Western Melbourne

Jawbone Flora and Fauna reserve is situated in Williamstown about 8 kms from the city and can be reached by train (closest stations is Williamstown Beach) car (park in Crofton Ave in the east or Maddox Road in the west) or by bike along the Bay Trail. The reserve consists of freshwater lakes, mangroves, saltmarsh and Kororoit Creek to the west.

At the east end is a boardwalk which leads out toward the beach through saltmarsh and mangroves, although you can't access the beach it's a nice place to have a look around.

As you walk west along the Bay Trail you come to a pathway, take this path to a large enclosed bird hide which looks out onto a Ibis rookery on one of the lakes. The mudflats across from the hide can be a good place to see crakes. A small party of Black-tailed Native-hens have been seen near to the hide, also keep an eye on the bushes around the hide for small birds such as New Holland Honeyeaters and Superb Fairywren.
Jawbone

Walking further west along the trail along many water birds are present on the lake including Blue-billed Ducks, Musk Ducks, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorants, Egrets, Royal Spoonbill also Australian Reed-Warbler and Little Grassbird can be seen or heard.

At the western end you come to Maddox Road this is often a good area to see raptors flying overhead such as Swamp Harrier and Brown Falcon. Walk down to the end of Maddox Road, looking out for Yellow-rumped Thornbill as you go, where you will find another bird hide. There is a chance of seeing some interesting birds from or near the hide, especially if it is low tide. On the occasions we have visited some of the birds we have seen are Eastern Curlew on the sandbar, an Arctic Jaeger flying overhead, Sooty and Pied Oystercatchers, Whiskered Tern, and Marsh Sandpiper. In the bushes nearby we have seen Yellow Thornbill and White Fronted Chat.

At the end of Maddox Road you can get back onto the trail and walk along the Kororoit Creek. The creek is lined by mangroves where you could see cryptic Sharp-tailed Sandpipers roosting in the mangroves, or Red-necked Avocet or Common Greenshank feeding along the creek. If you continue on from here you will reach the Altona Coastal Park.

Today we went on a walk, organised by Birds Australia and led by Marilyn Hewish, to the Long Forest Nature Conservation Reserve. The Long Forest is the only patch of Mallee vegetation that can be found close to Melbourne and as Marilyn said 'its like a complete Mallee habitat in miniature' and contains birds which aren't found in other habitats near to Melbourne.

One of the highlights of the day was discovering a Spotted Pardalote entering a nesting tunnel in the small escarpment overlooking the Coimadai Creek. Striated Pardalotes were also present, one was displaying territorial wing flicking and also looked as if it may have a nesting tunnel.

The forest was surprisingly quiet in some areas but near the Coimadai Creek it was full of honeyeaters, here we saw White-naped, Yellow-tufted, White-eared and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters. Later we saw a Wedged-tailed Eagle soaring over the treetops. Other interesting birds for the day were Brown and White-throated Treecreepers, a pair of Whistling Kites, White-winged Choughs, Buff-rumped Thornbills, Scarlet Robin, Weebill, Grey Currawong a Fan-tailed Cuckoo was heard calling. Marilyn showed us a place where Speckled Warblers and Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens can be seen but not today.

We saw 35 species for the day in the Long Forest and 21 species in the nearby Merrimu Picnic ground.Old House Track

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