Gold Coast Bird Watching

As we followed the winding road higher and higher into the mountains, our guide suddenly called out to the driver “STOP!”. We quickly pulled over to a clearing overlooking a valley, and she said “Pheasant Coucal! Look there”, pointing to a tree not 4m away from the bus.

Yarra River Birding

After reading multiple reports over the past fortnight of Azure Kingfishers being spotted along the Yarra River, I was determined to see one, and so planned a multi-stop birding day out in bushland within an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD. The weather forecast called for a 50% chance of a light drizzle in the morning,…

Also-rans – Part 3 (Bunyip, Serendip, Avalon, Woodlands)

This is the third post in a series about short, ad-hoc, unrewarding, or repeat birding trips. As always, we had lots of fun being outdoors, and we have a few not-so-good photos that are worth sharing. Bunyip State Park – October 2014, March 2015 Bunyip State Park is probably one of the most diverse parks that we…

Bird Boxes in Bendigo

It was some months since we last did a ‘big birding day out’ so we were really looking forward to the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in early June. I had read intriguing bird reports from a small reservoir on the outskirts of Bendigo, so I was eager to try my luck. ‘Crusoe Reservoir’ and ‘Number 7 Reservoir’…

Also-rans – Part 1

I don’t write a blog post about every birding outing because I just can’t write quickly enough. It’s not that we bird every second day, but I just can’t seem to find enough time to download and edit photos while crafting a semi-interesting account of our adventures, many of which are uneventful and disappointing due to the…

End of year birding: Day 2 – Toolangi Black Forest

In the dying days of 2014, Imka and I planned three birding day-trips to try to push our year’s total to 175. Based on our online research and advice from other birders on the ‘Victorian Birders Facebook Group’, we decided on the following strategic outings, each of which will be covered in an independent blog post: Day…

Powerful Owls in Ivanhoe

In late spring, there was a flurry of Eremaea reports of a Powerful Owl family in the Wilson Reserve, and since we live just a 10 minute drive away from Ivanhoe, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a lifer to our list. The Wilson Reserve isn’t large compared to some of the national parks…