I did a few shifts looking after the hooded plover chick on the spit at 19W and it’s been lovely to stand on the quiet beach for a few hours watching the ships go through the Port Phillip Heads and crested terns diving for fish in the shallows.
There are two hooded plover hatchlings at Point Lonsdale as well as one on the spit and these birds should fledge over the next week unless a predator manages to intervene. Fingers crossed this does not eventuate.
I want to thank the volunteers that dedicate their time to looking after the hooded plovers, plus all the beach goers and dog walkers that heed the signs on the beach to allow them space to feed and rest within their habitat.
I was driving to work past Barwon Heads Airport and saw a little eagle soaring over Stacey’s Road.
Little Eagles are small eagles that have an M-shaped band on the underwing that resembles that of the whistling kite, but the little eagle has a shorter tail, and dark, rusty coloured leading edge to the wings.
I always love spotting little eagles as these birds are becoming less common around the Bellarine and numbers are now listed as vulnerable in New South Wales.
Luckily a few Voice readers have emailed me their observations and photos from their escapades around the Bellarine Peninsula.
Alan has been walking around Blue Waters Lake in Ocean Grove and reported that two tawny frogmouth chicks have fledged and the family can usually be seen roosting around the willow trees.
Alan looked at the nest and observed that it was a very flimsy pile of twigs, so the young birds did well not to fall out of the nest during the hatchling stage.
In a similar location at the lake there’s another nest with three white-faced heron chicks that look nearly fully grown and ready to fledge.
Alan is not sure whether it’s the same pair that nested at the west end a few months ago. Also, the willie wagtails have nested again around the lake but have made their nest in the same tree as previously but up a branch higher.
A pair of magpie larks have constructed another nest in a willow right over the path at the west end and Alan watched them build the last part of it and described the birds as artisans as they smoothed out the rim with the flat part under their beak.
It seems the old nests are unoccupied so they must build a new nest each time. The summer rains have contributed to a bumper breeding year on the Bellarine.
I received an email from Robyn, who lives in Wallington. She noticed a pair of tawny frogmouths in a big gum tree at the back of her house that have been there for at least a week and do not seem at all worried by people looking at them.
Robyn invited me to come over and take a look and I jumped at the invitation and was blown away by the beauty of her property, which has a yellow gum forest and a healthy wetland- it was just stunning.
I received an email from local birder extraordinaire Carole, who had made a few trips to Lake Victoria, near Point Lonsdale and saw a mass of interesting birds.
Some of the species that Carole observed were yellow-billed and royal spoonbills, sharp-tailed sandpipers, a curlew sandpiper, banded stilts, a pink-eared duck, Australian shelduck, Pacific ducks and grey and chestnut teals.
Carole recommends a visit to Lake Victoria and I hope to get down there myself at some stage.
