Thursday, July 12, 2018

Melbourne Visit


As I mentioned last week, I was recently lucky enough to visit my cousins in Melbourne and as keen birdwatchers, I was taken to some of their favourite sites. 

Whenever they visit us here in the Adelaide Hills, they comment how lucky we are to have so many birds visit our garden, but after a few days with them, the boot was on the other foot. I was really envious about their proximity to so many lovely conservation areas in the nearby suburbs. I guess we are all lucky that there is so much more being done to preserve natural habitats and to provide man-made ones as well.

The first shot was taken at Mornington. I liked the identical poses of the Crested tern.  Obviously this species cannot read!!!


A walk along the coast near Mentone Beach gave us this pair of Red Wattle birds in a dead tree.


And in the same area this very pretty Fairy Wren in full plumage.



This little fellow is a Bell Miner - a honeyeater. We don't get this bird in South Australia so I was completely captivated when walking through a section of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens to hear the lovely chiming sound coming from all around me. I eventually got this not so good photo. I was quite disappointed to learn that Bell Miners are considered a bit of a pest in Victoria as they tend to take over areas. I think I could put up with their song if they lived in my area.




This little Dusky Moorhen was the only one left in the nest - the other more adventurous ones were swimming with Mum.


Purple Swamphens are very common, almost to the point of being a nuisance in parks, but I loved these two shots of mothers and sons/daughters

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And my most exciting moment of the trip was to get a shot of a Golden Whistler - my first time to catch one still enough to get a reasonable photo.



Liz Needle

Linking with

Wild Bird Wednesday

Nature Notes

Camera Critters

Saturday Critters


4 comments:

  1. What a birding visit...Must admit to being envious of your great photos as well as that you had such a great visit with fellow birders who knew where to go in a different area for you. Laughed at the terns disobeying the sign and gasped in awe at the beauty of the fairy wren.... have heard before that the miner is considered a pest in Australia (we call them mynahs and as escaped pets they are considered invasive in Florida. ]. I like marsh hens and fun to see the baby.

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    1. Thanks for visiting Sallie, Our Miners are native honeyeaters - we have 4 different ones. We also get the Common Myna which is an introduced species and a real pest here. That is the one you will have heard about.

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  2. Sounds like fun! I love all the photos and the birds. The Fairy Wren is a favorite, I love the Terns too.
    Thanks so much for linking up today. Happy Sunday, enjoy your day and new week ahead!

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  3. It's an amazing place! And you got some wonderful shots.

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