One of our Angair members had an interesting experience recently.
She wrote the following account: ‘One late afternoon in July, while walking in my garden I heard a frantic chirping sound. Really puzzled, because it wasn’t quite like a baby bird squawking, I noticed two currawongs flying at a Hardenbergia creeper on the fence. There inside was an exquisite baby Ringtail Possum. We presume it had fallen out of a nesting box high above in a messmate. He fitted inside my hand, and after wrapping him up warmly, we took him to animal carers Robyn and Ian from the Surf Coast Wildlife Shelters Group. The little possum is now doing well and putting on weight.”
A resident of Aireys Inlet commented that he had seen an unusually large number of Eastern Spinebills in a group near Ted’s Track. He said that it’s not the first time he has noticed this species in such numbers. The reason, it appears, is that these birds gather wherever there is an abundance of nectar bearing plants, particularly Correas and Banksias, which are flowering now, and would have been abundant throughout the area near Ted’s Track.
After the seemingly long, cold winter, it is so nice to see signs of spring. I was watching a small bird, which I think was a White-browed Scrub Wren. I couldn’t see it clearly enough to be definite, as it was partially obscured in the foliage. However it held some feather down in its bill, which would be used as lining for a nest, which must be somewhere nearby.
One of the Parks Victoria Rangers reported seeing a sub-adult Sea Eagle at Cathedral Rock. He believed it would probably be a second or third year bird. It takes four years for White-bellied Sea Eagles to achieve their grey and white, adult plumage.
It has been a good year for whale sightings, with mainly Southern Right Whales observed moving along our coastline. A group of three were spotted at Moggs Creek moving towards Fairhaven. The barnacles could be clearly seen on the head of one of the whales as they rolled and breached, quite close to the shore.
Southern Right Whales
Kaye Traynor