There are no Kangaroos Down Under!?

[Dewi]

Great start Mel.

Love the Silver Gull.

Coots are native to Aus.

[Mel]

Thanks, nan

Dewi, I just find it strange that there is so many Eurasian birds down there.

[Mel]

August 5 to 7, 2014 Great Ocean Road / Port Fairy

Now this is going to take a bit longer since the amount bird sightings took up considerately.

But let's start with the landscape first.

On our way in, we still had some sunshine which made good light for enjoying the beautiful scenery.







Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to stop at every great rock formation since we wouldn't arrive at Port Fairy before 6 pm anyway...
Tough luck, because on the way back again it poured down and the view was rather spoilt.

London Bridge


Part of the Twelve Apostles






Guess, I'll have to do this again at some point to see the Apostles in their full beauty...

[Richprins]

Very good pics, Mello!

[Bushcraft]

Great pics Mel

Love the coastline

Indian Myna

[mouseinthehouse]

Say what?! A trip to Oz and you didn't call in?

If u didn't see kangaroos (I will keep with the TT to see how that pans out!) then you definitely should have dropped by - they hop around the place here all the time.

Bring on the birdies and the other wildlife and stuff - nice to see my own country through someone else's eyes.

[Mel]

Thanks, RP and BC

Sorry, mith, Naracoorte was still some k's off and we were on a real tight time budget.
All our city hoppers were done by plane as otherwise we wouldn't have managed to see as much as we did.
But we'll be back in a few years time.

[Mel]

A bit of information for those who haven't been to the Great Ocean road yet and consider taking a trip down there at some point:

You'll find great surfing spots along the route as well as rainforests with koalas up in the gum trees, lots of heathland and
both buzzing and quiet seaside resorts. My favourite place on route would have been Lorne as it looks like a pretty not too busy town.

One of the main attractions must be the 12 Apostles in the Port Campell National Park although there are obviously only 11 at the max.
But the constant work of the Pacific Ocean waves might just create the missing stack at some point in the far future.

As far as I understood those stacks used to be called the "Sow and Piglets" but was renamed somewhen in the sixties to create
a name that might prove more attractive to tourists. Born was the name Apostles and since they are usually 12 of them, the number
was added accordingly, even if there aren't 12...

The Great Ocean Road is also good for whale watching. The best spot for this is obviously Warrnambool. But I couldn't comment on it
as it was raining cats and dogs with high winds and according huge waves which made us give this attraction a miss as we wouldn't
have been able to see anything anyway.

Since we only had one full day down there, we opted to stay in Port Fairy which would have given us the options to drive further to the
west or return to where we came from for some activities. At the end of the day, we opted for a walk around Griffith Island just
at the edge of the town to the west



and a visit to the Tower Hill Game Reserve about 15 km to the east of Port Fairy.

The both of them are the places where most of my bird pics will come from on this part of our trip.

[Mel]

At Kennett River we found:

Female Wood Duck
(5)

And her husband posting with a Purple Swamp Hen
(6)

Pacific Black Duck
(7)

[Mel]

Male King Parrot
(8)

Immature King Parrot


Common Rosella
(9)