Thinking about Australia does strange things to a person. We
all seen the nature shows and read about the unique and stunning wildlife that
occupies the massive continent. New Zealand falls into this category too, and
thinking about them gives any nature a rush while simultaneously breaking their
hearts. Not do both seem like they are on another planet, both seem impossible
to get to. I never thought I would get the chance to go. The flights are
usually long and expensive, and with a host of other travel options it may just
be better to focus on other places.
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| Eastern Rosella |
At least that’s what I told Christina, when she suggested
that I buy the Australian Bird Guide when I was online shopping for bird books.
“The pictures of colorful birds will look good on your coffee table at least.”
Sage advice. Covid entry restrictions that lasted through the first half of the
year meant that I had 2 unbooked weeks of PTO left, and we decided to plan a
longer trip. Argentina was the target, but plans changed. On my way to dinner
on a Friday in June I got an email from Scott’s Cheap Flights. Dallas to Sydney
for $815 and a quick layover in Los Angeles.
Within 24 hours we were looking at places to go in Australia.
That is easier said than done. The options are limitless. We quickly realized
that you can’t even scratch the surface of Australia in 2 weeks. Given our
flight deal we decided to spend a few days in Sydney and the rest along the
Victorian coast in the Melbourne area, which included Phillip Island and the
Great Ocean Road, one of the most scenic road trips in the world.
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| Some of the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road |
Jetlagged, we touched down in Sydney and explored the city,
not liking it at first. But this was the Central Business District, which was
reminiscent of downtown Dallas. Some initial walks in the park got us Rainbow
Lorikeet. Instead of grackles, they have gorgeous parrots flying around their
city. The main birding started the next day, when we got up and went to
Centennial Park. The gigantic city park is great for birds in the Lachlan Swamp
area, which we hustled to after stopping for Little and Long-billed Corellas,
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, and Crested Pigeons. All of those are ridiculously
common, but they were still breathtaking. You’ve got it pretty good if those
are your boring birds.
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| Crested Pigeon |
It looked like there were trash bags in the trees as we
approaching the swamp. Confusingly they started to fly. I had no clue what bird
I was looking at. Then it hit me. Those aren’t birds, they’re Flying Foxes!
There were thousands of them in the trees, and we forgot about any birds as we
gawked at them. Birding brings some moments of disbelief at what you are
looking at, and this was certainly one of them, even if it was not a bird. I
snapped out of when a Laughing Kookaburra started calling, reminding me that
there are high quality birds that needed to be admired as well. Our main quarry
was a Tawny Frogmouth, but we had no clue where to look. We saw 2 birders
across a pond and worked our way towards them, stopping to look at waterfowl
like Pacific Black Duck and Black Swan before being invited to tag along with
them. The tour ground to halt when an Australasian Figbird revealed itself,
causing a welcome delay. We would not find a frogmouth on that day, but we did
pick up Superb Fairywren! Fairywrens were a gateway drug to Australian birding
for me, as they felt so otherworldly that I couldn’t believe they existed.
Seeing one in person gave me this pride in myself for venturing all the way
across the world to see a bird I thought I never would get to see.
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| Flying Fox |
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| Australasian Figbird |
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| Superb Fairywren |
But the party did not end there as lunchtime approached. On
our way out we stopped at a Powerful Owl roost and were told they were almost
impossible to find even in the tree. I had to lay on the ground to avoid neck
cramps as I gazed up in the tree. Christina gave a shout that she thought she
had one. She didn’t have one, she had two! She did not let me forget that all
trip, and that was fine with me. Powerful Owl was on my most wanted list.
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| Powerful Owl |
We spent the afternoon being tourists in Sydney on a nice
sunny day. What started as a leisurely walk turned into us walking the entire
Bondi to Cooge Beach trail. We ended up walking something like 15 miles on the
day but it was worth it. There were great looks at Superb Fairywrens and New
Holland Honeyeater, as well as our first Nankeen Kestrel. The coastal views
stole the show, and it was a great end to an exhausting but exciting day.
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| New Holland Honeyeater |
Our birding continued when we flew to Melbourne. The
southern coast of Victoria was much rainier than Sydney throughout our time in
the country, which did impact birding. This area of the country was
experiencing higher than usual rain and we were there in one of the rainier
periods of the year. Nevertheless, we started our Great Ocean Road birding at
You Yangs Regional Park outside of Geelong. Due to a flight delay we arrived
later than anticipated and with bad weather we didn’t expect much. The area
around the park headquarters is one of the better spots in the park and it was
teeming with birdlife despite the dreary afternoon. Large, pink Galahs
naturally caught our attention until we saw Eastern Rosellas, including a
mating pair nuzzling up against each other. Eastern Rosella was another bird I
had been dying to see for good reason, and this epitome of the uniqueness of
Australia nature put on a dazzling display, even with the gray backdrop.
