BLEG to Shipwreck

 As part of the Birdlife East Gippsland camp out at Mallacoota the group went to Shipwreck Creek on 25 October.  We did two walks, punctuated by morning tea.  For COVID compliance we split into 2 groups and did the walks separately.  The group I was in did the Western route first.

I hadn't got the message about the start being delayed (funny that whats App doesn't deliver notifications if you don't have Notifications turned on!) so had 30 minutes to hang about.  There are always things to see and I wanted to check the state of the Creek Crossing.  The things to see included Clematis glycinoides ...

... and Kennedia rubicunda.

On getting to the creek level an Eastern Reef Egret was strutting its stuff.

A pair of Hooded Plovers were on the beach imitating Sanderlings running away from the waves.  One was flagged and on the group leader's camera the flag could be read as YE.  That meant it was initially captured on Seal Creek beach (about 2km away in a straight line, 3km by track) in March 2021.

There were more specimens of Gompholobium hugelii than I have seen before.

Nice to see the Banksia serrata coming in to flower.

The BIG excitement on the walk was seeing a Ground Parrot fly up from the path.  No-one was able to get a photo but the sight of a big fat green budgie was clearly that species.  That is to my knowledge the first record of that species in this patch of heath since the fire.

I totaled 24 species for the walk and I think others saw additional species.

After a break for morning tea we headed off on the second loop.

Once into the Eastern heath we got a nice view back to the West.

Birds were rather sparse on this route with only 9 species recorded by me for the walk.  The outstanding flower was Callistemon citrinus.

I didn't take a photo of an interesting Lomandra seen along the way, but scanning Flora of Victoria  shows it to have been L. multiflora multifora,