VISITING PHILLIP ISLAND

For Easter we decided to travel to Phillip Island. Though it was mostly my sister's idea and she mostly went to tourist spots, I still got to do a bit of birding at the Nobbies and at Swan Lake.

A white-faced heron stands next to the boardwalk at the Nobbies

The Nobbies was the first place we visited. However, it was really quiet. All we saw were 6 Pacific gulls, 2 little penguins hiding under the boardwalk and a lone white-faced heron. However, when we were about to leave I saw a bird flying quickly toward the rocky island offshore, too quickly for a gull. I zoomed in on it with my camera and took a pretty bad-quality photo (too bad to show here) and realised it was a peregrine falcon! Cool, but not that surprising since they have apparently been recorded nesting on the cliffs of that island.

2 Australian Shelduck swimming around in Swan Lake

The second place we visited was Swan Lake. We saw much more birds there. At the first bird hide overlooking a stretch of grassland a variety of birds were present. All the usual suspects like chestnut teal, Pacific black duck, masked lapwing, dusky moorhen, Australian white ibis, straw-necked ibis, hoary-headed grebe and Australian wood duck were there, but the birds of the day were about 10 Australian shelduck peacefully feeding just near the hide. There was also an Eastern great egret flying overhead, which eventually landed at the far bank of the lake. White-browed scrubwren and brown thornbill were also flying around in the shrubs next to the hide. Since we were on Phillip Island there was no shortage of Cape Barren geese: we saw many around the hides. Finally, there were purple swamphens flying around the lake. The other hide had basically more of the same, but also had 2 black swans. As we were walking back we spotted little wattlebird, red wattlebird and New Holland honeyeaters in flowering trees near the carpark.

A white-browed scrubwren in one of the shrubs near the hide

SPECIES SEEN:
1. Pacific Black Duck
2. Chestnut Teal
3. Australian Wood Duck
4. Australian Shelduck
5. Cape Barren Goose
6. Black Swan
7. Hoary-Headed Grebe
8. Australian White Ibis
9. Straw-Necked Ibis
10. Australian Pelican
11. White-Faced Heron
12. Eastern Great Egret
13. Peregrine Falcon
14. Purple Swamphen
15. Dusky Moorhen
16. Pacific Gull
17. Silver Gull
18. Brown Thornbill
19. White-Browed Scrubwren
20. Red Wattlebird
21. Little Wattlebird
22. New Holland Honeyeater
23. Little Raven
24. Australian Magpie
25. House Sparrow
26. Common Myna