Blame it on the Lockdown but my Better Half is now a fully fledged birdwatcher with a serious obsession to match. She’s a member of a website of birders and her aim is to view 100 separate species of bird within Victoria in the calendar year. BH’s reached 74 but a serious number on her site have already hit the ton and many more. When I asked her how many had reached that number in February without visiting the Werribee Sewerage Plant, she said through gritted teeth, “Probably none.” FYI Werribee Sewerage plant is allegedly the second best Birding site in Oz, with only Kakadu in front. One of my BH’s fellow birders photographed 63 separate species in a one day visit recently, but you need to obtain a key and pay a fee, and frankly, BH wouldn’t say this but I would, it seems like cheating.
74 in Feb seems like a lot but believe me it gets harder and harder and the last 10, if she gets there, are going to be hell. So having exhausted the local species we’re starting to travel, and just quietly it’s fun.
Went to Sherbrooke Forest today with one aim, the Lyrebird. Walked along a gorgeous track called the Lyrebird Track, no less, but counted more joggers than birds and finally met a local who told us the Lyrebirds don’t bother with eponymous tracks. So we were trudging back glumly to Grant’s picnic ground carpark when No 74 walked across the path, paused and basically said “The pic’s on me.”
PS. It’s not all rare birds, she still hasn’t got the common pigeon, which the birders call the Rock Dove, which you’ll see in the City Square. Might be heading there New Year’s Eve if she’s stuck on 99.
PPS Please feel free to post any pics of birds you have taken and tips about good birding sites are especially welcome.
Seriously, though, post it. Depending on where you live (the peninsula, right?) and what’s common in your area, there’s a few I might be able to help you out with…
So can you tell me why Pied Currawongs, never a bird that we saw in the city, are now taking over? 5 years ago I realised they were everywhere in the inner east, and this week I’ve heard them in the inner north for pretty much the first time.
We saw 2 new birds today, the Lyrebird and the Pied Currawong. We get the Grey Currawong in Balnarring but not often, but never the Pied. My BH said the Currawong was a target today because she heard there were plenty in Sherbrooke.
The currawong is my favourite birdcall.
You can stick Kookaburras up your ■■■■ (although, yeah…it’s pretty cool when they land on your deck and take food).
The currawong is the sound of Australia, and most people don’t even know what they are.
The interesting thing about the currawong is that their call changes around the country: they have different “dialects”!
The classic one in central Victoria sounds like they are saying “you can’t trust the weather”; in the Gippsland hills it’s more like “can’t trust the wet weather”; in the ACT, it’s different again.
