Lake Colac and You Yangs

We woke up well rested in our nice little farm cottage. This place was sweet. It had all the nice touches including a shower with a full on tile and glass shower just the way we did ours at home but even better.The picture on the wall of the shower was taken by a local photographer at low tide near the Twelve Apostles. 

                                        SHOWER AT THE LITTLE FARM COTTAGE

We have a three hour drive back to Melbourne. We need to catch a plane tomorrow morning for Alice Springs but we have time of a couple of stops along the way. The first stop is Lake Colac. I found this place by searching eBird for hotspots along our route This one looked like it had some potential for some good birds. In order to investigate it further I did a Goggle search for Lake Colac birding and got a web site of Adam who calls himself “the Lake Colac Birder”. His website has lots of good tips for locations around the lake. If you are interested click here I also sent him a RFI (request for information) and he got right back to me with some additional tips. He also let me know that he and a buddy of his published a book on The Birds of Lake Colac. He said that he would have gone out birding with me but he and his family were out of town that day. 

We pulled into the town of Colac.about 11:00 am and drove around looking for the Nature Reserve. We drove past it twice because it was not signed and it looked a lot more like a nice park than a nature reserve. Nonetheless, while walking down the path I heard this constant warbling song emanating from the reeds of the little stream that ran down the center of the park. I searched and searched but I couldn’t find the source of the song. Then we got distracted when a flock of Australian King Parrots flew into a nearby tree. They were gorging themselves on the flowers and were unconcerned with us. Interestedly enough they were almost all females. 

AUSTRALIAN KING PARROT

Moving on down the path we found a group of Satin Bowerbirds also feeding on the flowers of a very large tree. At first I thought that all of these birds were females but when I read the text of the field guide it explained that third and fourth year males look very similar to females. The males do not acquire adult plumage until the sixth or seventh year.  

                                                    SATIN BOWERBIRD

A few yards farther down the path we watched a Grey Butcherbird eating a very large grub. Behind us in the reeds I noticed that warbling song again. Like before we searched for the bird but he was not going for any of our pishes or squeaks. So I decided to pull out the magic bird magnet, my iPhone. I taped him singing a wonderful  song and then played it back to him. He instantaneously flew up and perched on one of the highest reeds, looking all around for the intruder. We enjoyed a great look at Australian Reed Warbler, a very fitting name. 

                                                        GRAY BUTCHERBIRD

                                                AUSTRALIAN REED-WARBLER

When we reached the lake we found the shoreline freckled with Silver gulls and Little Ravens. Did I mention that the wind was howling and the whitecaps on the lake looked like the New Jersey shore. Scanning the marshy areas of the lake we found Australian Pelicans, Little black Cormorants, Pacific Black-Ducks, Eurasian Coots, Pied Stilts, and one Great Crested Grebe. On the edge of the creek a top a tree was an Australian Darter. Like its New World cousin the Anhinga the Darter is sometimes called "The Snakebird". Darters are the coolest birds. Not only do they look prehistoric but they swim through the water effortlessly with only their neck and head sticking out of the water. Their feathers soak up water as opposed to repelling water like duck feathers. This allows the Darter to dive deeper in search of fish. It hunts by spearing fish with it's dagger like bill. Now tell me how cool is that? 

                                                 AUSTRALIAN DARTER

We heard a commotion in the direction of the park, I mean nature reserve, and looked that way to see about fifty Corollas landing in some flowering trees. We headed that way and along the way we saw two White-Winged Trillers in the marsh. 

We found both species of Corollas, although mostly Little Corollas but a few Long-billed Corollas too. They were very busy gobbling up the nice flowers of the tree and unconcerned with us. I also noticed about twenty Satin bowerbirds joining in on the feast, but again no adult males. 

                                                        LITTLE CORELLA

In a smaller tree off to the left there was a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater and on the lawn of a nearby house was an Australian Magpie feeding a fledging chick that was basically the same size as the adult. Get a job!! 

                                                        AUSTRALIAN MAGPIE

Well that was a fitting conclusion to our little birdwalk. Bird of the walk had to be the Darter. Now it was time to hit the road for You Yangs. 

You Yangs Regional Park is located about thirty miles southwest of Melbourne. It is characterized by bouldered strewn hills blanketed with flowering scrubs and patches of gum trees. The area we were directed to by Siri is primarily used for mountain bike recreation. But since the sun was fading fast we had no time to locate the section of the park I had intended to visit. This would have to do. 

                                            YOU YANGS REGIONAL PARK

We started off on a trail that climbed to a low rise . We climbed on top of a house sized boulder where the air was filled with birdsong. High atop a snag was a singing Mistletoebird and in the bushes around the rock Mim found an Eastern Yellow Robin and later I found a Rufous Whistler. Climbing further up the hill I investigated some ticking noises in the scrub and found a Brown Thornbill. At the top of the rise you can see a marsh where a Pacific Heron was hunting in the shallows. Several Australian Swamphens were patrolling the reeds and a couple of Eurasian Coots were doing what all coots do. 

It began to rain in earnest and so we started making our way back to the car. Along the way Mim found a female Hooded Robin and we also saw several Gray Fantails and a White-winged Whistler. 

Arriving at the airport motel we check in and unpack the car and then head straight to the motel restaurant. We are starving and relieved to find that it isn’t real busy. The wait person comes and takes our drink order and of course mine is a gin and tonic with lime. She is back with the drink in two shakes of a wallaby’s tail. When she leaves I eye the drink and notice that it is a little darker than usual. I point this out to Mim and she agrees. I hold it up to my nose and take a sniff and notice that it smells a bit off. Finally a little sip proves that this is no gin and tonic, it’s whiskey and tonic. I don’t know if there is such a drink but if there is I don’t know why anyone would drink it. It was awful. 

I go up to the bar and tell the bartender that I wanted a gin and tonic and she lets me know that what I have is a Jim and Tonic, which is a real drink here in Australian. I guess the Jim is for the Jim Beam. 

All's well that ends well. She makes me a gin and tonic so good that I decide to have two. Then it’s lights out for us.