I’ve had a few small outings, in between rain showers, over the past few weeks.
I have been watching the black swan sitting on a nest at Breamlea, and last time I looked, the eggs had not hatched, so I look forward to checking out the number of cygnets that have hatched.
Apparently, swans lay from four to 10 eggs depending on food availability, so there could be a large family at Breamlea over the next few weeks.
On the subject of eggs, two hooded plover pairs have created nests at Point Lonsdale, which are the first for this season along the Victorian coastline. Good luck to the hoodies, and the cygnets.
Also at Breamlea I had a close encounter with a black-shouldered kite and a swamp harrier.
The swampies are often at Breamlea and it’s a great spot to watch them. Often, they land in the reeds relatively close to the road, and they just disappear in the vegetation. It is interesting that the nest of the swamp harrier is made of straw and grasses, hidden in the dense reeds in a swamp or in crops or long grass near water.
The black-shouldered kite has been in the same spot for a few weeks now, just near the beach, and I was fortunate that it hovered over my car at close range, before spotting me and flying away. Black-shouldered Kites are rodent eaters, so there must be a few mice around the beach.
I received a lovely email from Robyn from Ocean Grove. Robyn was alerted by a dogwalker who spotted a kerfuffle in a tree near the corner of Thacker and Eggleston Streets, and it turned out that a ringtail possum was being harassed by two sulphur-crested cockatoos and several noisy miners, with further vocal backing from some rainbow lorikeets. The possum was initially in a tree but escaped along three power lines, being swooped and screeched at the whole time. That would have been a very noisy event.
I received a few emails from Kevin and Ann Maree.
On one occasion they drove to Bannockburn and found some white-naped honeyeaters, including juveniles.
They also drove to Winchelsea on a few occasions, where they had a close encounter with a beautiful spotted pardalote as well as superb fairy-wrens. Kevin remarked that he did not see any little corellas around Winchelsea, which is so unusual.
I received a message from Carole, who took a lovely photo of a pair of Caspian terns at Swan Bay. Caspian Terns are the largest of the tern species and are easily recognised by their impressive, bright red bill.
Thanks so much for the emails and observations, they are much appreciated.
It’s footy finals time and it’s the one time of the year that I hope the felines defeat the birds. Good luck to the mighty Cats in the finals.
