As a contribution to the Victorian Seniors Festival U3A Mallacoota organised a visit to the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) followed by lunch at the WW2 Bunker Museum site, an inspection of the Bunker and a natural history exploration of part of the Bunker site. Thank you to East Gippsland Water for permission to visit the WWTP and to the Mallacoota and District Historical Society (MDHS) for opening the Bunker Museum site.
I had had some concerns about the weather we might experience with rain forecast at some stage. As we started the sky was clear although the wind was a little brisk when out of the shelter of the trees.
We gathered on Betka Rd beside the entrance to the tip and followed tracks through the bush checking out the birds as we went. Most observations were by ear, with quite of lot of calls being evident. The most frequent calls were of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters earning their historic vernacular name of Bush Canary. Of course Grey Fantails came to inspect us. As we approached the entrance to the WWTP a Leaden Flycatcher was heard - my first record for the season - but remained hidden somewhere in the dense foliage above us.
On entering the WWTP an unusual site for the area was an Australian Pelican soaring over the ponds. This appeared to disturb the waterfowl a little, possibly they mistook it for a large raptor, but they settled down again.
As we headed towards the ponds with more fowl a moderate sized (a little over 1m in length) Red-bellied Black Snake was seen absorbing a few sun rays: after a period of mutual observation it headed back down its burrow.
The waterbirds on the ponds have been in reduced numbers for a few months as several species have headed off to the floodwaters of the Western inland. This meant we didn't see any Pink-eared Ducks or Hardhead nor surprisingly any Eurasian Coots (which have been in remarkably reduced numbers this year across East Gippsland). A few Australasian Shovelers were the least common Ducks seen. As usual several Australian Shelduck were present and several ducklings of that species were evident (in reduced numbers compared to recent visits presumably due to predation by birds of prey). The Black Swans were accompanied by a flotilla of cygnets.- some of the nest boxes erected by Birdlife Australia; and
- the Nature Trail being developed by MDHS in the vicinity of the Bunker.
On the way to look at other parts of the Nature Trail we came across a nice specimen of a sun orchid: I think Thelymitra arenaria. In the first image the orchid is just visible above the pamphlet.
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