Melbourne 2-9Jun10

From KH

I was in the Melbourne area of Victoria (Vic) in Australia from 2-9 Jun with my wife. This was a scenery-cum-birding trip and we had 79 birds, of which 36 were endemics and 26 were lifers for me. We started off from Melbourne, to Phillip Island and Great Ocean Road, and then back to Melbourne.

Our first day was spent in Melbourne City. Among the first birds we saw were birds which could be found in Singapore - Common Myna and Feral  Pigeon. Both are not native to Australia.

Common Myna

The other common introduced birds here were the Common Starling and Common Blackbird. The male Common Blackbird is, well, a black bird with orange bill and eye ring. The female, on the other hand, is a brown bird.

Common Blackbird (female left, male right)

Of course, there were also native birds which were common, like the Magpie-lark (left) and Willie Wagtail (right). Both of which are black-and-white birds.

The other common black-and-white bird was the Australian Magpie. The adult (left) lacks the scales of the juvenile (right), and has bright red eyes.

The Royal Botanic Gardens was just beside the hotel I stayed in. It was a great place to get up close and personal with some Singapore rarities, like the Purple Swamphen (left) and Eurasian Coot (right).

Also easily seen were the Dusky Moorhen (left) and Australasian Grebe (right).

The bird one is likely to hear before seeing is the Bell Miner. True to its name, it did sound like a bell!

The other unmistakable birds here were the Eastern Spinebill (left) and Masked Lapwing (right).

Day 2 and 3 were spent on Phillip Island. The main attraction here was of course the Little Penguins (left). It was also easy to see the Cape Barren Goose (right) here.

One might see other relatives of the goose, like the Black Swan, Australian Shelduck, Australian Woodduck and Pacific Black Duck.

Australian Shelducks. Black Swan

Pacific Black Duck. Australian Woodducks

The other waterbirds one might find here were the Australian Pelican, Straw-necked Ibis, Australian White Ibis and White-faced Heron. Pacific Gulls could be found here. Silver Gulls could be found throughout the whole of Australia.

Australian Pelican. Australian White Ibis

Silver Gull. White-faced Heron

The oystercatchers we encountered in this trip came in pairs. The Sooty Oystercatcher (left) should be ready to start breeding, but the Pied Oystercatcher (right) would only start in Aug.

Adding to the list of introduced birds were the Spotted Dove (left) and House Sparrow (right).

We started Day 4 with a ferry ride from Sorrento to Queenscliff. During the ride, Australasian Gannets (left) entertained us. I tried very hard hoping to get other seabirds, but could only locate some cormorants far away. There were Black-faced and Pied Cormorants (right) on the rocks.

The other cormorant one could find in Vic is the Little Pied Cormorant (left). There was also a tern flying around, but it was too far to ID... The other terns we saw on this trip were the Great Crested Terns (right).

Day 4 and 5 were spent travelling along Great Ocean Road. The scenery was great, so were the rock formations. The highlights were a Southern Boobook (left) at Apollo Bay and a male Musk Duck (right) putting up a great courtship display near Logans Beach.

The Great Otway National Park had some well-forested areas. The Laughing Kookaburra could be easily approached in more well-visited areas.

Other residents included the endemic Brown Thornbill (top left), Eastern Yellow Robin (top right) and White-browed Scrub-wren (bottom).

Also, the native Grey Shrike-thrush (left) and Bassian Thrush (right).

On Day 6, we set off for the Grampians National Park from Port Fairy. Along the way, we picked up the Scarlet Robin (left) and White-throated Treecreeper (right).

The Superb Fairy-wren was common throughout most of Vic, but I managed to get some decent shots of the adult male here.

The currawongs are birds related to the Australian Magpie. There are 2 species in Vic - the Pied Currawong (left) and the Grey Currawong (right). Although generally, the latter is more greyish than the former, this is not a good ID feature as there is much plumage variation. One of the best ID feature is the white tail base of the Pied Currawong, which is lacking in the Grey Currawong.

Then there were the Tree Martin (left) and Welcome Swallow (right).

Although not rare, it was still delightful to see a pair of Emus (left) in the wild at the Grampians. A flock of Red-rumped Parrots (right) were making a lot of noise in the farm land.

Together with the Red-rumped Parrots above, we got 8 species of parrots in this trip. I have seen Crimson Rosella, Eastern Rosella, Rainbow Lorikeet, Galah and Sulphur-crested Cockatoo before, but this is the first time seeing Long-billed Corella and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo.

