I took a ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento and on Pope’s Eye in Port Phillip Bay, there were many Australasian gannet fledglings.
I could also make out in my photos a few ruddy turnstones on the rocks of Pope’s Eye, as well as pied cormorants, black-faced cormorants, Pacific gulls and crested terns.
This time of year it is possible to see some unusual birds in Port Phillip Bay as some northern hemisphere sea birds fly to the south to escape the cold.
I was lucky to spot a south polar skua near Pope’s Eye. This bird was chasing a pair of crested terns. Skuas breed on Antarctic coasts and then they migrate to areas of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans.
They are known as the pirates of the sky in that they eat mainly fish that are often obtained by robbing gulls, terns and even gannets of their catches. I couldn’t see very clearly but I assume the skua was robbing the two crested terns it was chasing.
When the ferry docked at Sorrento I was surprised and thrilled that there were a few hundred crested terns perched on the rocks at the terminal and many of these were newly fledged birds. The noise all the birds were making was quite deafening, with the adult birds bringing in many small fish for the young birds to consume. I can only imagine that all the birds had for some reason flown to Sorrento from Mud Island, where they breed.
Maybe the fish stocks were more available at Sorrento, so the whole colony moved. It surprised me how the adult birds were able to call at the same time as carrying fish in their bills. I thought they wouldn’t be able to do both things at once. I saw a few birds drop fish accidentally and this resulted in several
frantic birds on the rocks fighting over who could retrieve the dropped fish first.
I have to congratulate all the Friends of the Bellarine Hooded Plover volunteers, dog walkers, concerned residents and holiday makers who have all contributed to a single fledging hooded plover chick on the dog beach between 10W and 11W.
Actually, I have to also congratulate the parent birds who have also done an outstanding job of caring for their chick. It’s incredible that in the height of summer on a busy dog beach this chick has survived.
I received an email from Lyn, who is currently camping at Barwon Heads Caravan Park. Lyn explained that since she has been at the park she has seen 10 times the number of superb fairy wrens compared to what she normally observes in the same area. It sounds like the wrens have
also had a bumper breeding season.
I received an email from Neil, who is an excellent bird photographer and Ocean Grove resident. He informed me that he has recently got back into bird photography after receiving two new hips last year.
Neil recently travelled to Phillip Island to visit his daughter and he
photographed crested terns at the Nobbies Tern colony. He then photographed the local peregrine falcons and took some beautiful photos of these magnificent birds.