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| Galah |
We got our first kangaroo on the trail as well, and we got
it in the best way possible. The forest was silent as Little Ravens flew
overhead and Striated and Brown Thronbills flitted in the undergrowth.
Silently, a large kangaroo gray kangaroo came hopping out of a clearly, turned
on the trail, and hopped away. This 5 second encounter brightened our day that
had been hectic and riddled with travel stress. We could not have asked for a
better start to our road trip, and Christina beaming ear to ear made me feel
less bad for making her go on a bird walk in the rain. What a trooper.
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| Kangaroo. This one is a joey |
While not the best birding route, the Great Ocean Road is
one of the most scenic drives in the world and still has fantastic birding
stops. Some people start it in Geelong and follow the coast to the terminus at
Port Campbell, but we opted to do the opposite and drive to Port Campbell
through the interior before taking the GOR back to Melbourne. Given the weather
we made a good decision. It rained all day but the weather was wonderful when
we got up early to start the Great Ocean Road, with the first stop being the
Loch Ard Gorge. While there was not specific birding on this day, we did see
some of the most stunning scenery I have ever seen. Most of the birds are
common, but did see our only Singing Honeyeater of the trip. To be honest it
was hard to look at birds because the ocean and coastline was all we could look
at.
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| Silvereye |
We quickly fell behind schedule, which is a good thing
because it meant we were having so much fun. We left the coast and ascended to
Melba Gully State Park. This would have been an amazing place to start a
morning at. Gang-gang Cockatoo and Pink Robin are said to be present as well as
bioluminescent larvae and potentially Platypus. We saw none of those, but the
towering ferns were breathtaking. I also my first leeches for the year, which
is notable because I saw none in Southeast Asia but found them in Victoria of
all places. It freaked out Christina and kept her on edge for the rest of the
walk. Her bravery was rewarded, as we got fantastic looks at Crimson Rosellas
on our way out!
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| Laughing Kookaburra |
By this point it was very late in the day, much later than
we hoped and we still had to get another hour and a half to Lorne. But we had
to stop at Blanket Bay to look for Koalas. It was one of our better
opportunities to see them and it was down a dirt track that had me a little on
edge with all the rain. We had some good omens with kangaroos for Christina and
the only Beautiful Firetail of the trip and the first Gray Shrikethrushes for
me. Once we got there we got some directions to the area for them with the key
advice being to look for droppings. I felt like a tracker as we left no stone
unturned looking for koala poop. We finally found a clump, and after a few
minutes of searching against a gray sky we found one! We almost cried there
together. Birders know about rosellas and firetails, but everyone knows how
special a koala is. We laid down next to the poop so we could look up without
straining our necks. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. It was the perfect way it
end an exhausting but productive day.
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| Our first Koala |
We got up before dawn in Lorne and made the short drive to
the Sheoak Picnic Area. Our goal was Australian King Parrot and Gang-gang
Cockatoo, neither of which were seen here. The Sheoak area is known for
nocturnal animals as well, but we did not see any. We saw some kangaroos, but
not much else was there. The foliage was dense and the weather was overcast.
Nervously we decided to go up Sharps Track, a gravel road where high clearance
and 4WD was advised. Turns out neither was needed, and it was quite east to get
up.
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| Crescent Honeyeater |
The birding at Sharps Track was outstanding. Australian King
Parrots were in the parking where it was at a higher elevation than Sheoak and
there were kangaroos as well. Sharps Track continued up higher than we actually
made it due to time constraints. The sun coming out helped, but we had a few
honeyeater species and a Golden-whistler. I wish we had more time to spend here
because the habitat was fantastic. Coming down we had a highlight of the trip.
A Koala was on the ground and we got to observe it as it and climbed a tree
while very close to us. It was quite bold and we gawked at it for a solid half
hour. Great spot, and it was our only birding of the day before we explored
Lorne and went surfing.
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| An amazingly close Koala encounter |
The weather in Victoria can be uncooperative at times, and
on the day we began our drive to Phillip Island was pouring rain and howling
winds. Did a certain have meltdown when the weather did not clear up and their
fanny pack clip snapped? Yes, yes he did. Having my SE Asia trip impacted by
rain and poor weather that day got to me. Christina will get a kick out of this
paragraph despite me not wanting to mention it.
