BIRDING THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA

For the Australia Day long weekend my family and I travelled to Sorrento in the Mornington Peninsula, roughly an hour away from Melbourne, to spend the night. We saw a lot of wildlife during the trip.
When we arrived in Sorrento, at around lunchtime, we immediately went to the Sorrento pier to board a Moonraker Dolphin Watching cruise. The boat traveled quickly and the waters of Port Phillip Bay were fairly calm, with nobody on board being seasick. Acting on a tipoff, we travelled to where a group of Burrunan Dolphins had been seen. Almost immediately after arriving at the site we were given unbelievable views of a group of 6 Burrunan Dolphins, with a few short-tailed shearwaters and Australian gannets flying around the boat as well.

A group of three Burrunan dolphins surfaces from the ocean

This large flock of short-tailed shearwaters flew off in the distance when we arrived

The Burrunan Dolphin has recently been split from the common bottlenose dolphin and is endemic to Victoria: the only known populations are in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes. It was amazing to finally see one of these rare dolphins in the flesh!
We then visited two other sites: Chinaman's Hat and Popes Eye. Chinaman's Hat is an artificial structure in the middle of Port Phillip Bay, created as a resting site for Australian fur seals. Male fur seals born at the Seal Rocks swim here as they grow up. The females all remain at Seal Rocks (a seal breeding colony in Phillip Island).

The boat behind the seals belongs to another tour company

The Chinaman's Hat was made for the purpose of providing a resting site for these seals

Our final destination on the cruise was Pope's Eye, an abandoned military fort that is now a great snorkelling site and home to a colony of Australasian gannets.

These two Australasian gannets were very close to the boat

Here you can see both the young and adult Australasian gannets

After that we returned to shore, headed to our hotel and relaxed until night. We quickly rushed to the Moonlit Sanctuary, arriving at around 8 pm. This sanctuary offers night tours that let you get up close and personal with a variety of wildlife, allowing the hand-feeding of kangaroos, wallabies and various gliders. Though I didn't take much photographs of the captive animals (being too busy feeding and petting them) I did see two wild possums: a brush tailed possum and a ring-tailed possum, which I photographed.

The brush-tailed possum is the largest of the Melbourne area's two commonest possums

In contrast, the ring-tailed possum is much smaller and shyer

The moon was apparently tinted red by the smoke of Tasmanian bushfires

After leaving the sanctuary and sleeping, the next morning my father and I woke up to visit Cape Schanck. Once we got to the Cape we found out that it was off-bounds due to a search mission going on, so we headed to Point Nepean and walked along Defence Road from Gunners Cottage. The forest here was quite birdy, with small birds like white-browed scrubwren, silvereye, superb fairy-wren and yellow-faced honeyeater all present. However, the best birds appeared once we got to the top of the walk. In the air were several distant lifer fork-tailed swifts, as well as a quick white-throated needle tail  Finally, a large flock of spiny-cheeked honeyeaters flew through and allowed excellent photos.

This spiny-cheeked honeyeater posed nicely atop a tree

After that we headed to the Peninsula Hot Springs for a swim before travelling home. 

In short, the trip was extremely successful and showed what kind of great wildlife lies just within 2 hours of the Melbourne CBD. 

DUCKS AT LAKE LORNE

I had recently heard about a reliable place to see the rare and threatened freckled duck: Lake Lorne, in Drysdale. This morning I went out to the lake, about an hour from Melbourne.
As soon as we arrived at the lake I was greeted by a large group of birds. A single distant Latham's snipe was a lifer, joined by a flock of blue-billed ducks, hardheads, hoary-headed grebes, chestnut teals and lifer pink-eared ducks in the middle of the lake. On the lake shores were white-headed stilts and black-fronted dotterels. Already 2 lifers had been seen: now it was just a hunt for the freckled duck.

This hardhead was one of many out on the lake

This small group of birds holds hoary-headed grebes, a hardhead, a blue-billed duck and a pink-eared duck all swimming together.

