North Central Victoria
Tahbilk Wetlands and Wildlife Reserve
Posted January 5th, 2009 by nicole
The Long Bridge
Why not indulge in two or three of the most pleasant pastimes at the same venue. At Tahbilk Wetlands and Wildlife reserve you can taste the wine, eat a delicious meal at the cafe and complete the day by spending a few hours bird watching on the wetlands. The cost is $5 to walk in or $10 to take a boat trip but this money goes towards continuing the rehabilitation of the wetland which was commenced in 1995.
Waterlilly flower
Take the long bridge across the picturesque wetland filled with the indigenous Watersheild Lilly to the riverine woodland on the opposite bank. In the bushes around the edges of the bridge are Superb Fairywren, White-browed Scrubwren and Red-browed Finch. On our trip here in February 2008 we spotted a Dollar Bird near the southern end of the Long Bridge. Along the billabongs look out for Black Swan, Pelican, Cormorants and an array of other water birds. Whistling Kite and Swamp Harrier can be seen flying overhead. The forest near landing number 4 is more mature and contains some more interesting birds such as Crested Shrike-tit, Brown Treecreeper, Common Bronzewing and Little Lorikeets. In summer look out for Sacred Kingfishers all along the river.
The reserve is also home to other animals, on our last visit we spotted an Eastern Grey Kangaroo, a Swamp Wallaby and a Koala in a large eucalypt outside the cafe.
The Wetland
Tahbilk is located just south of Nagambie. More information on the wetlands can be found on the Tahbilk website http://www.tahbilk.com.au/wetlands/ or you might like to read this article about the wetlands on the Environment Victoria website http://www.envict.org.au/inform.php?menu=7&submenu=1313&item=1695
Musk Lorikeets at Whroo
1:18 minutes (979.38 KB)
This recording was made early in 2008 at Whroo on the same trip as the frog recording I posted previously. It's one of the few recordings I made with the MKH416 shotgun mic prior to selling it , and sounds quite good. The racket this flock of feeding Musk Lorikeets were making masks the relatively high self noise of the '416 fairly well.
Grass trees in the forest at Whroo
Frogs at Whroo
Recorded at nightfall at dam at the Whroo gold diggings historical reserve.
The evening was quite windy, and this is reflected in the level of leaf noise in this recording. The main frog species I can identify is Spotted Marsh Frog...