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| Australia King Parrot was worth the rainy day |
Thankfully that was the low point of the low point of the
trip because things got much, much better on Phillip Island, which is on the
eastern side of Melbourne. The main draw here is the Penguin Parade, where
Little Penguins nest on a beach, as well as Cape Barren geese, a globally rare
but locally common species. The island is gorgeous with scenic beaches and
plenty of farmland. It got less than a page in the site guide to Australia but
it deserved way more. We first went to Swan Lake where we saw oodles of the
desired geese with their florescent bills, as well as a Swamp Harrier. There
was a small chance at Musk Duck, which thankfully we got to see. It was our
only one of the trip and for such a weird Australian bird we were really lucky
to be here.
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| Cape Barren Goose |
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| Musk Duck |
After breakfast we went to Oswin Roberts Preserve, which is
full of Swamp Wallabies. We loved it so much that it was our first stop on our
second day where we could get more activity. Both mornings had perfect weather
and amazing birds. I knew it was a good omen when the first bird we saw on day
2 was a pair of Sacred Kingfishers. We also got some active Musk Lorikeets, a
bird I didn’t think we had much of a chance of seeing. 3 soaring Wedge-tailed
Eagles caused angry screeching from the many honeyeaters below, including
White-eared and White-naped. Black-faced Cuckooshrike was also present. It was
a fantastic preserve and a must stop.
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Sacred Kingfisher | | Swamp Wallaby |
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Our biggest reason for coming here was the Penguin Parade.
Little Penguins nest on one of the beaches and researchers monitor them. You
can buy tickets to watch them come up from the ocean and then follow them along
boardwalks to their nests. It was dumbfounding to watch these small birds
waddle by us and the low light on the boardwalks allowed us to hear them
everywhere but not see them. Poor Christina braved the rain and sat in the
front row as the wind whipped, but in the end it ended up being worth the
effort. Before the parade we also had an Echidna nearby at the Nobbies, a cold,
windy, but stunning point on the island where we heard seals and saw thousands
of gulls, including a Pacific Gull!
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| Little Penguin |
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| Silver Gull with chick |
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| Hooded Plover, a really rare and good find |
Back in Melbourne we had a morning before our flight, and we
spent it at the famous Banyule Flats, which is a large trail complex in the
city that has a pond for great birding. Walking in we had a Spotless Crake and
you just knew it some serious birding was about to go down. They main birds we
were hoping for here were Tawny Frogmouth and Red-rumped Parrot, but we could
not find the trail to get down to the water’s edge. Fortunately we bumped into
Lynn Easton, who has been birding the park daily for decades, and she showed us
where we needed to go, and we would have totally missed the spot if it weren’t
for her. From there the birding erupted. Lifers were everywhere and my head was
spinning, Hoary-headed Grebe, then Pink-eared Duck, then Australian
Reed-warbler, all while the stunning Rainbow Lorikeets are flying overhead.
Then we had our first Red-rumped Parrot. Even on a cloudy to bright red rump
and electric blue and green colors popped out at us. Lynn also showed us a
frogmouth roost while explaining that recently foxes had been the demise of a
few other pairs. She pointed them out to us and I was taken aback by how
massive they were. I imagined small birds resembling twigs, not behemoths, and
I realized I had been looking for these in the wrong places while down here.
Massive shoutout to Lynn, that was some of the best 30 minutes of birding I
ever had thanks to her knowledge.
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| Red-rumped Parrot |
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| Tawny Frogmouth |
Back in Sydney we were racing to snag more birds, and
decided to take a gamble on the Rawson Parade Trail at Royal National Park over
the Blue Mountains and Katoomba. Naturally it was on a day where the metro was
doing track work, so after a disjointed delay we arrived at a beautiful trail
that had some great birds. There is not much info on it on eBird but I did see
birds like Green Catbird and Wonga Pigeon recorded. While neither were out
there I expected as much, since I had no idea really where to go once on the
trail. We still got Eastern Yellow Robin, one of Christina’s trip highlights,
Lewin’s Honeyeater, and Eastern Spinebill. Final stop was Landing Light
Wetlands near the airport, but we were really let down here. Despite a high
species count reported, it was dead when we were there. Still, we got
Golden-headed Cisticola and Yellow-rumped Thornbill to put us at 98 lifers.
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| The strange looking Pink-eared Duck |
On our final morning we ran to see if we could get any
lifers at Centennial Park, and we were rewarded for our early efforts with a
Channel-billed Cuckoo, but that was about it. After admiring the flying foxes
we had to go to the airport and head home. We finished with 99 lifers,, which
has caused non-birder Christina to lose sleep because she really wanted 100. We
will be coming back, as we only scratched the surface of how amazing Australia
is.
