Drysdale (Spotted Harrier, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo)

No twitchathon for me this year, as we were celebrating my mother-in-law’s 92nd birthday, but once the visitors had departed I popped out for about an hour to Drysdale, on the Bellarine Peninsula. There are some great birding spots there. Lake Lorne has become the most reliable place to see Freckled Duck over the last 3-4 years. Numbers are sometimes over 100, though at the moment there are fewer birds. I could only find around a dozen today, but I only looked on the west side of the islands. Blue-billed Duck are also usually present, and today there were at least 4 males. A Shining Bronze-Cuckoo was calling and flying around the scrub at the edge of the lake, occasionally harassed by a Red Wattlebird. There was a Grey Fantail staying close to the cuckoo, but the cuckoo was an adult, so I assume it was just coincidence. McLeod’s Waterholes is nearby, and worth a look if you have time. A little further away, in Martins Lane, is the Drysdale Flore and Fauna Reserve. This really doesn’t look very promising, a bit like a small abandoned paddock, but there is a small wetland and a small woodland with old trees and a few hollows. There are usually Red-rumped Parrots, Galahs, lorikeets and several honeyeater species around. This tiny reserve has turned up interesting birds over the years. The most interesting bird today was an adult Spotted Harrier near the corner of Grubb and Belchers Roads – an uncommon raptor for the Bellarine Peninsula. Russell Woodford Geelong =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================