Raptors and Lakes

The destination for today was Kerang, about 274 km North of Melbourne.  My nights sleep was a tad interrupted by the security guards at the pub discussing issues at 3am but I shifted rooms and got back to sleep.  When I was awake properly - around 6am- the dregs of punters were still oozing out of the pub.

Possibly that is tobacco being rolled.  (I do hope these folk are unemployed or on leave as I doubt they'd be very productive at work at 0900!)

We began by meeting family members at Lincoln Park, a little distance up Bouverie St in Carlton.

The smaller people seemed to enjoy the swing!

The definition of a lane in Melbourne is somewhere where the walls are covered in graffiti.

On the road, after a small bit of business with Sheila, who chose a very strange route for getting across to the Tullamarine Freeway.  Then heading up the Calder Highway and marvelling at the ability of Roads Victoria to insert low speed limits at random points for no apparent reason.  

Also for no apparent reason there seemed to be quite a lot of caravans around.  As the Calder Highway is a route between Melbourne and Queensland that shouldn't be a surprise, but normally folk would have stopped going North by now.

The weather was what could best be described as manky once past Calder Park Raceway with drizzle showers and poor visibility all the way to Bendigo.  Mount Macedon was vaguely visible through the murk.  Once around Bendigo the sky cleared and the canola glittered.

After the weather cleared we saw many raptors as we headed towards Kerang.  One Wedge-tailed Eagle (just by Frances); 3 Black Kites; 1 Whistling Kite, at least 10 Black-shouldered Kites and possibly 20 Nankeen Kestrels.  Possibly the mouse plague is not yet over.

We visited our accommodation in Kerang - the Ibis Caravan Park - and proceeded North to check some lakes we had read about on the Birding Victoria site.  After I stuffed up the navigation (expecting Lake Tutchewop to be visible from the highway) we found cheap fuel at Lake Boga and came back to find Lake Tutchewop a couple of km off the highway.  These ruins of bathing sheds were the highlight: hardly any birds, the sky had clouded over and a bitter wind was blowing.

There were no birds on the Lake except two Pelicans.  Later I read a sign that commented this Lake has little wildlife as it is too saline.

After filling up with fuel at Lake Boga (a Metro station, with the best price we've seen around) we went to the Ibis Rookery.  A good start was Frances spotting an Azure Kingfisher,

There were a few Ibis around: this lot were Straw-necked but we did see some Australian White (aka Bin Chook) as well.  I guess it is too early for numbers to have really got going.

In case you wonder why they are called "Straw-necked" ....

Here is the route we followed, with the list at https://ebird.org/checklist/S116890473.

We stayed in a cabin at the Ibis Caravan Park and it was pretty good.  They had an Ibis on the lawn.

Also Blue-faced Honeyeaters in the trees!