Around the Great Australian Bight

[Soukous]

9 hours ago, John M. said:

"As mentioned, the Nullarbor is a long road and there really is not much to stop and see along the way."

 

Did you check out the Nullarbor Links? --  world's longest golf course, par 72, 18 holes over nearly 1400km. I've found golf courses in the bush are often good for wildlife, though they did nothing for my handicap 

 

I was aware of the Nullarbor links and did see the signs for the various holes but as I have zero interest on golf we did not actually go to look at them.

[Soukous]

 

Our next destination was a place called Fowler’s Bay, on the coast just to the west of Ceduna, which was supposed to be a lovely spot.

 

Along the way we had intended to stop at a few of the viewpoints which gave spectacular views of the cliffs and out over the Southern Ocean/Great Australian Bight.

 

The plan changed rapidly. We did pull over to take a look but it was so cold and windy that we we soon back in the vehicle and on the road.

Between the Eyre Highway and the ocean is bare and rugged; no trees and very windy most of the time. Imagine Shetland but on a much larger scale.

 

During the season this whole coast is a mecca for whale watchers, but whales had not been seen for many days. A particularly famous spot is the Head of the Bight, a lookout at the most northerly point of the Bight. A sign at the entrance tells how many whales were seen in recent days. It showed zero, so we didn’t bother driving in.

 

We’d been told that there were several nice bays to the west of Fowlers Bay and so we left the highway and drove through parched farmland to check them out.

Wandilla Bay was pretty rugged, and windy.

Mexican Hat was pretty, with a campsite, and lots of wind.

Scott Bay also had a camping area, and lots of wind.

 

Once again, these bays were magnets for fishermen, but unless you enjoyed standing on a windy beach waving a fibreglass stick at the water there was not much other reason the stay there.

 

Fowlers Bay turned out to be a sleepy little settlement with a long pier and a cafe (closed) and a caravan park. Once again, attractive for fishermen but not us.

 

Our plan was changed again. No reason for us to spend a night here so we’d push on to Goog’s Track a day ahead of schedule.

 

Goog’s Track is a renowned 4x4 track that runs from Ceduna to Malbooma – a total distance of around 200km – before joining another track that goes east to Glendambo. We were not planning to go the whole way, just as far as Goog’s Lake where we’d camp for a couple of nights.

We were looking forward to some time in the bush and to make sure we were prepared, we stopped off by an old road construction camp to augment our supply of firewood as wood collection is supposed to be forbidden inside parks & reserves.

 

The track was largely built by John Denton (known to everyone as Goog, following an interest in eggs as a child) and his family. He originally had the idea that it would be useful for a road to go through the scrub o the north of his home (Lone Oak) to the main east-west railway line, which would facilitate the widening of markets for local produce.
In 1973, together with his wife Jenny and her brother Denis, Goog started clearing light timber and levelling a rough track using an old Fordson tractor fitted with a blade. Work continued most weekends for almost 3 years until they finally reached "Drum Camp" in 1976, where Goog's Track met an existing track to the railway.

 

It used to be referred to as Goog’s Road, but recently the preferred name has become Goog’s Track to avoid giving the impression that it is accessible to all vehicles.

 

We turned north about 1km before the quarantine station at Ceduna – it is forbidden to bring fruit and vegetables from WA into SA – and stopped to check the information board. We discovered that we needed to book in advance to go into the reserve and to camp overnight. Luckily we could do this by phone; it also gave us an opportunity to ask if there were any hazards we needed to be aware of. It is rains, Goog’s track can be a real challenge. The forecast was for dry weather, so off we set.

 

The drive in was great fun, with the sandy track taking us up and over sand dunes, so of them quite rutted.

 

 

 

The camping area was extensive; and with no designated camping pitches we could pick our spot, and fires were permitted until the end of October.

 

Cue another luxury camp setup.

 

Waking to a grey morning we cooked breakfast then set off to explore are area around Goog’s Lake.

 

We hadn’t driven more than 50 metres when we got a surprise. Feeding in the trees above us were …. yes, more Major Mitchell / Pink Cockatoos. I’d seen them fly overhead in the murky dawn light and assumed, wrongly, that they were just more Galahs as we’d seen quite a few of those.

