I went to check out the Eltham Valley Pantry again and hooray!  They were open this time!

Yeah, that is a sculpture of a knife and fork – nice advertisement for the café, huh?

The ‘pantry’ is set on a pecan plantation – the trees are bare now, but it still makes for a nice view from the verandah.

I got a glass of water (with a slice of orange and a blueberry floating in it, because that’s how they roll).  I ordered fish and chips for lunch, and something called a ‘refresher’ – pineapple, passionfruit and lime juice with a little fizz through it for good measure.

Yes, they put a flower in the drink.

It was delicious, probably because it’s not pre-made – they have a stash of fruit and juice them when you order it.

There were a lot of birds dotting the field – magpies mostly, but there were a few galahs as well.  I took a video of a young magpie and a galah facing off over a nut:

As you can see, the galah won.

Then it was off to Rocky Creek Dam.  I parked at the picnic area and took a brief stroll over the grassy hills.

It was slightly windy, which was nice – the sun was out in full force and I’d have been very hot and sweaty without that cool breeze from across the water.  I also found this eastern rosella hopping around in the grass:

I started walking across the actual dam, but I passed little island-like plantings among the grass, and I spotted this pied currawong giving me the eye:

And this Lewin’s honeyeater eating an insect:

Fun fact: honeyeaters and other nectar-feeding birds have such a sugar-rich diet that they can afford to expend a lot of energy catching insects that give them needed minerals.

I had a glance down the other side of the dam, into the area where I’d be walking:

Nowhere near as much vertigo as Minyon Falls.  It’s funny how much of a different the slope makes, even if it’s a steep one, compared to just a straight drop.  Maybe it’s because some part of our brain instinctively realises we have a much better chance of surviving a tumble down a slope than a drop off a cliff?

My first walk was the ‘wetlands loop’ that came with a chance of seeing a platypus.  I won’t keep you in suspense about that, though – even though I walked very quietly and slowly, I never saw a single one.  I did sometimes hear some loud splashes just in front of me, like something diving or dropping into the water, but there was always nothing when I turned the corner to check.

I’m just going to leave those up there.

The first thing I spotted when I was still on the grassy part of the path were some red-browed finches:

Quite a crowd of them, huh?

Now, I walked all these paths by myself (with my trusty GPS beacon in my pocket, so don’t worry, Mum and Dad), and I was moving very slowly and quietly.  It took me an hour and a half to finish a trek that was listed as taking forty-five minutes.  What was the point of this, you ask?  To see wildlife.  And boy, did I see them – be prepared for ALL THE BIRDS!

I took so much video, I had to spend a long time sorting through them and deciding which ones to put up here.  It wasn’t too difficult – a lot were out of focus, or only gave you a split-second of the bird before it fluttered away, and there were a lot of the same species, but it still took time.

First up, have some of the mystery ones.  I like to know what I’m looking at, so I usually hit up the internet after my walks, to identify whatever I’ve filmed.  But I have no idea what these ones are:

Looks similar to a brown thornbill, but not quite.

The vividly-coloured breast and underbelly makes me think robin or thornbill of some kind, but I haven’t found a species to match it.

The photos of a Jacky Winter come the closest to this one, but don’t quite match.

My first instinct was ‘King Parrot’, but their heads are supposed to be entirely red.  Little Lorikeet was my next guess, but they only have a red face, not a red belly as well.  So I’ve got nothing.

Of course, any of these could be females or juveniles displaying different colours than the one they’re known for.  They could also be an unusual colour morph, the way black panthers are a colour morph of leopards and jaguars.  It could also be that the video just isn’t good enough to pick up some of their distinguishing features, so we’ll just have to wonder.

These were the failures, but all the ones that follow are identified (to a reasonable degree of certainty) via bird-watching sites.  I feel like David Attenborough.

I heard some frogs along the wetland walkway, but never saw any.  At first I thought they were birds – they sound a bit like ducks.  Or at least, I think they do, what do you think?

As I was coming up from the wetlands walk and getting into the scrub walk, I heard something scuffling in the undergrowth.  I was walking so quietly it actually seemed quite loud, and I used my camera to get a better look.

At first I thought it was some kind of honeyeater, but looking it up later I found that this is the Eastern Whipbird:

At this point, I hit the spillway:

Then it was over that and back into the bush.

Now I was off the usual picnicking paths, still trying to be the stealthiest bushwalker ever, and I could hear birds everywhere.  Have a listen:

I also heard this weird one:

In spite of trying to creep around like a backpacking ninja, I still ended up startling a lot of birds away when I turned corners in the path.  It might have something to do with the fact that I wasn’t exactly dressed for camouflage:

Still, brightness works for a lot of parrots and lorikeets, so there must be something behind it, right?

But enough of that, let’s show you what you actually want to see – the birds!

This one was against the sun so it was hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure it’s an Emerald Dove, another bird we’ve seen before.

But now have one we haven’t seen before – a Spectacled Monarch!

This actual video was taken further down the trail – the earlier video wasn’t as nice.  But this was when I first saw it, and I figured I should preserve the order of discovery.

Next up is the White-throated Treecreeper:

I heard a lot of cracking up ahead at this point, like twigs snapping, and stopped for a look around.  I found a bird breaking bark off trees and obviously eating something underneath it.  I think there were more of them, but I only saw one of them

Presenting, the White-browed Babbler:

Maybe two videos are unnecessary, but the second one gives you a good look at it, and the first one actually shows it cracking off the bark, so…

I heard a lot of scuffling in the undergrowth, and what was definitely the sounds of something running a lot as well.  It was probably all sorts of animals, but once I was sneaky enough to get a video of one of these ground-dwellers.  It’s another familiar bird – the Australian Logrunner.

I saw a dark bird with blue flashes at the wings come to rest in a tree, so I used the camera to zoom in.  This is a Paradise Riflebird:

I found this colourful creature when I heard what sounded like a pidgeon cooing, and stopped to have a look around and see if I could locate it.  This is a Wompoo Fruit Dove:

Following a flicker of movement amongst the branches found me this Grey Fantail:

It was strutting its stuff a little, bouncing on branches and fanning its tail, but I couldn’t get a good video of it – it kept dipping behind leaves and trees.

At this point in the walk, I hit a creek:

The edge of the sign in the shot is just warning people not to attempt a crossing if the water’s moving fast.

As you can see, while it was trickling and splashing between the rocks, the water was fairly still, so I was good to cross.

Okay, I lied, there was one more bird I’m unsure about.  But only because the two species it could be look very similar, so it’s different, I swear!

This is either the Brown Thornbill, or the Striated Thornbill:

I came up a little hill and spotted a Laughing Kookaburra on a low branch.  I’ve heard them a lot out here, but this was the first time I’d seen one:

I also found an enormous termite mound.

It’s funny – I’m used to seeing these in the desert and on the plains, but it looks almost out of place in the forest.  Though really, where’s better for termites than the forest?

I managed to grab a photo of this yellow robin just before it took off.  See how its wings are spreading in preparation for flight?

At this point, the sun was just starting to set, but the rise of the dam meant I was already in shadow.  The lilies on the water were starting to close up:

I had a wander around the picnic area, hoping to see some more birds now that everyone else was gone.  And I did.

I found this Blue-faced Honeyeater eating a piece of bread someone had left behind:

And I’m sure a lot of people are familiar with this one; the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo:

I saw what looked like a crested pidgeon scurrying across the ground, so I zoomed in with the camera, and…

It was a crested pidgeon.  I was totally right.

Some eastern rosellas were still lurking around:

At this point, I decided to hop in the car and head back to Turtle Shell.  I caught these photos on the way back:

I particularly like the second pic; the way the sun is out of sight but the underside of the clouds are still glowing…I was very happy to get that.

Then it was time to sit down at the computer and try to identify those birds.  Not going to lie – it took hours!  But there’s something very satisfying in knowing what you’ve seen (and not just because you feel like David Attenborough).