Australia Day Weekend

Hi all, For the past few years we have taken the Australia Day weekend as a chance to head to Orbost and the coast in the far east of Victoria, but this year we opted for a change and headed north-east to the dry grasslands and hills around Chiltern. Our first stop was Bartley’s Block, a clear area within the forest and in the early morning sunshine the flowering mistletoe was full of honeyeaters, and small birds bounced and chirped in the freshness everywhere we walked. What surprised us were the large numbers of Black Honeyeaters and White-throated Gerygones. Another thing that surprised us, rudely, was the largest and most beautiful Red-bellied Black Snake I have ever seen. It was thick and shiny and I guess it was nearly 2 metres long, but I didn’t get close enough to actually pace out its length or lie down beside it for comparison; the comment in the field guide says “Dangerously venomous and bite can be fatal”. On Sunday we headed down to the Warby Ranges and arrived at Wangaratta at lunchtime and were lucky enough to choose Kaluna Bushland Reserve, right in the middle of town as a spot for lunch. As we walked the trails through the reserve we were surrounded by birds, including more than a dozen Dollarbirds. This was another surprise for the trip. We have seen Dollarbirds in Vic before but never in such big flocks. Of course all these Dollarbirds got us off on one of our driving reveries. We decided that a flock of Dollarbirds had to be either a Bank or Wealth of Dollarbirds and this led us to consider some of the other birds we had seen for the weekend; A Surprise of Black Honeyeaters just because we weren’t expecting them, a Delight of White-throated Gerygone because they are so beautiful in their butter-yellow vests, and a Pin-cushion of Needletails, why not. As usual the Warby Ranges did give us different birds including large numbers of Turquoise Parrots and we ended the trip with well over 100 species for the weekend including Latham’s Snipe, Peregrine Falcon, Peaceful Dove, White-throated Needletail, Little Corella, Little Lorikeet, Speckled Warbler and Western Gerygone. Fun It is very dry up around Chiltern but the birding was spectacular so anyone looking for a place to go it is well worth it at the moment. There is a longer report and photos on my blog. cheers Jenny http://jenniferspryausbirding.blogspot.com.au/ _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org