 

 

 

Here they were feeding on the cones of the Native Pine ( Araucaria bidwillii).

Pines as we know them in Europe (eg Pinus radiata) and not native to Australia but they do have evergreen trees that they refer to as Native Pine. The cones are soft-shelled and contain edible seeds, which is what these cockatoos were feasting on.

 

The light was a bit grey & dull so we didn’t spend too much time with them.

 

We drove eastward, roughly parallel to the northern shore of the Lake, heading for a spot where we might get a decent view.

Although we did find a spot designated as ‘Lookout’ the view was disappointing, largely obscured by trees.

Down at lake level the landscapes looked better.

 

 

 

 

 

Goog’s Lake is a salt lake and although in times of heavy rain it does contain water, evaporation occurs quickly so it is dry for most of the year.

 

We decided to enjoy an afternoon just chilling as we’d done, and would be soon doing, a lot of driving.

I wandered off to see what I could fins to photograph while Pat found a shady spot to read his book.

 

Did I mention the flies? Surely I must have done. They were out in force again and the only way to escape them was to sit near the edge of the ridge overlooking the lake where the wind was quite strong.

 

Birdlife was a bit scarce. I am sure there was plenty there, I was just not very good at finding it so I bided my time until the Cockatoos returned for their late afternoon feeding session. The day had brightened up considerably so I was hoping for a few more photos. Although I already had loads of them from EBO this was a different habitat.

They did return and I did get some photos. It was fascinating to watch them selecting and then opening the pine cones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only other birds we saw were some Yellow-throated Miners and a lone Port Lincoln Ringneck.

 

 

I was happy to see the Ringneck as I already had the Twenty Eight and was confident I could find a Mallee Ringneck somewhere along the way.

 

Actually that's not quite true. Just as the sun was setting a Common Bronzewing landed on the roof of the Toyota. It then dropped to the ground and prowled around our camping area for 5 minutes or so, quite unafraid, before flying off.

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Soukous

[John M.]

31 minutes ago, Soukous said:

 

I was aware of the Nullarbor links and did see the signs for the various holes but as I have zero interest on golf we did not actually go to look at them.

   Understood. Your most interesting report shows you were doing plenty of other exploring. Though I have photos of a pair of ringnecks checking out a potential nesting hollow..

on a golf course 🙂, and I wasn't there to watch or play golf.

  Love your Pink cockatoo images.

[Soukous]

38 minutes ago, John M. said:

Love your Pink cockatoo images.

 

Thanks John. is the name change now official?

[Soukous]

An early start saw us enjoying a lovely drive south back along Goog’s Track.

The sand was much firmer after a cold night and the driving was much easier.

 

 

We re-joined the Eyre Highway and pulled up at the Ceduna quarantine station. We had nothing to declare or throw away as we’d consumed all our fruit and vegetables the previous night.

When the officer asked if we’d come from WA, I answered without thinking, “actually we’ve just come down Goog’s Track”.

“OK, you’re clear then”

Because Goog’s Track is in South Australia we were coming from within the state and not subject to quarantine restrictions so they didn’t need to check our vehicle for contraband.

 

Our goal was to reach Port Augusta for the night which, if we stayed on the Eyre Highway, would be a drive of about 6 hours.

Of course we weren’t going to stay on the highway. We would be leaving the highway to explore some of the coastal towns; Smoky Bay, Streaky Bay and Venus Bay. Streaky Bay in particular is a very popular holiday destination and the other 2 are supposed to be excellent fishing spots.

 

Huge fields of grain stretched away on both sides of the road; wheat, barley and canola. They were vast; apparently a single field/paddock can be as large as 10,000 acres.

 

Smoky Bay was a bit like Fowlers Bay, a sleepy little collection of houses with a picturesque sandy bay. It was Sunday morning, so there was no a lot of activity, just a couple of pelicans on the beach.

 

 

 

Streaky Bay was much larger, with plenty of people milling about. The bay itself is very large and it is easy to understand why it is so popular.

 

Venus Bay was the smallest of the three but the most interesting. The busiest place was the pier where adults & kids were fishing for salmon and the slipway which had a steady flow of small boats being launched or recovered.

There were plenty of pelicans here. They had learned that where people go fishing there will be fish and they came quickly each time a boat came in to the slipway.

 

 

 

 

 

From there it was an uneventful drive into Port Augusta, by far the largest place we’d been on our travels so far.

 

We did have a nice surprise on the way in though.

At EBO we’d briefly met a young couple on their honeymoon. It was no ordinary honeymoon though. They had shipped their Land Cruiser from Sydney to Perth at the exorbitant cost of A$6000 and were now driving back to Sydney.

Thomas had built the vehicle himself, using parts from 3 other Land Cruisers and I have to say it looked very special with top of the range kit and a swish rooftop tent.

As we were joining the road that runs up from Port Lincoln to Port Augusta we saw their vehicle just ahead of us – there won’t be another one like it - and couldn’t resist making contact via CB radio. It turned out they too were going to be spending the night in Port Augusta so we agreed to meet up.

We eventually found the Discovery Parks site where they took a camping pitch and we booked into a very spacious (and expensive) cabin.

They joined us for a bottle of wine - or was it two? - after dinner and we spent a few hours just chatting. They were an interesting couple, Thomas was of Assyrian descent and Georgina’s family came from Lebanon, though both had been born in Australia.

 

For us, the chance to cook in a proper kitchen and have a shower was very welcome.

 

Eyre Bird Observatory was also responsible for another change to our itinerary. The other couple who’d been staying there were telling us a bit about the route they had followed and mentioned visiting a reserve called Gluepot.

I knew the name from my searches on the Birdlife Australia website, but I had not paid much attention as it was not on our planned route.

But Graham and Beth rated it very highly, said it was the best place they’d been for birds. I don’t think Pat was too surprised when I suggested that it might be worth a visit.

 

Instead of heading down the A1 to Adelaide we’d be going east to Orroroo, then on down to the old copper mining town of Burra before reaching the mighty Murray River at Morgan.

 

Planned route

 

new route

[TonyQ]

The Bronzewing is a stunning bird and beautifully photographed 

[John M.]

10 hours ago, Soukous said:

 

Thanks John. is the name change now official?

   I read that the naming becomes final when Birdlife Australia releases its next list of 'Working Australian Birds', which may take some time.  

   Have you read about the fatal shark attack near Streaky Bay? The surfer's body hasn't been found.

   I'm pleased you went to Gluepot. A great spot, in SA's north-east mallee, some of my favourite country.

[Soukous]

17 hours ago, John M. said:

 Have you read about the fatal shark attack near Streaky Bay? The surfer's body hasn't been found.

   I'm pleased you went to Gluepot. A great spot, in SA's north-east mallee, some of my favourite country.

 

No I had not heard about that but there was no danger of me going into the water - much too cold for me.

I'm glad I went to Gluepot but I don't think I saw the best of it. Next time.......

[Soukous]

Orroroo is not a large town, population around 600, but is an important centre for the local farming community. It also has an excellent coffee shop, Two Farmers Daughters, which serves great coffee and local produce.

 

Burra was another very well kept town with a really good bakery where we could get our pie fix; overdue as we had not had one since Hopetoun.

 

We’d been told that Gluepot was accessed via Waikerie and so that was where we were headed, although, as it turned out, we didn’t really need to go there.

 

Next stop was Morgan, once a very important terminus for produce being exported and imported from the farms along the Murray.

We crossed the river on one of the cable ferries and continued to Waikerie. Beside the Murray where irrigation is not a problem, this is a major fruit growing region.

 

At Waikerie we filled up with water – there is no supply in Gluepot or many other national parks – and crossed the river again on another cable ferry. Had we been smarter – or had a map – we would not have needed to cross the river at all, we could have just stayed on the north bank and driven around from Morgan to Taylorville.

 

At Taylorville we left the tar and followed a good dirt road for the 40km into Gluepot.

 

First impressions were good. We registered and paid our fees at a large and well-equipped visitor centre, where we also picked up a map of the reserve.

 

Located in the semi-arid South Australian mallee, Gluepot Reserve is considered by many to be one of the crown jewels in the nation’s reserve system.

Described by Australian veteran journalist George Negus as “one of the conservation miracles of the 21st century”, Gluepot Reserve is managed and operated entirely by volunteers with the sole purpose to conserve this region’s unique ecosystem and the diverse fauna within it.

This 54,390-ha area of virgin scrubland contains no less than 18 nationally threatened bird species, 53 species of reptiles and 12 species of bats –some of which are also nationally threatened. There are few areas in the world that support such a concentration of endangered species.

Gluepot also has the greatest number of permanent biodiversity sites (200) of any Australian land area.

Since BirdLife acquired the property in 1997, the Reserve has been extremely successful in developing this once pastoral-leased land as a ‘Quality Centre for Scientific Research’.

 

There are 3 camping areas at Gluepot and, not really having any prior knowledge of them we set up at the one closest to the visitor centre, choosing to drive 3km rather than 13km.

The camping area was simple, with marked out pitches, some with a picnic table, and long drop toilets.

Only one other pitch was occupied. In fact, in all 3 campsites we only saw 4 pitches occupied.

 

We were surprised that we could hear no birdsong at all, even though there was little wind.

I did find a small brown bird looking for food close to our camp, luckily it was joined by a parent which made identification much easier.

 

Red-Capped Robin - juvenile

 

 

much easier to identify now that Dad is here

 

 

female

 

The area covered by Gluepot is almost all reclaimed farmland and there are tracks for vehicles and also several hiking/walking trails.

 

Looking at the map we could see that there were 5 hides and a number of dams. A couple of the dams were quite close to our campsite so we decided to go and take a look.

The first dam was completely overgrown and had no water in it. We were prevented from even getting close to the second one we tried to approach by a No Entry sign.

 

This turned out to be a recurring problem. Quite a few roads that were shown as open on the reserve map we closed to traffic.

 

Instead we drove up to the north east corner of the reserve to visit Josie’s hide. The hides themselves are very well built but, as we discovered they have all been set up to look at a man-made drinking station.

This was a disappointment. To sit in a hide and watch birds come & go from what was in effect a large plastic washing up bowl was not what we’d expected.

A mesh across the top prevented the birds from actually getting into the water, which in any case was too deep for small birds to bathe in.

 

I had hoped that at least one of the hides might overlook a dam or waterbody, but none did.

 

Next morning we visited 4 of the hides and had some decent sightings, but not a huge amount of variety.

 

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

 

 

Yellow-plumed Honeyeater

 

 

White-cheeked Honeyeater

 

Striped Honeyeater

 

Mulga Parrot

 

 

 

 

 

Now this is where it gets tricky. We saw a lot of Ringnecks, much bigger than the Mulga Parrots and quite pushy around the water. We saw Mallee Ringnecks but we also saw a lot of Hybrids between Port Lincoln & Mallee. I think I've worked out which is which, but I'm by no means certain.

 

 

Mallee Ringneck

 

Mallee/Port Lincoln Hybrid

 

Mallee/Port Lincoln Hybrid

 

Mallee Ringneck

 

these are much easier to identify

 

Our luck elsewhere in the reserve was not good as we saw very few birds at all. Once again, I am sure they were there, we just didn’t see them.

 

I would almost certainly have benefited from having someone along who had been before and knew the best spots in the reserve.

 

We’d booked in to stay 2 nights, but after spending a morning exploring the reserve we decided that we may as well move on.

We didn’t go very far though. Just as far as Overland Corner.

 

The Overland Corner Hotel is a destination pub located in the Riverland Region of South Australia. Built in 1856 out of limestone, the Hotel is one of the oldest standing structures in the state,

 

Captain Charles Sturt’s whaleboard expedition carried the first Europeans to Overland Corner. Pioneering pastoralists and overlanders recognised the potential of the area and Overland Corner quickly became the administrative and cultural centre of the region. With sly grog shops appearing in the area in the late 1850s, John Chambers recognised the need for a licensed hotel and completed the first stage of construction of the Overland Corner Hotel in 1860. In 1897 to 1913 the Hotel became a post office, witnessing the transition from horse-drawn coach to motor-mail and ‘modern’ coach services.
Artefacts are on display throughout the Hotel and in the Old Post Office. Walking trails through the surrounding reserves, Overland Corner Reserve and Herons Bend Reserve, particularly around the flood plain of the river and lagoon, enable visitors to see water fowl in their habitats as well as fossils exposed on the river cliffs and old quarry walls.

