After our hike we spent the next night camped at Blue Gum Flat. I'm hopeless with bird calls but I kept hearing this one particular song and thought I'd try and look it up when I got home. Lucky for me, the bird flew into our camp the next morning and repeated its song for us. Turns out the area was home to many Lewin's Honeyeaters. Another new one to tick off the list.
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| Lewin's Honeyeater, Meliphaga lewinii |
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| Eastern Yellow Robin, Eopsaltria australis |
Now this next one had me stumped for a while. When taking the photo I was sure I was looking at a female Superb Fairy Wren but when I got home I noticed that its beak is black. Another photo I had of a 2nd bird in the same group clearly shows the orange beak and facial markings of a female. I thought that maybe it was just the light making this one look darker. Then I found a website that showed an adult male in winter plumage and it looks exactly like this one.
This little bird came and visited me whilst I was lying in my hammock - very relaxing this bird watching photography!
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| Superb Fairy Wren (male, non-breeding), Malurus cyaneus |
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| Grey Shrike-thrush, Colluricincla harmonica |
We also saw Eastern Yellow Robin, Eastern Spinebill, White-throated Treecreeper.
We started our drive home and decided to take the Monaro hwy and then the Bonang hwy back to Orbost for some different scenery. Driving through some farmland on a dirt road we came across this Brown Falcon sitting in a dead tree.
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| Brown Falcon, Falco berigora |
The scenic drive was a little different, however, after discovering that most of the forest had been devastated by last seasons fires. Luckily our campsite at Goongerah had not been touched and we had a pretty little spot by the river. I took a quick walk to chase the last rays of sunlight and found Striated thornbill, Fairy wren, Fantail, Bell miner, Eastern yellow robin, Yellow-faced & White-naped honeyeater, Kookaburra, Satin bowerbird, Bassian thrush & Crimson rosellas.
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| Superb Fairy Wren (female), Malurus cyaneus |
Here are 2 heavily cropped shots of a male Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus.
There were a pair of Bassian thrush wandering around our campsite but once again the light was low and the shots weren't great. They had impressive camouflage too!
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| Bassian Thrush, Zoothera lunulata |
On the last day of driving we came across a section of devastated forest that was home to a lot of blue/grey looking pigeons. They were mostly seen by themselves or in pairs and we would only see a flash of blue/grey as they flew off. I was keen to get a closer look. We were already driving fairly slow due to the windy road and my motion sickness so when we saw the next one fly off we stopped and I was able to get this photo of a Wonga pigeon - another new spot.
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| Wonga Pigeon, Leucosarcia melanoleuca |
A quick stop in Lakes Entrance for some food and a short walk along the waters edge found a single Bar-tailed Godwit in lovely breeding plumage. It was seen hanging out with a flock of Silver gulls and a lone Black swan.
I found 2 new spots along this leg of the journey, giving me a total of 6 new birds for the entire trip.
Now only 2 more to go to crack the 200 mark!
