Gherang Gherang Bushland Reserve bird walk – 9 August 2025

The weather continues to be excellent for the bird walks this year, and again it was sunny with light winds. There was a good turn-up and a short trip to Gherang Gherang Bushland Reserve, about 15 minutes north of Anglesea off Forest Road. I like to walk along the track at the north end of the reserve which joins up with Old Tip Road after about 400 metres. Walking along the edge of the reserve provides the opportunity of seeing some different birds in the adjacent paddocks. This includes raptors (a couple of Wedge-tailed Eagles sometimes sit in a large tree across the paddock) and with recent rains, there have been Shelducks, Wood Ducks and White-faced Herons in the paddocks. The water birds were present again today.

The list of bird is given below, and nothing really exciting, but a solid list. The Fan-tailed Cuckoos were back at last with the continuous trilling, but we were unable to get a good photo. The shelducks were flying overhead from time-to-time and honking. The Eastern Spinebills were also making plenty of noise, and nice photo below.

Eastern Spinebill

We also had some good flora knowledge on the team, and in particular some orchid experts. Consequently, there was a lot of looking down at the ground, as well as looking up at the trees! Orchids grow well along the edges of the paths at Gherang Gherang, and it is a good spot for orchid hunters, as well as bird watchers. We spent around 2½ hours looking at birds and orchids, and then ate some morning tea back at the cars.

On the way back to Anglesea we stopped at Shiney Eye Track where it joins Dusty Miller Track (above the Anglesea heath). This spot is around 100m off Forest Road. Usually a few birds come through, and currently it is a great spot to see Golden Whistlers since there seems to be a pair who lives in the area. Happily we weren’t disappointed and had a good sighting of a male Golden Whistler, and also a bird we later decided was a female Golden Whistler – see photo. The whistler was drinking from a large orange-brown puddle in the road.

Golden Whistler

Also drinking from the puddle was this Brown Thornbill. This is a great shot of a bird that is often hard to photo with its constant movement, and shows the ‘brown’ in the name is a good description.

Brown Thornbill

Finally, the photographer claimed to have seen a Scarlet Robin, and had the photo to prove it!

Scarlet Robin

An excellent day of birdwatching, and next month we will be visiting the southern part of the Brisbane Ranges, starting the search at Steiglitz, where last year we saw Mistletoebirds and Jacky Winters.

As usual, full bird lists for the two locations in the tables below.

James Orton
Photos by Paul Wright

Gherang Gherang Bushland Reserve – Bird List

The table below shows the names and count of birds seen on the walk at Gherang. Note this list has been recorded in eBird, and shared with the Angair eBird account.

Shiney Eye Track – Bird List

The table below shows the names and count of birds seen at Shiney Eye Track. Note this list has also been recorded in eBird.