 

Pat had wanted to visit this historic pub for quite a while and so we decided to stop in – only to find that it is closed on Mondays & Tuesdays.

 

“So what happens if you’re staying there? Do you have to leave on Sunday and come back on Wednesday?” I asked.

“There’s no accommodation” was the reply.

“But it’s a hotel. A hotel, by definition, has accommodation.”

“Not in Australia.”

 

Now I know.

 

Although the pub was closed I had a moment of great excitement when I saw some birds in the bushes outside. They were Miners and they looked like Black-eared Miners.

Gluepot is one of the few places you can find these very rare birds but we had not seen any there so, if that is what they were, this was a real find.

I took a few photos – OK a lot of photos – and was still buzzing when we set up camp nearby on the banks of the Murray. Could I be that lucky?

 

It turned out that the answer is ‘No’. Close inspection of my photos showed that they were just Noisy Miners, much more common.

 

 

Noisy Miner

 

This was to be our last night under the stars and we spent it on the banks of the Murray close to Overland Corner.

There were quite a few birds there as well, quite active around sunset.

 

 

Yellow Rosella

 

Little Corellas

and another one soaking up the last rays of the setting sun

 

 

Great Cormorant

 

Tomorrow we’d drive to Swan Hill to visit friends and then southwards to Geelong.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Soukous

[John M.]

6 hours ago, Soukous said:

 

No I had not heard about that but there was no danger of me going into the water - much too cold for me.

I'm glad I went to Gluepot but I don't think I saw the best of it. Next time.......

   Gluepot can be hard work, requiring a lot of patience. We camped there for a few nights. I enjoyed it, but there was more fun a little further north, next to and inside Danggali.

[Soukous]

The ‘journey’ part of my trip ends when we get to Swan Hill, not my favourite town (city?) but a place where I have half a dozen friends gained through shared travel experiences.

A hot shower, followed by a terrific BBQ in great company made for an excellent evening and another crack at getting a decent photo of the Blue-faced Honeyeaters that frequent the garden.

 

apparently they are there 'all the time' except when I'm around.

 

Next day was just a drive down to Geelong; rather dull by comparison as they were roads I’ve travelled many times before. As always we hoped we might see some birds as we passed through the Brisbane Ranges, but cold wet weather meant that the Rosella that are normally seen in great numbers were well hidden.

 

So this was how our journey from Albany to Geelong went, our route had changed a few times along the way from what was originally planned. Great fun.

 

The real travelling was now behind us, but there was still some birding activity to come.

We were actually staying a little bit further south than Geelong on a cattle farm just outside Winchelsea. This is where I was hoping I might see some Gang-gang Cockatoos.

But before that I had booked us birdwatching access for the following day to the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee.

 

Werribee

 

If you live anywhere near Melbourne or Geelong, Werribee is the butt of many jokes. If you find yourself in a sticky situation or facing a big problem you will quite likely be told you’re ‘in more sh*t than a Werribee duck’.

Indeed the website promotes in person tours of the treatment plant where you can “See where half of Melbourne’s sewage is treated as you travel this vast site by bus.” Who could resist such a persuasive sales pitch?

 

But the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee is also

 

One of Victoria’s most popular birdwatching sites, The world-class sewage treatment facilities are only a fraction of the site, with vast lagoons home to nearly 300 bird species – some of which travel all the way from Siberia.

Roughly the size of Phillip Island, the Western Treatment Plant provides a haven for tens of thousands of birds, thanks to ample water and a variety of landforms and plants.

The plant’s lagoons, grasslands and coastline provide an ideal and varied habitat – offering a permanent water supply, plenty of food, and little interference from humans. Much of the surrounding areas have been recognised as a wetland of international significance under the Ramsar Convention.

 

Pat was a bit surprised when I told him where we were going but admitted it had never even occurred to him to visit the site.

 

The site lies to the east of the main highway between Melbourne & Geelong but, annoyingly, to gain access we had to go to the visitor centre, which was at the far north of the plant, and pick up a gate key. Then we had to drive about 10km back down the highway to the actual access gate at Point Wilson Road.

