A Trip To Long Forest

My dad had the Sunday off work and I wanted to go birding, so we decided to go to Long Forest National Conservation Reserve in Bacchus Marsh, to see what we could see. The reserve is home to the only mallee forest south of the Great Dividing Range, so even if we did not see anything it would still be a good day out. The plan was to get there at 7:15, but we ended up leaving at that time. After a few wrong turns we eventually got there, but couldn't find the carpark, taking up even more time. Eventually we found the carpark and walked along the Long Point Track.
At the start of the track was an information booth where two superb fairy-wren females were hopping around on the ground. The birds here were mostly very quick to hide and shy, but we still saw several good birds. We walked further on and stumbled into a feeding flock of birds.
Most of the birds were striated thornbills, with a single buff-rumped thornbill darting away much too fast for me to get a picture. In a tree next to the track was one of the specialties of the reserve, the dry country or yellow-rumped form of the spotted pardalote.

A 'yellow-rumped' pardalote

Walking further on, we saw several eastern yellow robins and a few more thornbills. Soon we came to an area where there was a gully on one side of the track, with several tall trees stretching up. A bird with a yellow belly flew into one of these trees and my first thought was 'it's another yellow robin, lets forget about it'. Then I got a closer look and almost jumped out of my shoes. I reached for my camera, I zoomed in, I took a photo and . . .

A YELLOW-TUFTED HONEYEATER!

It was one of my target birds! We walked on further and startled a fox that was trying to have a bath in a creek. There were many, many eastern yellow robins. Finally we came out of the forest and into a grassland area, climbing up a hill to see a male scarlet robin in a tree nearby and a few superb fairy-wrens on the ground.

We walked further along the grassland, seeing more superb fairy-wrens, a crimson rosella, two eastern rosellas and three eastern grey kangaroos. Soon it was time to head back and we walked back along the path, stopping to eat some snacks. We got back into the mallee and soon spotted another feeding flock, again mostly of striated thornbills. On the forest floor I spotted a grey bird that stayed along for some time, which I could not identify. In a tree I saw a weebill, Australia's smallest bird, its body almost completely hidden by the leaves. It stayed for a few seconds before quickly flying away, far too quickly for my camera. Soon we were back in the car. We headed home, spotting a red wattlebird in a tree and a little raven on the way. This is a place we must visit again. 

The mystery bird