The white-headed stilt is a distinctive bird, with its long bubblegum-pink legs

Many of these black-fronted dotterels were feeding on the lake shore

This straw-necked ibis perched majestically at the top of a tree

A group of pretty pink-eared ducks swam around the island in the middle of Lake Lorne

As we continued forward, a few more birds appeared: several silvergulls and Australian white ibis on the lake shore, welcome swallows flying everywhere and some common land birds in the shrubs surrounding the lake (noisy miner, red-rumped parrot, crested pigeon and superb fairy-wren). Then, as we came to the end of our walk, I saw 5 darker-coloured ducks with red bills under a branch. I was glad to finally see my first freckled ducks giving great views.

The freckled duck is one of Victoria's rarest and most threatened ducks

The trip was very productive and it seemed the reports about Lake Lorne being reliable for freckled duck were true.
On the trip back I also saw several wedge-tailed eagles and whistling kites.

ORGAN PIPES NATIONAL PARK

Recently my family, my cousin and I visited a nearby national park, the Organ Pipes National Park. I had heard about several birds seen there and thought that it would be a good place to bring my family, since it was just 15 minutes away from home.
On arriving, we didn't initially see much. However, as we descended the steep hill of the park, a few common birds were seen: Willie wagtails and superb fairy-wrens making an appearance. At the bottom of the hill, two dusky woodswallows were perched on twigs: one immature and one adult. The adult was too hard to photograph, but I got a good shot of the younger bird.

This young dusky woodswallow didn't stray far from his parent

Continuing down, we got to the Organ Pipes rock formation. This basalt structure had been formed by volcanic activity in the area. White marks were visible on the rocks: according to previous reports these marks are the droppings of peregrine falcons that nest there. Unfortunately none were visible: however two eastern grey kangaroos were seen at a distance. We ate a snack at the nearby picnic area before walking on to see the equally interesting Rosette Stone formation. On the way several white-browed scrubwrens were feeding in a bush.

The Organ Pipes really look manmade, despite the fact that they are completely natural

The Rosette Stone is also very beautiful and odd-looking

We then walked back up the hill. On the way I was delighted to see some rufous whistlers very close to the track. There was also a distant black-faced cuckoo-shrike and two eastern grey kangaroos feeding nearby (one with a joey!)

It was nice to get a good photo of this rufous whistler

This adorable eastern grey kangaroo was happily feeding as we walked along the track

The national park had a few more gifts left for me: a single falcon-like bird flew overhead (most likely the peregrine falcon reported to roost here) and as we made it to the top of the hill a close-up and very tame swamp wallaby inspected us before hopping slowly away.

This swamp wallaby, similar to the kangaroo before it, seemed calm with our presence 

All in all it was great to discover this hidden treasure of a park.

THE AMAZING KEA

In the high southern alps of New Zealand lives a very special species of parrot. The kea, Nestor notabilis, is the world's only alpine parrot. Several years ago, I was lucky enough to see these birds. If you ever go to New Zealand and want to see kea, a guaranteed spot for them is the Viaduct Lookout in Arthur's Pass National Park.

Two kea perched on a slope at Viaduct Lookout

The kea is an extremely intelligent bird. In experiments, it has solved puzzles it has never seen before to get at food. It is also very curious. Its curiosity leads it to often peck at cars. In this process keas have been known to vandalise rental cars, so when seeing keas it can be good to leave someone to guard the car. While I was in New Zealand I saw a group of 4 keas hop on top of a moving caravan and start tearing at the roof! Its curiosity was once its downfall. Kea pecking at sheep and making them bleed lead to them being declared a pest species. A bounty was placed on kea and they were hunted almost to extinction. Now they are a protected species.

This kea was very curious about my camera!

In the cold climate of the Southern Alps, kea have had to adapt to eat a variety of foods. A variety of fruit, berries and plant matter are eaten, but due to the scarcity of food in the winter the kea has become one of the world's few meat-eating parrots. It uses its sharp feet and beak to dig up shearwater burrows. The shearwater chick inside is pulled out, killed and eaten. Strangely enough, New Zealand also has another meat-eating parrot: the Antipodes Island parakeet lives in the freezing Antipodes Island, thus also sometimes resorts to eating the chicks of storm-petrels.

