Inner Melbourne

The Escarpment on a foggy morning.
Today Friends of Royal Park held the 5th of their bi-monthly bird surveys of the Trin Warren Tam-boore area. The wetlands are around three years old and were installed as part of the 2006 Commonwealth Games Village. Since then they have become well established and support an increasing diversity of bird species.
Today the wetlands were slightly below capacity with some mudflats exposed, as we stated off an Australian Hobby flew overhead. At the Treatment Pond our first surprise for the day was a Great Egret standing knee deep in the pond, the first time this species has been recorded on our surveys. As we walked around the pond we recorded a number of water birds including Australasian Grebes, Purple Swamphen and Black Duck. Other smaller birds were present too, such as Superb Fairy-wren and White-plumed Honeyeater. Clamorous Reed Warblers had returned for the summer, we watched as a pair flew to and from their nest within the reeds. Little Grassbirds were calling but being as elusive as ever.
The next section of the walk took us through the 'Skink Habitat'. The White's Skink were once widespread in Melbourne but now only thrive in a few areas around Melbourne, they were 'rediscovered' some years ago during a clean up program of this area and may be the only long term viable population close to Melbourne. A small creek runs alongside this habitat, it's one of the best place to see little birds. Today we saw a pair of Spotted Pardalote and a New Holland Honeyeater, last week when I walked through this area Grey Fantails and Silvereyes were present, but there was no sign of them today.
As we walked up the bike path towards the 'Woodland Escarpment' area a Grey Butcherbird was chased into a dense bush by a Red Wattlebird. Red Wattlebird was the predominant species present on the escarpment today, but we also saw a small party of Superb Fairy-wren and heard a Grey-shrike Thrush and a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo calling.
The last section of the walk took us to the Storage Pond, the water here is deeper and more open so the species present are often different from those on the Treatment Pond. Today we recorded our first pair of Grey Teal. The Hardhead ducks, not present all winter, had returned, we counted 8 of them. There were several Australasian Grebe on nests and best of all, another new record for our list, was the pair of Black Swans who now have a large nest floating on the water at the edge of the reed beds. Other birds present were Eurasian Coots, Dusky Moorhen, Black Ducks, Clamorous Reed-warblers and Little Grassbirds.
Our total species count for the day was 34.
Trin Warren Tam-boore
Information about Royal Park and Trin Warren Tam-boore can be found on the City of Melbourne website at http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=25&pa=1273&pg=1300

There are currently two Black Swans on the Storage Pond at Trin Warren Tam-boore. These are the first Black Swans (that I know about) to have visited the area. I was informed that they were nesting, however I haven't been able to find the nest.
There are also two pairs of Hardhead ducks amongst all of the coots, moorhens, purple swamphens and grebes also on the pond. These are the first for the season, they usually turn up sometime in spring and disappear during winter.
Other nice birds which were around the area today were Spotted Pardalotes, a Little Grassbird on the settling pond and a Grey-shrike Thrush near the creek line.
Two swans on Trin Warren Tam-boore

Update 18/09/2008

On my walk to Trin Warren Tam-boore today I discovered the Black Swans have built one massive nest on the storage pond. One swan was sitting on the nest asleep with its neck gracefully draped over its back. The other swan was foraging on the other side of the pond.
The Australian Reed-warblers have also returned in numbers for the summer. Over on the settling pond a Great Egret was sitting in the reeds. Other nice birds present nearby were Grey Fantail, Grey Shrike-thrush and Silver eyes.

On our walk to work we normally pass through a small reserve in Parkville called Ievers Reserve. For the last couple of weeks a Kookaburra has taken up residence in the reserve. We took this photo of the Kooka the other day just before it was mobbed by a group of Pied Currawongs. What impressed me most about the Kookaburra was that in between swooping attacks from the Currawongs it was able to spy a juicy worm then dive down and extract it from the leaf litter.

There have recently been some other reports of Kookaburras seen around Melbourne, in the Botanic Gardens and also on the corner of Spring and Collins Streets. We also see them occasionally in Royal Park West. Other birds we have seen In Ievers Reserve include a Collared Sparrowhawk and Red-rumped Parrots.

City Kookaburra

It was National Tree day today so we decided to join Friends of Royal Park for tree planting in the woodland escarpment area of Royal Park West. After some weeding we planted Chocolate Lilies and Native Dock. While planting we were lucky enough to see a flock of around 50 Yellow-tailed black cockatoos sailing overhead. They settled into the aging acacia trees on the escarpment and commenced using their powerful beaks to crack and break the tree braches to get at the wood boring insect larvae within. It was wonderful to see these beautiful birds so close to the city. Other nice birds seen and heard were Eastern Spinebill, White-browed scrubwren, Spotted Pardalote and Superb fairy-wren.

You can see the results of bird surveys conducted by Friends of Royal Park in Royal Park West at www.eremaea.com