Abstract
D uring January my family and I toured through Victoria and some of South Australia. Although primarily a family holiday the inevitable visits were made to various captive institutions, nature reserves, and National Parks. A number of dedicated shopping, beach and fun days ensured the family did not desert me in the bush - fellow bird people will understand this! Despite being a dedicated aviculturist, I'm not one to spend days looking at captive birds - to be honest I was determined to see as many species as possible in the wild.
Our first stop after the airport was Melbourne Zoo but since Ian Smith gave you Watchbird readers a tour of the zoo in the last issue, we'll skip over it here.
Next stop was Healesville where we stayed in the Badger Creek Holiday Park. As we arrived at the office a New Holland Honeyeater was taking nectar from some flowers in the garden. Phenomenal to see his striking black and white flecked chest with black and yellow wings - I watched the bird for some time thinking I would probably never see it again (little did I know how many we were to see). As we pulled up towards the cabin we flushed a pair of common Bronzewinged Doves and almost immediately we stepped out of the vehicle a pair
of Eastern Spinebills landed in close view. After unpacking, a quick walk around the park produced numerous Fantails, Spotted Pardalote, White Ibis, Maned Geese, Pennant's Rosellas with continually begging chicks, Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, and Rainbow Lorikeets.
An early morning walk the following morning produced a long list of exciting species such as Eastern Whipbirds with their call which builds up and sounds as if the bird is some distance away until the call explodes from within a few meters. Yellowtailed Black, Gang-gang, and Galah Cockatoos were seen briefly flashing through the eucalyptus trees. Other species such as Pied Currawong (magpie like but with very unusual calls), Yellow Robin, Treecreeper, Misteltoebird, and of course the stunning, delicate Superb Fairy Wrens were seen.
The latter, despite their beauty, proved to be one of the most common birds seen on the trip and one soon feels guilty at not lifting binoculars to look at each and every male that one encounters. They live in family groups of about five birds with a predominance of females and juveniles and are literally everywhere there are a few shrubs to hide in. I had my heart set on seeing the Splendid Fairy Wren and have drooled over it many times in the book - more on that one later.
By mid morning we were at the gates of the Healesville Sanctuary - again an institution I had hoped to visit for years. One of my prime objectives was to meet staff involved in breeding their endangered species as we have much to share with some of our New Zealand species. The air was filled with the smell of eucalyptus and the "ping - ping" like calls of Bell Miners busy feeding from the eucalyptus blossoms. As we approached the wetland section the pair of Brolga (cranes) let
rip with their typical loud crane duet - the family nearly jumped out of their skin, but what an introduction.
One of the first walk-through aviaries we entered housed a number of the larger native species already mentioned but what fascinated me was the family of Fairy Wrens squeezing through the wire to steal food from the food tray. Numerous other smaller but very effective walk-throughs housed species such as the Sydney Waxbill (Red-browed Firetail), honeyeaters, Plum-crowned Lorikeet, Azure Kingfishers, etc.
A Lyrebird walk-through allows one a very good view of these forest floor specialists and some of the fruit pigeons as well.
For those keen on reptiles and marsupials, the reptile and the nocturnal houses are an absolute must - I was very impressed by these and the hands on (keeper only) talk with a number of the snakes was well presented. Straight after the reptile talk one enters the raptor free flight show which is one of the most effective but natural and relaxed raptor shows which I have seen.
Starting with the sound of a didgereedoo and a Black Kite flying overhead we soon had a Barking Owl and a Wedge-tailed Eagle swooping over our heads to collect snacks from the staff and returning to the trees behind us. The Wedge-tailed is a very impressive bird, which brought back fond memories of my hand-raised Crowned Eagles, which I used for education in Africa.
Following this I left the family to look at the platypus section (very impressive) and others while I joined a staff member to look at, and talk about, their breeding and release of endangered species. The inevitable discussions on the problems involved with endangered species - captive husbandry, release and monitoring techniques proved very interesting. Their Helmeted Honeyeater program shares many common problems with our Stitchbirds in New Zealand. The past season was very successful for the Orange-bellied Parrot with about 30 reared and a number having been returned to Tasmania for release.