One of our favorite walks at the Long Forest Nature Conservation Reserve starts at the Happy Valley car park on the Happy Valley track. A few hundred metres from the car park are a couple of dams, Speckled Warbler are supposed to be easy to find in between the car park and the dams ,although we have'nt seen one in this area. Birds in the Long Forest can be a bit sparse, especially in the Mallee areas, so our usual tactic is to walk quickly until we see or hear a flock of birds, usually thornbill, and then spend a while looking to see how many other species we can see, as the flocks are usually mixed species feeding together. On our walk along the track today we were lucky enough to flush a Boobook Owl which must have been roosting in a low bush near to the track.

On reaching the Gravelly Track we turn left, this section of the track provides great views out over the creek valley and is a great place to look out for raptors, the only raptor for today (other than the owl) was a Wedge-tailed Eagle.

A small track leads off from the end of Gravelly Track alongside the Coimadai Creek, exotic garden plants grow along this section of the creek which seem to a attract a variety of birds. Today we saw Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Red-browed Finch, White-eared Honeyeater, Scarlet Robin and Speckled Warbler (on the top of the slope beside the creek). On other occasions we have seen Shinning and Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo here. After checking out the creek we take the Old House track, we have most success at finding Speckled Warbler along this section of the track. Today we saw three different pairs here, all associating with Buff-Rumped Thornbill, but this might be exceptional as after all of the rain this year the heath is looking very healthy. We then turn left and take the Mallee track back to the road. From here we normally walk the last 200 metres off track through the bush back to the car park but you can also walk alongside the road.