A VISIT TO SERENDIP SANCTUARY

Today my sister, my father and I all decided to go to Serendip Sanctuary in Lara. While most of the wildlife is captive, a lot of interesting waterbirds can be found at Serendip. These include the magpie goose, Australian shelduck and yellow-billed spoonbill. It is also very educational. If you are a birder with kids, I recommend taking them to the sanctuary. If they aren't tired when they get out (and they are girls), you can take them to the nearby 'Fairy Adventure Park.'A visit to Serendip is a great day out for the whole family.
We started seeing wildlife as soon as we got out of the car in the carpark. New Holland honeyeaters, red wattlebirds, superb fairy-wrens, two Cape Barren geese and three emus in the distance let us know that it would be great. While walking to the Information Centre, to show my sister the various birds, we spotted a musk duck underneath a bridge.

A portrait of a Cape Barren goose

A male musk duck

At the information centre my sister Ishani learnt a bit about the wildlife that calls Australia home. She saw some captive spotted marsh frogs, looked underwater from the view of a duck and saw stuffed specimens of three of Victoria's nationally threatened birds- the brolga, the Australian bustard and the magpie goose. Then we went on to the wildlife walk.

An eastern grey kangaroo in the shade

At first the wildlife walk was not productive bird-wise. However, I did see an eastern grey kangaroo and found out that I could jump to the same height as a pademelon (a small kind of kangaroo). Then we neared the marshlands. From a bird hide I saw heaps of waterbirds! Pacific black ducks, chestnut teals, Australian white ibis, yellow-billed spoonbills, magpie geese- they were all in front of me! Just then I saw a small, plover-like bird land on the edge of the lake. I realized what it was- a black-fronted dotterel, a lifer for me! While welcome swallows swooped and caught insects in front of the hide, I photographed the dotterel and ended up with some good photos. On the other side of the lake, I noticed two emus and a flock of masked lapwings and Australian shelducks.

The black-fronted dotterel
As we continued on, a swamp wallaby hopped along the side of a fence. The aviary was nice, but had somehow become infested with house and Eurasian tree sparrows. If they were placed in there, they shouldn't be in the 'Bush Birds' area, they shouldn't be in Australia at all! If they got in there, something should be done about it. I wanted to show my sister the joys of ponding, but she didn't want to do it.
After about 2 hours, we finally decided to go home. I saw 3 black-shouldered kites on the way home.
LIFERS FOR ME- 1
LIFERS FOR MY SISTER- 6
LIFERS FOR MY DAD- 1
BEST BIRD FOR ME- Black-Fronted Dotterel
I enjoyed this trip. We had decided to explore the sanctuary, which I had heard about as being a good place to bird. Whoever said that was right. Next time we have visitors from overseas in our house, we should bring them to Serendip.