Augustine Dam

The small island on Augustine Dam

It's an urban lake almost without a name. There aren't any signs at the lake, and it's not named on Google Maps. You have to dig deeply into the City of Greater Geelong's webpage to find that it's called Augustine Dam. It's in South Valley Rd, Highton. Whenever I've submitted a bird survey from the site I've called it St Augustines Lake because it's on the original grounds of an orphanage of that name that were subdivided several decades ago. Maybe I'll have to change the location name now that I've discovered its official title.

Stormwater flows into the dam and is filtered by the reeds and vegetation. It's circumnavigated by an excellent walking track. There is a playground, an island and a fishing jetty. The trees and shrubs have matured nicely and the whole area is well maintained except for the occasional feral ducks that appear, and I wish the council would remove the single Arum Lily that is growing at one end before it gets out of control. Can you call waterlilies a weed when they look so pretty? (I've read that they don't become weedy because they don't like fast moving water.)

Arum Lily, a serious weed

Waterlilies on Augustine Dam

At the moment there are frogs calling, there are cute little Pacific Black Ducks, Dusky Moorhens and Purple Swamphens, there is a pair of Darters, the Little Ravens are nesting and there are numerous honeyeaters. It's a real delight to walk slowly around just taking it all in.

Eurasian Coot

Male Darter

Dusky Moorhen parent and chick

Banded Lapwings

Near Little River

It was the winter solstice, chilly but sunny. A beautiful day for a club excursion.

About thirty members of Geelong Field Nats gathered at the appointed meeting place before moving on to the main event. This was the view to the north, with the Little River in the middle distance, so most of us turned our backs, wrapped our scarves tighter and chatted in the sunshine. But not JN. He must have been scanning with his binoculars because when he announced quietly "Banded Lapwing" we all snapped to attention.

We grabbed our binoculars, a scope was erected and we scanned the paddock. The Banded Plovers were indeed in the paddock between us and the river, surprisingly well-hidden in the low stubble. In the photo above (on my computer screen) I can make out about ten birds but the final count was 23.

Barwon River above Buckley Falls

It was good to get out of the house this morning after a torrid week, four days above 41°C. It was back to the low twenties and members of the Geelong Field Nats found the walk along the Barwon River very pleasant.

View west from Newtown Lookout, smoke haze from the Grampian fire over the Barrabool Hills

We met at Baums Weir on the north bank of the river near Fyansford, and walked downstream along the footpath as far as the old paper mill near Buckley Falls. It's not very far but, at typical field nat's pace, it took all morning. The river environment has been highly modified by industrial activity (there were several flour mills as well as the paper mill along this stretch of the river), steps, landscaping, footpaths, weirs and quarrying. There are several old quarries along the way so we were able to see the evidence of long-ago volcanic activity here and downstream at Buckley Falls. The Friends of Buckley Falls have been very active for several decades, weeding and planting as well as fighting bureaucracy to create a buffer between the river and the encroaching suburbs. It's still a work in progress but the results so far are magnificent.

Baums Weir

Near the bridge on Geelong Ring Road where it crosses the Barwon.

The race (at left) was constructed in the 1870s to feed water to the paper mill.

Suburbia is not far from the river and getting closer.

Old quarry 

Old quarry

Fairy Martin nests in the old quarry

Buckley Falls

Today we saw a variety of birds along the river (Crested Shrike-tits, Grey Fantails, Silvereyes, cormorants, ducks, Grey Shrike-thrush, Red-browed Finch, Brown Thornbills etc) as well as raptors flying overhead (Whistling Kites, Black Kites). A highlight was the group of seven Whistling Kites moving and talon-grappling in the thermals overhead.

The holy grail

Finally. A Baillon's Crake.

This little bird has eluded me for 25 years, my bird-watching life. I was always at the right place too late, or too lazy to travel to the right place at the right time, but this week one of our bird club members led a group of us to the right place at the right time. And there they were, five of them, on a wetland in the middle of Geelong.

It was overcast and drizzling but we were able to see them clearly moving around the reeds and rushes within three metres of us. We saw them flying, with their legs dangling, from one shelter to the next. We watched them chase each other across reeds lying flat on the water's surface. And we were surprised at how little they are. They were beautiful but our wonderful guide told us we should see them in full sunlight when their colours are truly stunning so I'll go back, when it's sunny.

The greengrocer pays me a visit

This morning I drew back the curtains on the sliding door and was faced with this huge insect hanging on to the flywire screen _ bit of a shock when I hadn't even had my coffee!

It's a Greengrocer Cicada Cyclochila australasiae, green form. Other colour variations are Blue Moon (turquoise form), Chocolate Soldier (dark tan form), Masked Devil, Yellow Monday (yellow form). They're common and found (or should I say heard) up the east coast of Australia. And they're big _ its wing span is about 13 cm.

I was about to move it to a tree for a different photograph but it flew away when I moved the door. Oh well, now I can have my coffee.

A reptilian resident

Blue-tongues don't seem to mind life life in the 'burbs. In fact they thrive and we Aussies have become very fond of them. They're large, move slowly on their short legs and are not agressive.

We saw one in our garden a few years ago and not since. So we were delighted when our brother-in-law heard one moving about in a pigface groundcover yesterday. I sat and waited, with my camera, and was rewarded when the reptile came out to sit in a sunny spot. It's an Eastern Blue-tongue Tiliqua scincoides. I wonder how long it's been in residence without being noticed.

Our block is plenty big enough to support a blue-tongue family I reckon. We want a partner to arrive so we can get started.

Plastic scenery

Yesterday I travelled the highway between Geelong and Melbourne - it's part of our national highway, Highway 1, the Princes Highway. Normally I look for some of interesting raptors that hang out there, or look to see what sort of mood the You Yangs are in, or monitor the non-weeding being done on the garden beds (in other words - watch the weeds growing), or watch planes circling to land at Avalon Airport, or look at the spectacle of clouds over the flat plain or seek out the glimpses of the city skyline. But yesterday I got distracted by plastic bags, hundreds of plastic bags, caught on fences and in the foliage of plants and flapping in the strong west wind. This road is only a short distance from Port Phillip Bay and I pondered on the fact that I was only seeing the bags that had been caught. How many more have ended up in the water?