Over the six weeks from to , what birds can I see while in “COVID-19, Stage 4 lockdown” at home. Restricted to one exercise outing per day, 5km range, 1 hour maximum.
Stage 4 lockdown was extended, so I extended my isobirding…
…until which was our last day restricted to five kilometres.
Grand total; 46 species (as of 2020-10-28 Wed).
Amusingly, within days of the lockdown ending I saw a first for me, a couple of Royal Spoonbill in the Huntingdale wetlands.
Home & Garden
Birds I see out in the garden, from the window of the house, or can be seen or heard from the garden or house.
- Common Myna – ubiquitous in the garden, the plum and bay trees
- Blackbird – one or two nest in the pittosporum hedge
- Little Raven – up in the top of the bay tree
- Brown Thornbill – seem to live in the bay tree
- Spotted Turtle-Dove – sunning themselves on the roof and garden path
- Red Wattlebird – bird bath and loving the camellia flowers
- Pied Currawong – heard, then seen a few days later
- Rainbow Lorikeet – mostly flyovers
- Magpie – power-lines out the front
- Australian Wood Duck – on neighbour’s chimney
- Grey Butcherbird – heard duelling; shouting at each other from houses either side of us
- Common Starling – not as many as there are mynas, but the second most common bird in the garden
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo – noisy flyover, they only come to visit when the plum tree is full of fruit
- A Little Wattlebird or several, in the callistemon
total: 14 species at home, 46 home and away, as of 2020-10-28 Wed.
Within 5km on bike rides and shopping
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Domestic fowl – illegal local rooster heard from the park
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Rock Dove – Oakleigh shops
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Silver Gull – Oakleigh shops
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Pacific Black duck – Huntingdale wetlands
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Eurasian Coot – Huntingdale wetlands
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Australasian Swamphen – Pukeko – Huntingdale wetlands
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Domestic duck – Huntingdale wetlands
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Crested Pigeon – Boyd park
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Grey Shrike-thrush – Glen Iris wetlands
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Chestnut Teal – Huntingdale wetlands
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Magpie-Lark – suburban lawn while riding around
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Little Corella – small flock tearing up someone’s lawn
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Galah – two pairs, tearing up someone’s lawn
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White-faced Heron – Malvern East public golf course
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Little Pied Cormorant – Glen Iris wetlands
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Willie Wagtail – Glen Iris wetlands
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Dusky Moorhen – Glen Iris wetlands
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Welcome Swallow – Glen Iris wetlands
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Superb Fairy-wren – Glen Iris wetlands
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Masked Lapwing – the “Gak-ak-ak bird” – near Oakleigh Recreation Centre
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Eastern Rosella – pair of them near one of the golf courses
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Unidentified raptor circling over Oakleigh East near the Huntingdale Wetlands, silhouetted against the sky, a falcon of some kind
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small flock of Bell Miner chasing each other around and diving back and forth from water-side branches into the pond and out again at the Glen Iris wetlands
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three or four pairs of Grey Teal around “duck island” in Gardiners creek in Glen Iris
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A pair of Hardhead ducks in Gardiners creek in Glen Iris
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A pair of Black Swan and two cygnets in Karkarook park, right on our 5km southern limit
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Small flock of House Sparrow at Caulfield Racecourse – – usually only ever see them at Lorne, rarely in Melbourne for me
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Four Tawny Frogmouth lined up on a branch in Boyd Park,
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a couple of Australasian Grebe in one of the ponds in Namatjira park,
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three or four Great Cormorant on an island in Namatjira park,
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a Sacred Kingfisher in the Glen Iris wetlands,
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a pair of Red-rumped Parrot in Markham Reserve,
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I heard a Kookaburra from in Valley Reserve in Mount Waverley, does it count if I didn’t see it? I guess not.
total: 32 species out and about, 46 in total, as of 2020-10-28 Wed
