After driving to Angelsea through wind and rain, I was amazed to arrive at the Angair office and find seven enthusiasts raring to go on the February bird walk.
It turned out to be a great day (with 51 birds identified) as the rain mostly kept away, and the wind brought hundreds of shearwaters swooping and diving within our view right along the horizon at Point Impossible…a really memorable sight.
Windy Point Impossible … perfect weather for shearwaters
On Breamlea Beach we were really pleased to see two Hooded Plovers in a rocky area near the water’s edge.
Minya winery was a delight, with a range of birds in clear view including Nankeen Night Herons, a lone Darter and a family of Dusky Woodswallows.
Across the bridge to the island at Minya
Let’s look in the book … it’s a female Darter
A worrying sight was a large flock of Common Mynas, as well as the usual flocks of Starlings. At the end, after coffee on the balcony overlooking the billabong, we were entertained by a Whistling Kite swooping on a Wedge-tailed Eagle, giving us a good idea of their difference in size.
Let’s check out the birds from the Minya balcony
The end of a great mornings birding
Ellinor Campbell
Below are all the birds identified on this walk:
1. Grey Teal
2. Chestnut Teal
3. Pacific Black Duck
4. Australasian Grebe
5. Common Bronzewing
6. Short-tailed Shearwater
7. Australasian Gannet
8. Australasian Darter
9. Little Pied Cormorant
10. Great Cormorant
11. Little Black Cormorant
12. Eastern Great Egret
13. White-faced Heron
14. Nankeen Night-Heron
15. Australian White Ibis
16. Yellow-billed Spoonbill
17. Whistling Kite
18. Wedge-tailed Eagle
19. Brown Falcon
20. Purple Swamphen
21. Australasian Coot
22. Black-winged Stilt
23. Red-capped Plover
24. Black-fronted Dotterel
25. Hooded Plover
26. Red-kneed Dotterel
27. Masked Lapwing
28. Common Greenshank
29. Crested Tern
30. Pacific Gull
31. Silver Gull
32. Galah
33. Red-rumped Parrot
34. Superb Fairy-wren
35. Yellow-rumped Thornbill
36. Noisy Miner
37. Little Wattlebird
38. Red Wattlebird
39. New Holland Honeyeater
40. Dusky Woodswallow
41. Australian Magpie
42. Grey Fantail
43. Willy Wagtail
44. Little Raven
45. Magpie-lark
46. Silver eye
47. Welcome Swallow
48. Common Starling
49. Common Mynah
50. Red-browed Finch
51. House Sparrow