We awoke to quite an amazing sight of 24 Emus crossing the nearby wheat paddock. Unfortunately they were still a bit too far away to get a good photo.
We packed up camp and headed to the far Eastern section of the park that runs beside the Wimmera river.
On the way we stopped in at Pink Lake, which was unbelievably pink! The colour is produced by a type of algae in the water. The old wooden posts in the photo are leftover from when they used to commercially harvest the salt.
There was a noteable change in the bird life as we got closer to the river. There were more parrots and the Galahs were suddenly outnumbered by Little Corellas.
 |
| Eastern Rosella, Platycercus eximius |
 |
| Little Corella, Cacatua sanguinea |
 |
| Little Corella, Cacatua sanguinea |
 |
| Red-rumped Parrot (male), Psephotus haematonotus |
 |
| Red-rumped Parrot (female), Psephotus haematonotus |
I was very excited to find a pair of Rainbow Bee-eaters near the campground.
 |
| Rainbow Bee-eater, Merops ornatus |
Brilliantly coloured bottlebrush were in full bloom and frequented by the honeyeaters.
 |
| New Holland Honeyeater, Phylidonyris novaehollandiae |
 |
| Jacky Winter (immature) Microeca fascinans |
 |
| Eastern Rosella, Platycercus eximius |
 |
| Yellow-tailed Black Cockato, Calyptorhynchus funereus |
I came across a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and this one really stood out! A very interesting and rare colour morph.
 |
| Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo (yellow morph), Calyptorhynchus funereus |
 |
Red-rumped Parrot (male), Psephotus haematonotus
The afternoon light was just perfect when I came across this Bronzewing.
|
 |
| Common Bronzewing, Phaps chalcoptera |
More wildflowers...
I found this moth on the toilet door. It stayed there, motionless, for the whole day. Well that's a bit of a guess really because I wasn't in the toilet all day myself but it was definitely in the same spot the two times I saw it. And it was definitely alive because it was gone by the next day.
It's called a Southern Old Lady moth and I don't know why. So I tried to do some research on the net and came across a few possible answers: the patterns on the wings look like an old ladies shawl; and it's commonly found in houses, sitting motionless for hours in full view.
 |
| Southern Old Lady Moth, Dasypodia selenophora |
I was thankful that this Restless Flycatcher was happy to sit still for a few seconds!
 |
| Restless Flycatcher, Myiagra inquieta |
This cute bird was singing her little heart out and seemed genuinely happy about it!
 |
| Rufous Whistler (female), Pachycephala rufiventris |
We watched this Kingfisher take a dive to the ground with an almighty thump and I readied myself for a shot of him with his next meal. This was the shot - guess he missed his target.
 |
| White-browed Woodswallow (female & male),Artamus superciliosus |
 |
| White-browed Woodswallow (male), Artamus superciliosus |
 |
| Hooded Robin,Melanodryas cucullata |
Well it had been a fantastic holiday with around 18 new bird species caught on camera. We were unlucky to see any orchids - that I'd been told were in bloom only a few weeks earlier. However when I stopped in at the info centre at Horsham (to try and buy a wildflowers ID book) the lady mentioned that someone had seen orchids a few days ago near Dadswells Bridge.
So our lunch stop on the way home was at the Giant Koala! The 2km circuit walk was nice but wasn't looking promising for the orchids. I was about to give up looking at the ground when I finally spotted a small group of them towards the end of the walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment