Rabbit Kill

Brown Goshawk

Last week Jade my Border Collie/rabbit hunter left a dead rabbit on the back lawn. There is a pair of Brown Goshawk’s living in the Tee Tree belt and I believe have a nest in one of the taller Tee Trees, I haven’t seen them in it, so maybe the one I am looking at is an old nest.

Both birds cruise around the paddocks and up and down the river causing all sorts of commotion with the water hens, ducks and plovers. You always know when they are on the prowl by the commotion.

This day the female came in to feed on the dead rabbit, it was a spectacular sight about 5 meters from my kitchen window. She fed on the rabbit for about 5 minutes, ripping at the flesh.

I watched this pair a few months ago, the female had a kill and the male was harassing her for the catch. Each time he came near she would put her wings out over her meal until he gave up and left her in peace.

A sad event

Spotted Turtle-Dove

We have two couples living here. The first pair arrived about two years ago and were joined not long after by another couple.

Early this year they were joined by a lone Crested Pigeon who no longer seems to be with them. Crested Pigeons are not expected to be seen in southern Victoria but cover a large portion of Australia, this would make you think that maybe he was an escapee from an aviary.

Two days ago there was an almighty crash at the window of the sunroom, I looked out onto the veranda and one of the Doves was on its back slowly moving its wings and then there was a trickle of blood appearing from his nostrils and beak. It was so sad. I took the body and lay it under the bird feeder thinking that I would give its partner the possibility to grieve. The partner moved around and finally stood by the still body for an hour or so. Yesterday I took the body away and there was a lot of coming and going by the three birds. This morning I put out some more feed and would you believe there were seven birds out there, I wonder where they have come from and what will happen next

Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo

I have been out of action for a few weeks with computer melt-down.

Over this time my interest has been with the movement of the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. They moved into this area around early October. Their main interest here is the pine cones on the pine trees at the golf course. They also spend some time in our trees along the river, they cruised west, up and down the tree belt along the coast towards the sand mine, then they would head off toward town then back here again. The first arrival had seven in the group then after a week the numbers doubled to fourteen. They would drink from the horse trough or move across to the river to drink from there. They would herald their arrival with their distinctive squawks, I love watching them play on the wing then cruise off with their slow, graceful wing movement. They have left my area now and I wondered where they went until I went to ‘exercises’ in the Botanic Gardens last week and there they were. I suppose now that they have finished the pine cones I will not see them here again until next year.

Twitcher or Clicker

I am in a dilemma. Yesterday I took my Pentax istD digital camera with an AF 80-400 lens on my walk through the 'Merri Wetlands'. I thought I would take a couple of shots of birds rather than just looking, writing down my sightings and then coming home to check my copy of 'The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia' by Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight which it is my bible.

My dilemma is a good one, I have just sorted photos of 30 different birds.

It is an interesting way to record the birds. I put the photos up on the screen on my computer then check them with the book.

Usually I think I have a good check on a bird with the binoculars so when I return to my book they should be easy to find, too often though I say 'did that bird have brown or yellow legs or did it have a black line through it's eye?

I intend to work out the best way to post these photos on the blog and hopefully create a good ongoing record of the bird life in my area. I have been recording in a haphazard way for many years but I need some order.

This morning I set out again. It was sunny and still and it is hard to believe but I got another 5 birds. I know there are a few more big birds that live in the area that I need to record, but it is exciting when you catch those little non-descript birds for example the elusive Clamorous reed warblers or am I looking at a Common skylard or a Richard's pipit.

Lone Pelican

This morning is my first walk after setting up this Blog. There has been cold and blustery wind from the South East for the last couple of days, with annoying drizzle which is better than no rain at all.

When I get to my front gate I can either go strait ahead to the beach or right to the Wetlands. When it is wet under foot I prefer to go to the beach because my feet don't get so wet.

So to the beach it was this morning. This track takes me down two fairways and across sand dunes to the beach.