Then, after we’d finished, we had to return the key to the visitor centre. This to-ing and fro-ing added about 40km to our day’s travel.

 

Before she handed over the key, the young woman in the visitor centre read out loud to us the entire document that I had already read, and signed to say that I’d read, before my booking was confirmed.

I asked her for some tips on where to go and she admitted she knew very little about the bird watching part of the plant; we might see some Brolgas but the very rare Orange-bellied Parrots were gone.

She did tell us that other visitors had their best sightings at the bottom end of the site.

 

We were very fortunate with the weather as the day soon became sunny & warm and we slowly made our way around the various lagoons which were well populated with birds.

 

White-necked Heron

 

With no real idea of what we’d see or where we might see, it the Austin Road hide seemed like a good place to start and the lagoon in front of it was indeed teeming with birds.

 

 

Black Swan

 

Chestnut Teal

 

White-faced Heron

 

 

Pied Stilts

 

There were also a couple of Black-shouldered Kites hunting over the marshes

 

 

and vast flocks of Australian Shelducks flying overhead

 

Yellow-billed Spoonbill

 

From there we patrolled the T-Section Lagoons where some birds made it easy, and others didn't

 

Australian Swamphen

 

 

Hoary-headed Grebe

 

Red-necked Avocets, with 1 Banded Stilt

 

White-fronted Chat

 

Whiskered Tern

 

This wee bird caught my eye, but with the sun almost directly behind him it took me a while to try for an ID.

Golden-headed Cisticola (I think)

 

At the Western Lagoon there was a flock of Whiskered Terns hunting. I’d never seen terns hunting as a flock before so we just sat and watched them for a while.

 

 

Great Knots prowled the shoreline, Masked Lapwings nested among the small bushes and a mob of Royal Spoonbills were tucked up, sheltering from the wind.

 

and we did see a pair of Brolgas, we'd spotted 3 earlier on (2 adults and a juvenile, but they were far away across a field so no photo)

 

 

 

A road runs between Western Lagoon and the sea and on one side of it is a forest of stunted trees and bushes. This is where the Orange-bellied Parrots can be found when they are in residence. They had already departed.

We were now near the middle of the day and the light had become very harsh, but as we didn’t want the faff of going out and then coming back in again when the light was better we just kept on going and made our way to the Lake Borrie hide.

 

As we drove alongside Pond 24 I spotted an unusual silhouette on a log to our right and guessed that it might a Pink-eared Duck, a bird I’d never seen before but one which is often found here. The shape of its bill is very distinctive. I grabbed some photos, knowing they would be pretty poor.

Pink-eared Duck

 

at least in this photo you can see the pink by the ear.

 

After that, on Pond 24 itself we saw hundreds of them, although they flew off almost as soon as we saw them. Very shy of vehicles.

 

We’d already seen quite a number of Black Swans but when we got to the Lake Borrie hide which looked out over the bay there were dozens of them out on the water.

 

After the Lake Borrie Hide we decided to call it a day, the sun was high and the light was very harsh, particularly with so much water around.

Werribee certainly lived up to expectations. Once again I am sure I could have got a lot more from the visit with better planning and more patience, there were many more species than I managed to photograph.

I’ll almost certainly go back again and I’d recommend that any birders in the Melbourne area pay Werribee a visit.

 

(All calm again now. I just had a moment of alarm when I reached the end of my imported photos and there were none at all from Werribee & Winchelsea. Unfortunately I learned the hard way not to re-format my cards until I amd 100%certain I have copied and processed all the images from them, so I was able to go back to the card and import the photos I was missing. No idea how that happened.)

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Soukous

[Soukous]

Winchelsea

 

As already mentioned, my friend Pat operates a working cattle farm. When I stayed there last year I spent most of my time laid up with a mystery infection that kept me close to the warmth of the stove.

No such ill health this year and I wanted to spend some time prowling around looking for birds. I’d seen enough last year to know that the farm had a wonderful variety of species, including some rare ones.