A close up photo of the previous bird

As you can see, the kea is really an amazing bird. If you are in the South Island of New Zealand, try and check out the kea at Viaduct Lookout.

BIRDING NUWERA ELIYA

While visiting Bandarawela in the Sri Lankan hills to meet relatives, I went on a trip to Nuwera Eliya. A friend had told me that there was a hotel where reliable roosting brown wood owls could be seen. We visited this hotel early in the morning.
At first the hotel didn't seem very birdy. We walked down a path into the forest, then just a few hundred metres from the hotel we got stunning views of two lifer brown wood owls.

Probably my best shot of the brown wood owl, it still doesn't really do the bird justice

The forest around the owls was very thick and we hiked forward from there. Several forest wagtails, Tickell's blue flycatchers and Asian brown flycatchers were seen but not photographed. Eventually we came into a more open area, there were some endemic Sri Lankan wood pigeons here, as well as a distant lifer hill myna and some rose-ringed parakeets. A fruiting tree attracted a brown-headed barbet. Near the end of our walk, a flock of grey-headed canary flycatchers, Asian brown flycatchers and oriental white-eyes was seen, along with a barking deer. Unfortunately the conditions weren't very good for photography and my best shot of the wood pigeon is too bad to show on this blog.
While eating breakfast at the hotel we sat in front of a birdbath. This turned out to be very productive and we got close views of secretive birds like brown-capped babblers, Tickell's blue flycatchers, oriental white-eyes, great tits and purple-rumped sunbirds.

This stunning male Tickell's blue flycatcher didn't stay at the bath for long

This Asian subspecies of the great tit looks very different to the European subspecies

Secretive brown-capped babblers are endemic to Sri Lanka

While we were there a massive flock of oriental white-eyes visited the birdbath

All in all it was well-worth checking out this hotel. If anyone is interested, the name of the hotel is Surrey Birds.

THE SECOND SAFARI: UDAWALAWE

We woke early the next morning for another safari. The beginning of this safari seemed promising, with several flocks of plum-headed parakeets visible, among other birds. Then the safari slowed down as we travelled through an area of shady forest, stopping at a small pool where apparently Malay night-heron is a possibility. Eventually we reached another tank, birds were similar to those seen before but there was a distant grey-headed fish eagle and a much closer and lifer stork-billed kingfisher looking for food. While we stopped to eat our packed breakfast, a blue-tailed bee-eater flew into a nearby tree!

There is both a small resident and larger migrant population of these blue-tailed bee-eaters here

 

The stork-billed kingfisher is Sri Lanka's largest kingfisher

A few more birds were seen after that, including 2 blue-faced malkohas that were too fast for my camera, a few more prinias and some elephants and spotted deer. However, nothing new was seen after that apart from a single Malabar pied hornbill and it seemed that the first safari had been much more productive. 

The Malabar pied hornbill is the largest and most beautiful of Sri Lanka's two hornbills

A SAFARI IN UDAWALAWE

Recently my family and I travelled to Sri Lanka to meet our relatives, who live in the cities of Colombo and Bandarawela. As normal, while in Sri Lanka I went birding at Udawalawe National Park, Yala National Park and around Nuwera Eliya.
While in Udawalawe we stayed at the Grand Udawalawe Safari Hotel. From there we went on two safaris. The first one is the subject of this post.
We left at about 2 in the afternoon. On the drive toward the park entrance (a few kilometres from the hotel) we saw a few water buffalos and the first Asian elephant of the trip, but didn't stop as both those species are common inside the park. I also saw a possible Eurasian hoopoe flying into the forest near the road, as well as some of Sri Lanka's commoner waterbirds in a small marshy area (black-winged stilts, Indian pond herons, little egrets and cattle egrets). Again we didn't stop. On entering the park the birding began.
Almost immediately we noted a variety of birds in the scrub near the gate. Calling from the tops of bushes were many plain prinias and a single ashy prinia. On the ground were camouflaged Jerdon's bushlarks and paddyfield pipits. Several Indian robins were hopping around the gates. Some little green bee-eaters were hawking for insects. A single grey-bellied cuckoo perched on a branch. Finally, some tricoloured munias were drinking from a puddle of water.

