Returning to Long Forest

After a long while, today I decided to visit Long Forest Conservation Reserve, with my father and some friends. This time, we walked along the Happy Valley Track. On the way to the reserve, we saw a large flock of red-rumped parrots perched on a fence beside the road.
Initially, few birds were seen. A small flock of brown thornbills, a lone flame robin and 2 weebills quickly moved through the forest as we walked along the trail. A common bronzewing startled us when it suddenly flew out of the bushes and landed in a nearby tree, allowing us to get some photos.

The common bronzewing is one of 3 bronzewing pigeons in Australia

We then came into a gully filled with flowering gum trees. Immediately, we were surrounded by calling yellow-tufted honeyeaters, as well as lifer brown-headed honeyeaters. A single scarlet robin darted into a distant tree, as several 'yellow-rumped' spotted pardalotes searched the tops of trees for food.

Victoria's national bird is a rare subspecies of the yellow-tufted honeyeater

The brown-headed honeyeater feeds mainly on insects

As we headed back to the carpark, we came across several large bull ants and took a few photos of them.

Most bull ants have very large eyes for their size.

Back to the Bluff

For the Easter weekend, we decided to drive down to Barwon Bluff and explore the rockpools again. We were unable to explore the intertidal platform, but we did get a look at various species on the basalt platform. Rocks high up on the beach were encrusted in blue periwinkles, ribbed top shells, false limpets, variegated limpets, tube worms and striped conniwinks. A rock lower down to the shore also held a few wine-mouthed lepsiellas. We searched several large rockpools in the basalt boulder field, and were able to find a few large zebra fish in one of the deeper pools, though they quickly hid underneath some algae when we approached. A little later, after the tide had swept over much of the boulder field, we spotted a few young zebra fish, as well as two biscuit stars and a single common seastar hiding in crevices. Some of the basalt boulders were coated in honeycomb barnacles, and black nerites hiding in small gaps. Bird-wise, some crested terns and silvergulls were flying overhead as we searched through the rockpools.

Large honeycomb barnacles joined black nerites and false limpets on this rock.

We saw many ribbed top shells throughout the beach

As always, periwinkles were abundant, clinging to rocks high on the beach

The wine-mouthed lepsiella feeds on barnacles and tube worms

Biscuit stars vary greatly in colour: compare this star to the one below.

This biscuit star, in contrast to the last one, was bright pinkish-red

Striped conniwinks were common pretty much throughout the beach

Hundreds of tube worms and false limpets were clinging to this rock

Just as before, we saw a great variety of marine animals. However, this time we saw far fewer seabirds, probably because it wasn't as windy, so shearwaters and gannets weren't being driven towards the shore.