I walk (briskly) caring my binoculars. Along the fairways I could hear an elusive Bush Bronzewing, this bird makes a repetitive whoop whoop sound that could be mistaken for something mechanical like a large sprinkler head. I sited this bird about 3 weeks ago and took a photograph so am happy to identify it as living here, I have seen it briefly since then but it is hard to pick up and quick to disappear.

Other birds frequently seen are Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Starlings, Australian Magpie and Magpie-lark.

The sea was choppy and irregular and the tide was low. There are not many birds to be seen on days like this, there were a few Silver Gulls and gliding along the waves were two Pacific Gulls one seemed to be immature in colour.

Jade my short haired Border collie loves going to the beach in fact she just loves life, she runs at top speed up and down the wave break as though she is rounding up fast moving sheep.

On our way back Jade spotted a Welcome Swallow to round up, there have been a lot of these about over the last few weeks, they spend their days gliding in numbers just above the grass catching insects.

When I got back to the house An Australian Pelican was gliding down the river path. Many birds use the Merri as a flight path from the sea to the Wetlands, this pelican has been landing on the river over the past few days and I wonder if he was the lone pelican that I saw on one of the billabongs in the Wetlands last week.

While I am at the computer I can see across our paddocks to the road an the golf course, these paddocks are where the horses live and I take great joy from sitting hear glancing over my screen and watching them meandering through their day. The other enjoyment is watching the passing parade of birds. On the lawn are 3 mature and 2 immature European Greenfinch selecting grass seed heads, out with the horses are a varying number of Straw-necked Ibis and not so may Australian White Ibis they seem to forage together looking for bugs and the swallows are on the move, maybe as the day warms up the bugs are also on the move. Can you believe it as I type a male Magpie-Lark is strutting by also after the insects.

I will have to close or I will be here all day, I have so many back stories to tell of my life with the birds.

First Post

My Merri-Wetlands, is not the area commonly referred to by the locals as the Merri Wetlands but an area about 3k up stream.

The Merri runs through the west side of Warrnambool until it hits the back of the sand dune then heads east for about 4k to the sea.

In the early settlement times of Warrnambool a woollen mill was built up stream from the mouth of the Merri, the river was seen as a good source of water for their operation except the river only meandered to the sea, a solution to this was to dig a cutting and re direct the water at a more concentrated pace. The old water course which was also cut off from its original end by a golf course is what I call Merri-Wetlands.

Around 16 years ago we built a sandstone house on 5 acres of land. Our house is situated at the end of a dirt road two kilometres from town. Our boundaries are, east Warrnambool, south the golf course, to the north the Merri cutting and to the west grazing land and 'My Wetlands' which is an area extending over some 70 - 80 acres.

This land and water locked area has been grazed for many years, in the last 6 months it has had a subdivision overlay. This is a complex and hopefully not eventually sad story which I hope to address through this Blog

On our 5 acres we have horses, the number varies from 2 to 4, at the moment there are 4, my two hacks one spelling and one newly retired racehorse.

Over the years I have ridden and walked over these 70 acres many times. I have worked horses, tried to get fit and loose weight, exercised the dogs and most of all watched the prolific and ever changing bird life other residents are the occasional mammal, feral creatures and reptiles.

My other frequented area is a short walk through the golf course to a nearly secluded southern ocean beach. I tend to walk this early or late in the day to avoid the golfers. Mostly if I don't get out early I find it hard to motivate myself to walk at the end of the day, of course the other benefit of early is that 'the early bird catches the birds'.

Tying another interest into all this is my love of photography which I think has developed from my fathers love and my grandfathers love of this sport, this interest has taken one more step for me which I am sure both these gentlemen would have embraced, computers and Photoshop. Now with the help of my daughter and son I have taken the next step 'Bloging'. (I have a lot to learn)

Hopefully with my love of all these things I can record for myself, and for those who are interested take you on a journey of my love of this area of the world.