Eastern Rosella. Adult Crimson Rosella

Juvenile Crimson Rosella

Galah. Long-billed Corella

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Day 7 was spent driving back to Melbourne City via Ballarat. A Wedge-tailed Eagle (left) was sighted high up along Great Ocean Road.

The Black-shouldered Kite and Swamp Harrier were fighting in the farm land en-route to the Grampians.

The Brown Falcon and Nankeen Kestrel were common throughout Australia. The other bird that I picked up at Ballarat was the Cattle Egret.

Brown Falcon. Black-shouldered Kite

A trip to Australia would not be complete without a list of honeyeaters.

Black-chinned Honeyeater. New Holland Honeyeater

Singing Honeyeater. White-naped Honeyeater

White-plumed Honeyeater. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater

Related to the honeyeaters are the wattlebirds - Red Wattlebird (left) and Little Wattlebird (right).

There are 3 species of ravens in Vic, but I only managed to see the Australian Raven (left) and the Little Raven (right). They look alike, but the former is more sedentary, has a longer tail and a bushy throat.

On the final day before returning home, we dropped by the Royal Botanic Gardens and picked up a few more species, like the Grey Fantail (left), Silvereye (right) and Crested Pigeon.

We were hoping to see the Southern Right Whale, but none showed up at Logans Beach or Port Fairy... Furthermore, the Australian Fur Seals were far far away on Seal Rock, Phillip Island. Nevertheless, it was fun searching for Koalas (left) in the eucalyptus trees along the Great Otway National Park. We managed to spot more than 10 of them. Black (or Swamp) Wallaby (right) was seen on Phillip Island.

The other marsupials we saw were the Red-necked Wallaby (left) and Eastern Grey Kangaroo (right).

Although Australia is famous for marsupials, some placental mammals (namely rodents and bats) did reach Australia by natural means. It is easy to understand how bats got onto the land down under, but what about rodents? Most likely, they got there by floating on drift woods or other debris. The Broad-toothed Mouse (left) is one such rodent. The other placental mammals, like the Eurasian Rabbit (right), reached Australia via human intervention.

Bird list (Bold = lifer)

1. Emu 2
2. Cape Barren Goose >5
3. Black Swan >5
4. Australian Shelduck >10
5. Australian Woodduck 2
6. Pacific Black Duck >20
7. Musk Duck 1
8. Little Penguin >50
9. Australasian Grebe 1
10. Australian White Ibis >5
11. Straw-necked Ibis >5
12. Cattle Egret >5
13. White-faced Heron >5
14. Australian Pelican >20
15. Australasian Gannet >30
16. Little Pied Cormorant >10
17. Black-faced Cormorant >2
18. Australasian Pied Cormorant >20
19. Black-shouldered Kite 2
20. Swamp Harrier 1
21. Wedge-tailed Eagle 1
22. Nankeen Kestrel 1
23. Brown Falcon 3
24. Purple Swamphen >20
25. Dusky Moorhen >20
26. Eurasian Coot >20
27. Pied Oystercatcher 4
28. Sooty Oystercatcher 2
29. Masked Lapwing >5
30. Silver Gull >100
31. Pacific Gull >10
32. Great Crested Tern>20
33. Feral Pigeon >10
34. Spotted Dove 2
35. Crested Pigeon >5
36. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo >10
37. Galah >20
38. Long-billed Corella >100
39. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo >5
40. Rainbow Lorikeet >5
41. Crimson Rosella >10
42. Eastern Rosella >5
43. Red-rumped Parrot >20
44. Southern Boobook 1
45. Laughing Kookaburra 3
46. White-throated Treecreeper 1
47. Superb Fairywren >30
48. Singing Honeyeater >10
49. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater 1
50. White-plumed Honeyeater 1
51. Bell Miner >5
52. Black-chinned Honeyeater >10
53. White-naped Honeyeater 1
54. Little Wattlebird >5
55. Red Wattlebird >5
56. New Holland Honeyeater >5
57. Eastern Spinebill 2
58. White-browed Scrubwren >10
59. Brown Thornbill >10
60. Australian Magpie >100
61. Pied Currawong >5
62. Grey Currawong 2
63. Grey Shrike Thrush >5
64. Willie Wagtail >10
65. Grey Fantail 1
66. Magpie Lark >10
67. Little Raven >100
68. Australian Raven >5
69. Eastern Yellow Robin >5
70. Flame Robin 1
71. Scarlet Robin 1
72. Welcome Swallow >5
73. Tree Martin >5
74. Silvereye 2
75. Common Myna >20
76. Common Starling >100
77. Bassian Thrush 1
78. Common Blackbird >5
79. House Sparrow >100