Friday 25 October 2013

October Birding

During the second weekend of October the Heyfield Bird Watchers group hosted nine birders from the Geelong area.
Saturday morning we met at the Heyfield Wetlands, and continued through the wetlands for the next 2 hours. many species were ticked off during this time.
We then headed out towards Lake Glenmaggie and stopped off at a block of bush known as McDonalds, we were hoping to see a pair of kingfishers; but this wasn't to be, never the less we found some native orchids.
We then drove to the weir wall and had our lunch.

The next property to explore was Marg and John's at Coongulla, one of the highlights was a pair of Channel Billed Cuckoo's flying across the weir. We then ventured through the bush to the lake where a Water monitor was spotted, we then found a very obliging Richard's Pipit that sat around for some time.




 
 
Sunday we all met at Briagolong and proceeded up the Marathon road to a property called Peach Flat. This property of 200 plus acres has a beautifully  made wetlands. We met our hosts and proceeded around the property, this took approximately three hours. During this time approximately 60 species were ticked off.




One of the views across the lake at Peach Flat.

 
 
 
Our next stop was the Briagolong cemetery, where there was an abundance of native flowers and orchids, unfortunately by this time the wind was howling and intermittent rain making it very difficult to get any photos; but we did see the flowers.
 
We then stopped off at the Red gum forest and found some Leopard Orchids. As the rain set in we decided to call it a day. All in all a very productive week end, and our guests were pleased with the  results.
 
 
 
Ross.