The dry of summer continued on into autumn, with finally some good rains arriving in the south of the state in early April, but the mallee missed out, as it often does. Despite the conditions the State Government declared a duck shooting season again this year.
I have led some survey efforts in some of the few remaining northern Victorian wetlands, and three wetlands have been closed to shooting due to the presence of threatened species. Not surprising that they are there with so few other options in the landscape. The up side of this survey effort has been great views of a wide range of waterbirds including Black-backed and Australasian Bitterns.
Swift Parrots began to arrive in Victoria quite early in March, and are already spread far and wide across south-eastern Australia.
And the recent rain coming into the cooler months has sparked some display activity with the Superb Lyrebirds in the mountain ranges. This is a great time of year to observe this bird, and perhaps even see it in display as well.
With time off through Easter I spent some “quality time” with a local population of White-winged Fairy-wrens on the northern plains near Pyramid Hill. The female wrens are real show-offs approaching very close and perching in the open on the tops of bushes. However the dazzling males are not as showy, though I did finally manage to get a few reasonable photos to share, enjoy !
