Thanks Robin, glad you like my Chiltern trip report!
I might change the text to read ?birders just don?t play golf – unless you happen to live on the Bellarine Peninsula.” 
Of course you?re absolutely right, but I?ve always thought that you should never let the truth get in the way of rash generalisation, particularly when writing bird trip reports! As you point out, golf courses can be fantastic spots for birds. The Royal Park golf course in Melbourne for instance is one of the main migration stop-over sites for Swift Parrot when travelling between the Tasmania and the woodlands on mainland Australia. It also has a parrot list comparable to any of the top birding sites in Australia!
The next time I spend some time in Chiltern, I might walk around the edge of the golf course. A good time do this would actually be right now! As mentioned, there’se some fantastic box-ironbark bordering the course, with many of the trees completely covered in large clumps of mistletoe. I think there’s also a few waterhole, so the whole thing adds up to a great spot for honeyeaters, possibly Regent Honeyeater. It’s also a pretty good spot for White-throated Gerygone.
Love to see the photographic book for Thirteenth Beach.
Four!
Tim
________________________________________
From: Birding-Aus [birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] on behalf of Robin and Rupert Irwin [rrdjm@iprimus.com.au]
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2014 9:35 PM
To: birding-aus@birding-aus.org
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Chiltern NP
Thanks to Tim Dolby for his extremely helpful bird trip report on the Chiltern NP – have just spent two days up there and they were instrumental to us in finding the right place to find certain birds. However, I must take him to task about his comment ?birders just don?t play golf?! This is not correct – I am a keen golfer and a couple of us at Thirteenth Beach, Barwon Heads, have produced a photographic book on birds found on the course. Many resident members now have copies and this has produced an interest beyond just golf. Our thanks too to the fellow birder we met several times in the park – his camera knowledge was most useful.
Robin Irwin
