I haven’t been able to look for birds over the past few weeks so luckily, I’ve received some emails from Voice readers.
Brian and Faye, who live at Portarlington Lifestyle Village, contacted me about a cryptic brown bird with a yellow bill, that was the size of a starling, hiding in the shrubs in the village.
They spotted the bird on three different occasions and one day it perched briefly in a garden bed, but they just failed to capture a photo that would have helped identify it.
Brian asked me if the bird could have been a rail and asked which species of rails are around the Bellarine. Rails are a family of medium-sized wetland birds that includes species such as crakes, moorhens and coots. There are two species of rails found around the Bellarine – buff-banded rail and Lewin’s rail, but neither have a yellow bill and both are usually found in thick vegetation around waterways.
I thought that the bird may have been a quail, but Brian said he was familiar with quails, and it was not one. I would have loved to be able to identify Brian and Faye’s unusual bird, but was not able to, so hopefully it will reappear and they will be able to take a photo.
My friend Chelle from work took a photo of a family of tawny frogmouths that were roosting in a pine tree at her in-law’s property on the Bellarine Peninsula. It was great to see a fully grown juvenile bird with the parent birds in Chelle’s photo. Rhonda and Carole, who live on the same street as I do in Ocean Grove, sent me some photos of a tawny frogmouth that was roosting on the flower stalk of a grass tree in their front garden. It was interesting to see the bird balanced on such a long, thin structure.
Rhonda walks her dog at around 10pm at night and often spots tawnies in the street. I tend to look for them during the day and never see them and I would love to know where their habitat is based.
There were some tawny frogmouths at Trethowan Avenue off Banks Road, but there has been much tree clearing and building going on, so they may have relocated to the parkland at the end of that street, but I have not seen them there despite much searching. I’ll have to take up walking around the neighbourhood at night with Rhonda to locate them.
I received an email from Gerald and Robyn, who were walking at Ocean Grove Nature Reserve and spotted an echidna looking under the fence with a sign depicting an echidna behind it.
Gerald and Robyn thought that perhaps the echidna thought it had found a mate. It’s great to see echidnas around the Bellarine. My friend Pat saw one at Clifton Springs Golf Club recently.
My friend Denis, who used to live in Ocean Grove, but now lives in Bendigo, took some photos of a wedge-tailed eagle nestling at Tang Tang Swamp near Dingee in central Victoria.
Another friend Andrea, from Barwon Heads, sent me a photo of an olive-backed oriole juvenile that she spotted at Moonah Park along the Barwon River.
I made a mistake in the 23 January issue of the Voice by saying that there was a hooded plover nest at 6W on Ocean Grove beach, when in reality the nest was located between 10W and 11W.
There have not been any successfully fledged hooded plover chicks this year (so far) around the Bellarine despite the efforts of the parent birds and wonderful volunteer helpers.
There are currently three active nests along 13th Beach and one at Collendina. Please take note of signs that alert beach goers to the presence of nests and hatchlings, especially when walking dogs.
