A VISIT TO WERRIBEE ZOO

I am, so far, the ONLY person who has blogged about birding in Werribee Zoo (not to boast). Today we went to the open range zoo.
We started the day with a safari trip. On the trip, we saw the usual captive animals and got rather close to the Giraffes. Of course, this is a BIRDING blog so I won't be mentioning them, you can take a look at them on the zoo website. In a lake which the zebras were drinking from I spotted several white-faced herons, a masked lapwing and two magpie geese. Magpie geese are considered threatened in Victoria, but can often be seen on safaris at Werribee. In the hippo lake I managed to see a Australasian grebe swimming.

 A magpie goose

 An Australasian grebe
After the safari tour, we went on the African carnivore walk. At the hippo section, there were a few chestnut teals. Just then, I saw something on the mud at the edge of the lake. It was a bird I had only seen twice before, a black-fronted dotterel!

 The black-fronted dotterel
After that we went and saw the night serval cat presentation and some fire-dancing before we went home. We had a great time at the zoo.

A serval cat with a zookeeper, 

Birding Sri Lanka- Thalangama Tank Part 3

While in Colombo, I managed to squeeze in a bit of birding and go to Thalangama a few times with a few family friends. This is another Thalangama Tank trip report. As usual, we started very early.We walked up a small creek that flowed into a large lake. I managed to see purple swamphens, pheasant-tailed jacanas and some tiny tadpole-like animals here.Apparently 3 species of kingfisher can be found at Thalangama- the common, white-throated and pied kingfishers. We had gone up the creek to try and find one. When we came back along the creek we got an interesting bonus- a secretive yellow bittern and a water monitor lizard swimming.

                                   A water monitor. These lizards are common at Thalangama.
 We soon got back to the main lake. At the lake we saw the usual birds- yellow bitterns, white-breasted waterhens (like moorhens, but they have white bellies), purple herons, little cormorants, pond herons and various egrets. Unfortunately, we couldn't spot any leaf monkeys. For information on most of those birds and other animals, you can look at my other posts on Thalangama. The birds I haven't shown before are shown below.

                                             A pond heron in breeding plumage

                                                     A white-breasted waterhen

                       An Oriental Darter (this bird was in a tree, nesting with some purple herons)

                                                            A purple heron

                                                     A pheasant-tailed jacana
I enjoyed being able to show two more people the magic of this wetland just a few kilometers away from the center of Colombo. It was a great day birding, and I also managed to get a very good shot of an oriental darter.
 I think that pretty much sums it up.

Sorry about my absence

I am very sorry about my long absence from this blog. I was mourning the death of my grandmother in Sri Lanka. My family and I went overseas for her funeral. Now I should still be posting about my birding adventures. Thank you for putting up with me, Chanith.

TRIP TO THE GRAMPIANS- DAY 2

This was to be our final day in the Grampians. We started the day by exploring the gardens to look for birds. My dad pointed out some birds on the ground that I recognized as white-browed babblers, a lifer for me! We also saw crimson rosellas, sulphur-crested cockatoos, New Holland honeyeaters, grey shrike-thrushes and rainbow lorikeets.

White-browed babblers foraging
After exploring the garden we went to Wartook State Forest to bird. Just outside the forest I saw my lifer, a brown treecreeper, and another lifer on the fence, a jacky winter.

The jacky winter on a fence

The treecreeper creeps up a tree
In the forest were New Holland honeyeaters, red wattlebirds, sulphur-crested cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets and another treecreeper. Then we had lunch at an inn where I spotted my lifer, an eastern spinebill!

A spinebill at a flower, drinking nectar
After that we drove to Cherrypool. We couldn't find that, so we had to take a shortcut home. It is amazing how many interesting birds you can see on the side of the road in the Grampians. We spotted laughing kookaburras, crimson rosellas, a common bronzewing and a majestic wedge-tailed eagle.

A kookaburra near the car

The wedge-tailed eagle takes off
After that we went to Wonderland! For those of you who haven't been to the Grampians, Wonderland is a long, beautiful hike through part of the mountains. It is very fun and has good scenery. I throughly enjoyed it. Then we went to a flooded lake with lots of coots and greater cormorants, but not much else apart from a brown falcon.

A brown falcon perches on a tree
Finally, we had dinner. After dinner I saw a tawny frogmouth that I couldn't photograph. I had a great time in the Grampians!

TRIP TO THE GRAMPIANS- DAY 1

Hi! I have just returned from a trip to the Grampians. This is my trip report of what happened bird-wise. The report starts from when we got to Halls Gap
I got out of the car, in the main center of Halls Gap. My mother went to the information center while the rest of us birded in a small park that showed us some of the commoner birds of the Grampians- pied currawongs, long-billed corellas, laughing kookaburras and red wattlebirds. Just then, a grey kangaroo bounded across the park! The amount of kangaroos in the Grampians just amazes me.

A pied currawong in a tree. These birds are very common in the Grampians.

A kangaroo. Both Western and Eastern Grey Kangaroos occur here. Can you identify the exact species?
After watching these birds, we went to a reservoir. There was a magpie and a probable forest raven at the reservoir, but not much else. Finally, we got to our cottage. The garden seemed to be full of birds. In a tree, I spotted a lifer, a beautiful male scarlet robin.

A male scarlet robin in a tree
After that we went to a restaurant where the food was O.K, but not that good. Before going to sleep we went on a night walk in the cottage grounds. There weren't many mammals because a big owl had scared them off. I heard a tawny frogmouth calling. Finally, my mum and I saw a sugar glider flying from tree-to-tree. I didn't get any photos of it, as it scrambled up among the leaves before I could switch on my camera. After that we went to bed. I couldn't get to sleep.

HEADING TO THE GRAMPIANS!

On these school holidays I will be going to the Grampians mountains in western Victoria. I am hoping to see yellow-faced honeyeaters, white-throated treecreepers, eastern spinebills, pied currawongs, eastern yellow robins, laughing kookaburras,long-billed corellas, western grey kangaroos, gang gangs and other interesting forest birds. Of these, the yellow-faced honeyeater, eastern spinebill and gang-gang would be lifers. I have seen a western grey kangaroo once in South Australia.
I will be staying at a special cottage. Expect a detailed report of my trip coming up soon.

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.