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Go Birding Tour The Gippsland Region is a lovely part of Victoria and Bennie and Joukje were keen to see some of the sights and wildlife. Winter outings have less hours of daylight, but the weather is not too hot and many wildlife species are more active in the daytime. From Melbourne we drove to Wilsons Promontory National Park, on the most southerly point of the Australian mainland. It is one of Australia’s oldest national parks and preserves granite headlands, mountains, forests and fern gullies connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The park has many small bays with lovely white sandy beaches. Fire caused major damage to much of the park during mid-February 2009. A lightning strike started a fire that burned through much of the northern section. The change from unburned dense, scrubby vegetation to stark burned zones was quite abrupt. This type of habitat is well adapted to fire and there were already many signs of revegetation occurring. Some eucalypts had new growth sprouting from epicormic buds in the bark of the trees. The green shoots stood out against the blackened trunks. Austral Grass Trees had sprays of new growth emerging at the top of each plant. By spring, the large flower spikes should commence to grow as they do after major fires.
There was a small mob of Grey Kangaroos loafing in a clearing. Recent rains had stimulated grass growth so they had plenty to eat. Radio-tracking collars were fitted to some animals to monitor their movements. A little further on, we noticed a brown shape in the distance – a Common Wombat feeding amongst some bracken. We watched this cute animal through the telescope for some time. At Tidal River, we were surrounded by colourful birds. The Crimson Rosellas are extremely tame and happily land on your head. We found it difficult to eat our bread rolls as the birds kept landing on our shoulders and trying to get a helping as you put the roll in your mouth! Their antics caused us lots of laughter.
Other birds seen at Tidal River included Grey Shrike-thrush, Laughing Kookaburra, Superb Fairy-wren, Australian Magpies and Galahs. Forest Ravens were seen and heard nearby. These ravens are only found in Tasmania, and parts of south-eastern Australia. A short drive up Mt Oberon allowed us to view the areas impacted by the fires. The heathland included many flowering plants. Eastern Spinebills, Crescent Honeyeaters, New Holland Honeyeaters, Brown-headed Honeyeaters, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and Silvereyes were present. Squeaky Beach where the fine white sand makes squeaky noises as you walk upon it provided good views of Sooty Oystercatchers. A stop near Derby River gave us closer views of more wombats and also some Black Wallabies. An evening meal at the Fish Creek pub filled us up nicely before returning to Bayview House. This is a lovely B&B with great views across to the Prom. Ellen and Paul were excellent hosts and we enjoyed watching the birdlife in the beautiful gardens while we ate a tasty breakfast. Next morning we headed to Corner Inlet where a friend, Rohan, showed us some of the birds of this vast area of coastal mudflats. After a stop at Yarram, we drove on to the Tarra Valley National Park. The walk through the wet forest dominated by ancient beech trees was very impressive. Not far away was the Bulga National Park where we visited the interpretive centre and walked to the suspension bridge. Lyrebirds were calling loudly and we saw one cross the track. The road back through the Strezlecki Ranges took us through more areas that had been burned in fires during February. Many thanks to Bennie and Joukje for their great company during the trip. Barry |
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