I dropped by one sunny day at my friend Robyn’s property in Wallington to see if there were any robins in her garden.
I spotted a female golden whistler in her garden, which surprised me as these birds inhabit southern regions of Australia, such as Tasmania and Victoria, and may migrate northward during the cooler months.
Also, in Robyn’s garden there is a family of domesticated Indian peafowl, which includes two parent birds and several juveniles. One of the juveniles is a leucistic bird, where the feather colour has not developed properly due to a genetic mutation. The bird is a mixture of white and blue and green and looks very unusual indeed. It’s also a nervous bird compared to its siblings.
I took my dogs for a walk near Jenelle Crescent at Oakdene Estate and the male flame robin that was in the area a few months ago was still hanging around. Last year there was a female and male flame robin that spent the winter months in the same place, but this year I’ve only seen the male.
I also saw a flame robin at Dan’s Reserve near Connewarre and this bird also seemed to be the only one of its species present, but there were a few yellow-rumped thornbills, superb fairy-wrens and red-browed finches in the same vicinity.
I’ve received some emails from ‘Voice’ readers over the past week, which has been much appreciated. Lynne wrote to me to tell me that she saw black kites regularly at Drysdale. Lynne has been taking her dogs to the Pawsome fenced paddock at Drakes Rd for a run two or three times a week for the past year and nearly always there has been a black kite at the Drakes Bushland Reserve.
Lynne has been enjoying all the birds that visit her garden daily, and some which have been coming occasionally. Currently an eastern spinebill is there daily and one day there were yellow-tailed black cockatoos in the hakea tree next door. There are also musk lorikeets visiting in the late afternoon.
Lynne has also had sulphur-crested cockatoos, magpie-larks, eastern rosella, noisy miners, crested pigeons, spotted doves and rainbow lorikeets.
I received an email from Pete who lives in the Woodlands Estate in Ocean Grove. Pete has had many musk and purple-crowned lorikeets in the yellow gums in his garden, as well as little lorikeets, which is a species that I am yet to take a decent photo of.
I received a few emails from Carole, who saw silver gulls on the direction marker sign at Queenscliff and also photographed yellow-billed and royal spoonbills feeding in the shallows at Swan Bay.
Carole and her husband Peter also went out for a short drive on a windy winter’s day around Port Phillip Bay and spotted Australian gannets diving for fish.
Finally, I received an email from Alan, who sent me a photo of a juvenile sea eagle at Murramarang National Park, which is near Bateman’s Bay in NSW.