 

Last year, with very little effort I saw:

Black Swan

Australian Grebe

Superb Fairywren

Red-browed Finch

Grey Fantail

Australian Magpie

Willie Wagtail

Galah

Mallee Ringneck

 

This year I added:

 

New Holland Honeyeater

 

Silvereye

 

Little Corella

 

Long-billed Corella

 

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

 

Crimson Rosella

 

Blue-winged Parrot

Eurasian Skylark

Gang-gang Cockatoo

 

Most of them were spotted just driving or walking around the fields

 

The Gang-gangs were special though. I knew they visited the farm and was very keen to see them, so when I saw 2 grey cockatoo shapes flying through the gums near the river I hoped I’d be in luck.

They were distant and at first nothing more than a dark grey silhouette against a light grey sky.

I kept track of them as they moved from one tree to another, waiting until there was at least some light.

 

 

I got a couple of photos and closer inspection revealed that I’d managed to get the female. A pretty bird but nowhere near as striking as the male with its flame red crest.

 

Later that afternoon, as we were setting out to recover the yabbie nets and see what, if anything, we’d caught (I’ll talk about the yabbies a little later on. For the moment let’s stick with the Gang-gangs) we heard the distinctive call of a Gang-gang Cockatoo. Once you’ve heard it is really is unmistakable.

 

The bird had flown into the topmost branches of a small gum tree not far from the house. I could hear it, but it took me ages to find it and even longer to get a photograph.

There was quite a wind blowing, so the tops of the trees were swaying wildly and I’d only catch brief glimpses of the Cockatoo as it was feeding.

My first attempts ended up like this

It would blow into view and then out of view again, hidden amid the branches.

 

I stayed for about 30 minutes trying to catch it, but the light was fading, my neck was getting stiff from staring up into the tree and my arms were aching from holding the camera and lens. I’d done my best.

This time it had been a male Gang-gang, but only an immature one. His head had some red on it, but his crest was not developed.

 

I hadn’t got any decent photos but they're pretty rare and it was a lifer all the same so I was happy.

 

OK, now let’s talk yabbies.

A Yabby is an Australian freshwater crustacean – a sort of crayfish - and can be found in the dams on many farms in Victoria.

 

They prefer a dam with muddy water to one with clear water as in clear water it is easy for birds to see them and hunt them.

Most farmers will have a yabby net in one of their sheds.

 

Watching a friend pull yabbies from a small pond when we were in Swan Hill had given us the idea to try on the farm. Pat had no idea whether or not we’d catch anything but we were going to give it a go. We’d drop the nets in the morning before we went to watch the grandsons play cricket, then pull them out later on, when we got home.

We found the nets and got a few scraps of meat to bait them with and in they went.

 

 

 

Yabbies don't usually eat meat. They prefer rotting vegetation and algae, but they will scavenge meat if their dam is overcrowded. Yabbies are easy to catch with meat as bait because they want to spread the meat around to grow more algae.

 

It was as we were getting into the ute to recover the yabby nets that we heard the Gang-gang Cockatoos. (see above)

 

We pulled the nets out and were both surprised and thrilled to find that we had a pretty decent catch.

 

Back home, we cleaned them and cooked them before eating them with a nice dipping sauce.

 

the aftermath

A lovely treat for my last night in Australia. They don’t taste as good as crustaceans caught in the sea, but they were still pretty good.

 

At 6:45 next morning, Pat banged on my door and shouted, “they’re out there.”

I was dressed and outside within 5 minutes. “Where are they?”

“I don’t know, but I just heard them.”

 

SPOILER ALERT - These birds are very rare so I may go overboard with the photos

 

I began searching the treetops and listening carefully for the call. They are pretty quiet when feeding and only really make a noise when flying, so I needed at least one of them to fly.

And it did. I saw it flying up the driveway and into the top of a tree quite close to where I was standing.

It was a male, not fully mature but with a decent amount of red on his head, almost certainly the same one I had seen the previous evening and – more importantly he was in good light and I could see him clearly.

 

 

I could hardly believe my luck. He sat there for a while, just looking at me then flew off down the driveway.

I saw where he had gone and I followed. I could see the branches swaying as he moved about but he was too well hidden.

Then the female showed herself.

 

 

 

 

This was the closest I’d managed to get and the light was great.

Then the male appeared and nudged the female off the perch because he wanted to feed there.

