KAMAROOKA

What a wonderful day I had birding yesterday at Kamarooka! May in Melbourne can be cold and unfriendly. Yesterday at Kamarooka it was sunny and welcoming. I could not in all honesty say that it was warm, but there were plenty of birds to warm my heart. Not wishing to sound too old, I must say nevertheless, that yesterday was what birding used to be like in my youth. So many beautiful birds, you didn't know which way to look first. It was better than any Christmas celebration I can ever remember.

Kamarooka is part of the Greater Bendigo National Park. I'm told the word means 'wait a while' in the local Aboriginal language. Conditions (and birds) yesterday certainly encouraged us to wait a fair while.

When we arrived, we were greeted by several Shy Heathwren. I'm used to seeing these birds on the ground, but they were calling from the bushes, and not initially very cooperative about showing themselves. (This photo, incidentally, is from my library and was not taken yesterday. It is one of Ken Haines' treasures - and he wasn't with me yesterday.) We did get good looks a little later, but it was reassuring to know that there is a very healthy population of Shy Heathwren in this area. We saw lots of honeyeaters here too. In fact we saw lots of honeyeaters everywhere - there were several species of eucaplypts flowering. There were Red Wattlebirds everywhere and a few Noisy Friarbirds sprinkled throughout the day. We saw both my favourite honeyeaters in good numbers - Brown-headed and White-eared. We admired Fuscous, Yellow-tufted, and Yellow-faced and had excellent views of Purple-gaped and Tawny-crowned. I reckon we saw hundreds of Yellow-plumed. This photo of a Yellow-plumed is also by Ken Haines from my library.

We had excellent views of Red-capped Robins (the female Red-capped Robin really is one of our most exquisite birds - too often over-shadowed by her showy mate) and also Restless Flycatchers, which lived up to their name. We had but a fleeting glimpse of a Crested Bellbird, although they serenaded us with their ventriloquial calls for quite some time. There were fairywrens (both Variegated and Superb) and Thornbills (Yellow, Inland and Yellow-rumped - but, surprisingly, no Chestnut-rumped yesterday). There were lots of fresh platelets from Painted Buttonquail and I fancy I saw some movement which was probably them, but no sighting I could confirm.

I would have liked a Southern Whiteface, a Speckled Warbler and a Gilbert's Whistler, but I clocked up a total of 66 species for the day, including one Peregrine Falcon on the way home, so I am not complaining!