Birds of Australia | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Taking care of foreign guests can be a daunting task – but when they have special needs it is even harder. When your guest say to you each and every day – Where are we going to go bird watching today? – I guess you would eventually run out of places to take them. Not so with our intrepid hostesses. Today they outdid themselves and showed as an amazing time at two different venues. The first was Hunter’s Wetland which is a conservation sanctuary, with over 200 wildlife species identified on site. It consists of 45 hectares of wetlands and, it is the perfect nature-based tourism destination to explore, discover and relax. There were a number of walking trails we could do and Earl and I spent a couple of hours exploring while Aunt and Colette relaxed at the Visitor’s Centre where we joined them afterwards for a delicious lunch and then relaxed and watched the birds from the deck.

Moorhen with chicks

Purple Swamphen and Teal

Great Egrets

Wandering Whistling Duck

Magpie Geese

Magpie Goose

Royal Spoonbill

A gang of Spoonbills

White-necked heron

Spotted Dove

The Wetland

White Ibis nesting

Beautiful Butterfly

Later in the afternoon we made our way to Kooragang Wetlands and onto Ash Island which had a gravel roads to drive around it. It turned out to be quite an adventure as the maze of roads got a tad confusing. However, our wonderings led us to some amazing ponds and we found some special birds. The bird of the day was the Black-fronted Dotterel which Leonie spotted at the side of the road all on its own and well camouflaged in the scrubby vegetation. It resembles the three banded plover which we see at home. We were also thrilled to find Red-necked avocets. At first glance we thought they were some exotic duck as they were swimming with their bills in the water. Then we noticed that they were curved upwards and when wading behaved like our pied avocets at home.

Black fronted dotterel

Red-necked Avocet

It was a very early wake up time this morning. Earl was not feeling well last night and getting up at 3:00 a.m. did not help either. By four o’clock we were on the road with Aunt in the driver’s seat. She did not need the Garmen to find the way. It was a perfect morning and after dropping off the hire car and checking in – quite a mission because of the distance one has to walk – we checked in. Do you know you have to pay for a trolley at Australian Airports? I thought $3.00 was a bit steep! I was a little nervous when I saw the terminal was like it was used to be in the olden days when you walked onto the tarmac to board the plane. The first one I saw had propellers and Earl almost had me convinced that this was ours! The name Jetstar put me at ease!

A day to depart from Newcastle to Melbourne-

Dawn departure from Newcastle to Melbourne on a Jetstar Flight

It was a bit of a shock to land in a wet and windy Melbourne. I was so sure that Australia was a hot country that I didn’t pack any long sleeved shirts or warm jerseys – my jeans, fleece and school jacket would have to do!

It was a long drive to Warrnambool (Maria I promise this is really how you spell it!) Fortunately Earl was feeling better and took the wheel. We stopped for coffee at a quaint little coffee shop in one of the small town en route – excellent and Aunt assured us that $3.00 for a long black was cheap by Aussie standards.

It poured most of the way so stopping to sight see was not on the agenda. It cleared up when we arrived and so we explored the town and surrounds for an hour.

Water everywhere

Birds abound. This is a Blue-billed duck

Our accommodation is a two bedroomed, two bathroom, open plan livingroom/kitchen apartment and very comfortable. It has all the mod-cons of home including a washing machine!

After a rest we set off along the Great Ocean Road and took in the compulsory tourist must dos. And boy were they worth it. The weather was awful but the beauty was still sensational and it was well worth travelling all these miles to see these incredible natural phenomena. Also there were no crowds and no entrance fees to spoil the experience. We could just take it all in and enjoy. Of course we looked out for birds en route too!

We stopped at an old fashioned diner for delicious take away ham, cheese and tomato rolls.

Still need to find out what this bird is

Me at The Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands

Amazing rock formations

The gale nearly blew us away at the view point of The Twelve Apostles

The photographs do not do justice to the magnificence of these rock formations. I would also love to come back on a sunny day although I think that the wild weather added to the beauty of the experience in many ways. The sea was turbulent, the wind blew through our hair and we felt both awed and invigorated. It was good to feel the rugged beauty both in the rocks, the sea and the weather.

Australian Wood Duck

Spur Lapwing

Wood duck again

Australian Black Bird (type of thrush)

Black Swans

We got home quite late and went straight to Beu Jangles for pizza. I loved the Christmas hat sported by one of the chefs. Typical Aussie – the prettiest bush hat I’ve ever seen!