliant, and I think that these might be the best of the lot :t: Having seen my number one target I could relax a bit, but there were still plenty of good birds to be found. That evening I headed over to Point Roadknight. To start with I could just have easily been on the Cornish coast, with a Kestrel (Nankeen) hovering over the heath-covered cliff top, although that illusion was slightly spoilt by the Crimson Rosellas present in the same area. There were also a couple of Brown Rats in scrubby patches along the track. Once at the point I walked over to the seaward side. The beach towards the point was empty apart from a few Silver Gulls, so I turned away momentarily to scan the sea. When I looked back, a stonking adult Pacific Gull had magically appeared from somewhere – nice! Walking back along the coastal track, some Fairy-wren type calls alerted me to a group of Southern Emu-wrens in the low heath, looking beautiful in the low evening light. These are really great little birds, and they’d have to rank as one of my favourite Aussie species.To finish up the day’s sightings, there were a few Australian King-parrots in the town as I walked back to my campsite.Birds376. Musk Lorikeet377. Crescent Honeyeater378. Scarlet Robin379. Gang-gang Cockatoo380. Pacific Gull381. Southern Emu-wrenMammals42. Brown Rat</blockquote>

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