 

 

 

He chomped away contentedly for several minutes and then it was time to go and they both flew off towards the river.

 

 

This was a better sighting than I had ever dreamed I might get. What a way to end my trip. I'd love to have been able to stay a couple more days to see if a mature male turned up but all I had to look forward to now was hours in aeroplanes and airports as I returned to the UK.

 

Not all doom & gloom though as it would only be 3 weeks before I was back in airports and aeroplanes to go to South Africa, where I'd meet up with @xelas& Zvezda. 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Soukous

[xelas]

What a wonderful trip report, and even more wonderful photos posted! The lights was superb, such a difference to what is right now in Europe. Thus Zvezda and I are on our toes to fly south.

 

As for you being the grumpy old man, well, I know a person who knows two such grumpy old men . And about "hotel" not offering any accommodation, there are many such "hotels" (restaurants in fact) in Sri Lanka.

 

Just two questions I could ask you in 2 weeks time but you know me being impatiently:

 

- what camera/lens did you use

- how many birds have you seen

 

Australia is on top of Zvezda's retirement celebration travel list. We might be lucky to follow at least some of your steps.

[janzin]

Fantastic birds, fabulous photos! We are thinking about a return to Australia soon and definitely would like to cover south, at least the areas around Melbourne and Adelaide. This whetted my appetite for sure

[John M.]

Yes, Werribee is a good spot. Hope you have the good fortune to return. There are other good birding areas nearby, such as the Breamlea reserve and Anglesea.

[Kitsafari]

beautiful photos, particularly the gang gangs in the lovely morning light! That was a looooong drive from Albany to Geelong - i'm not sure we would do such a cross-state border drive like that but thank you for preparing and sharing the TR. 

 

[Soukous]

9 hours ago, John M. said:

Yes, Werribee is a good spot. Hope you have the good fortune to return. There are other good birding areas nearby, such as the Breamlea reserve and Anglesea.

 

That's what I love about Australia John, there are always new places to explore and the birdlife is just as good outside reserves as it is in them.

[Soukous]

18 hours ago, xelas said:

As for you being the grumpy old man, well, I know a person who knows two such grumpy old men 

 

I assume you mean me & you , so that person must be Zvezda 

[Soukous]

18 hours ago, xelas said:

what camera/lens did you use

- how many birds have you seen

 

The camera & lens part is easy.

I used mostly my D500 + pf500 lens

I also took along my new-ish Z8 and a 100-400mm lens, but found that I used that mostly for flowers. Later on, at Gluepot, I put the pf500 onto the Z8 and used that for the rest of the trip.

For the sider angle shots I just used my phone. 

 

How many birds did I see?  I didn't count the number of species as that is not really my thing, but I will see if I can find a number for you. I don't think it was a huge number, I was more interested in getting nice shots of the ones I did see.

[Soukous]

6 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

That was a looooong drive from Albany to Geelong

 

Yes, it was/is a long drive ad it could undoubtedly have been done more comfortably than we did it, but even so there were many places that we missed out.

 

[Soukous]

14 hours ago, janzin said:

Fantastic birds, fabulous photos! We are thinking about a return to Australia soon and definitely would like to cover south, at least the areas around Melbourne and Adelaide. This whetted my appetite for sure

 

There are lots of great places for birding between Melbourne & Adelaide, but then once you reach Adelaide it is hard to resist going a bit further, down to Port Lincoln, for example. But if you are restricted by time then a nice loop between Melbourne & Adelaide is very do-able; coastal one way then inland on the way back, or vv.

[Soukous]

19 hours ago, xelas said:

- how many birds have you seen

 

102 species that I managed to 100% identify. 

[xelas]

12 hours ago, Soukous said:

I assume you mean me & you , so that person must be Zvezda 

First part is correct, second is not . She knows only one grumpy old man ... me!

[xelas]

On 11/12/2023 at 10:06 AM, Soukous said:

I also took along my new-ish Z8 and a 100-400mm lens,

Congratulations, and welcome to the mirrorless world. Not easy to adapt, at least for me.

[Soukous]

15 hours ago, xelas said:

Congratulations, and welcome to the mirrorless world. Not easy to adapt, at least for me.

 

tell me about it.  My D500 still gets plenty of use