These tricoloured munias seemed to be enjoying themselves in the water

The plain prinia is one of Udawalawe's commonest birds

Small Jerdon's bushlarks were feeding just next to our jeep

Little green bee-eaters are common in much of the Sri Lankan dry zone

Both Paddyfield pipits like this and the rare migrant Richard's pipit occur in Udawalawe

The elegant grey-bellied cuckoo is a common migrant to Sri Lanka

As we continued on these birds proved common. Some tall, dead trees further on held a large flock of rosy starlings, as well as two nesting plum-headed parakeets, both species lifers for me. There was also a very distant black-winged kite in a nearby tree, too distant to photograph.

The male plum-headed parakeet 

This tired-looking rosy starling was one of the last birds to fly from the tree as we passed 

Soon we came to a lake, in the area of scrub before this I saw a lifer barred buttonquail but it darted before I could take a photo. There were many zitting cisticolas around the lake, a single grey heron was on the far shore and some waders (two black-winged stilts, a red-wattled lapwing, a marsh sandpiper and a wood sandpiper) were on a nearby bank. However the most spectacular bird there was a crested hawk-eagle scanning for prey from a nearby tree. Some water buffalo were also present.

A nearby black-winged stilt allowed good photos before finally flying away

The marsh sandpiper looks quite similar to the more abundant common greenshank

Red-wattled lapwings are found commonly throughout Sri Lanka

Wood sandpipers are fairly common migrants to Sri Lanka

This majestic changeable hawk-eagle seemed unfazed by our presence

Zitting cisticolas can be found all the way from Australia to the Middle East

Sadly most of Sri Lanka's water buffalos are hybrids between domestic and wild buffalo

Some trees and scrub further on held a feeding purple sunbird, as well as some orange-breasted green pigeons. Then we hit the jackpot, spotting a sirkeer malkoha feeding nearby. This was one of our main target birds and a lifer for me!

The male orange-breasted green pigeon is one of Sri Lanka's most beautiful birds

This male purple sunbird was drinking nectar from the flowers of this bush

The sirkeer malkoha is a bird easiest seen at Udawalawe or Yala National Parks

As we headed back from the lake we saw our first of many Asian elephants standing atop a rock, while a smaller and younger elephant watched us warily from the safety of a bush.

Udawalawe is probably the easiest place to see elephants in Sri Lanka

We continued on, seeing a few more elephants, until we ended up at a bungalow on the side of the Walawe River. There was a small nature trail here, we walked up it as apparently brown fish owl can be seen roosting at the far end sometimes. We saw a single forest wagtail that was too quick to photograph, two Asian brown flycatchers and an orange-headed thrush before our guide pointed out recent marks from a young buffalo hitting the nearby trees, so we all quickly headed back. There was evidence of the owl's presence (some poo left behind at what were apparently old roosting spots), however we couldn't find it.

Areas of shady forest in Udawalawe are good for the orange-headed thrush

Asian brown flycatchers are also common in those forests

We then headed to a spot where we could see the Udawalawe Wewa (a wewa (tank in english) is a large man-made body of water and often very good for birds). On the way there we saw three coppersmith barbets in a tree. At the wewa itself there were few birds: a single distant yellow wagtail, a common sandpiper, some whiskered terns and an Oriental darter. While heading back from the wewa we heard a calling pied cuckoo but could not find it.

Small and beautiful coppersmith barbets are a common bird in the Sri Lankan dry zone

After that we headed back, stopping to watch a few Indian peafowl settling down in a bare tree.