A few weeks ago, I arranged to conduct my Birdlife Australia ‘Birds on Farms’ survey in Wallington, and when the weather forecast predicted a 42 degree day I contemplated reschedulling, but instead arrived at the farm before 7am.
I thought the birds would be active at this time of morning, but it was extremely quiet.
I don’t know if this is since many conifer trees have been removed from the farm, so there are less areas for birds to shelter in. I met Jim, one of the farm owners, who told me that the conifers are being replaced by indigenous trees such as yellow gums. It was the first time I had been to the farm and hadn’t seen one raptor.
Jim informed me that the pair of wedge-tailed eagles that I saw in the spring survey did rear one fledgling a few weeks ago, which is good news. Hopefully the adult birds will return to their nest if the conditions are favourable, and nest again.
I drove to Reedy Lake on my way to work one day and spotted a small flock of whiskered terns on the old Reedy Lake sign. I am always careful not to get bogged on the dirt track leading to the as I don’t have a four-wheel drive, and fortunately this hasn’t happened yet, as the road was pretty boggy after recent rains.
Lake Connewarre certainly is an environmental jewel in the crown of the Bellarine and may it long remain so. Regarding Lake Connewarre, I read on Ebird that a pair of white-breasted woodswallows have been spotted at Tait’s Point near Barwon Heads Airport.
According to Birdlife Australia, white-breasted woodswallows are found from northern coastal Western Australia, across the Kimberley region into the Northern Territory, and through most of Queensland, New South Wales (but not on the south coast), western Victoria and north-eastern South Australia.
They have been very rarely seen on the Bellarine Peninsula as we are well and truly out of the habitat range. I must find time to pop down to Tait’s Point and have a look for them.
There are a few hooded plover nests on the beaches around the Bellarine and Surf Coast. Some of the nests have recently failed due to high tides. Other nests have eggs that are due to hatch soon, including one pair at 10W, which unfortunately is also the off-leash dog area.
The volunteers who try to educate the public about these critically endangered birds and also try to help the parent birds enable their chicks some chance of survival, have been abused by a few members of the public who aren’t at all interested in helping this species.
This does not bode well for the chicks who are due to hatch any day, as they can not fly for over a month after hatching. This also does not bode well for attracting people to volunteer to help the birds, as it’s not much fun standing on the beach and copping abuse.
If people can be aware that the volunteers are trying to help a very worthy cause and keep dogs on the leads when they are allowed on the beach near nesting sites, that would be great.
