Living and Birding Gratitude: Doing A Bit Of Birding

I have actually been getting out and doing a few little birding jaunts lately. Getting settled into our tiny house has continued of course. And I am learning that this place, this “village”, has its pluses and minuses. Seemingly, the pluses still out-weigh the minuses and I am dealing with it. It is located wondrously well in regard to birding spots. So at least that is a very good thing.

I have gone over to Serendip Sanctuary and the You Yangs Regional Park a few times (both being less then ten minutes away). I can pop over and bird a couple of hours and then still get back to go to the grocery, or whatever else needs doing. Here are a few photos from those spots.

Dusky Moorhen, Serendip

Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Serendip

Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Serendip

Purple-crowned Lorikeet, Serendip

Little Eagle (dark morph), Serendip

Musk Lorikeets near Serendip

Troopi in the You Yangs

Fan-tailed Cuckoo, You Yangs

Brown-headed Honeyeater, You Yangs

I also went up to Eynesbury, a spot where Lynn got her lifer Speckled Warbler last year. They were still around as well as a stunning, young Pallid Cuckoo.

Speckled Warbler, one of three in Eynesbury

Brown Treecreeper, Eynesbury

Young Pallid Cuckoo, Eynesbury

And then I heard about the Painted Button-quail.

I have had less success with Button-quail than with any other group of birds. My main bogey bird, or nemesis bird, is the Black-breasted Button-quail. I had not put quite the effort into Painted that I had put into Black-breasted, but I had repeatedly tried for them in “reliable” locations in NSW and VIC without success. I was aware that they had been seen lately in Mangalore Reserve in Victoria, however that is two hours away. But then it got personal. I got a text from Philip Peel. He and David Adams and Owen Lishmund had seen 3, yes three PBQ’s on Wednesday morning. So I decided to go the next morning.

My friend, Carolyn Edwards, wanted to go as well. She and I headed up there at 6am. We took the back way up through Gisborne as it avoids the Western Ring Road and is a much nicer drive. We did not arrive until about 8:30. I birded hard. I looked where they had seen them first of course. But they had seen the birds at 7:30am. I also tried further along the path and off the path, but I returned to search “the” area repeatedly.

Later in the morning, I ran into another birder who had seen three PBQ that very morning quite close to where Phil had seen them! He had seen them at 7am. In the meantime, Carolyn flushed a single bird in a wooded section where there were a lot of platelets (the round, bare spots created by feeding button-quail). I dashed over there and searched that area without success. I decided to return to Mangalore the next day and arrive very early.

Friday morning I left the house at 4:45am. The traffic around Melbourne is really not bad at 5:15 and I arrived at the reserve about 6:30am. I eagerly headed to “the” spot, peering ahead and carefully scanning the ground, but no button-quail were to be seen. I searched where Carolyn had flushed one the day before, but no button-quail. I walked back and forth and to and fro through the area (a total of 10 kilometers according to my Fitbit) and no bucking-futton-quail! The bogey-bird curse was beginning to suck the very life-force out of me. I was getting very sad, but I was determined to keep trying.

After about two hours, I headed to the left of the path and went in a bit deeper than I had before and looked around without seeing hide nor feather of button-quail. I was making my way back toward the path and heading through the area (again) where Phil and company had seen them. And then, loud whirring wing-beat sounds exploded to my immediate left. I turned and watched three Painted Button-quail zooming off through the trees. I got cracking flight views, although not quite as much fun as if I had seen them on the ground, but cracking, lifer views none-the-less. Yes! Evidently there are three PBQ that hang around that small area. I looked in, searched, walked through, and scoured that area for two days. And when I finally found them, it was within 20 meters of the GPS coordinates that Phil had given me!

I need to get back up to Inskip Point, QLD and see about those damn Black-breasted. But that will have to wait for awhile. Here are a few photos from Mangalore Reserve.