Australia (2/8) - The Great Coast Road

We left Melbourne early and headed off along the Great Coast Road towards our overnight stop at Warrnambool, a distance of just under 350 kilometres. Most of the day was spent on the coach although there were a number of stops to stretch legs and to get a closer view of some of the more spectacular stretches of coast.

I saw plenty of birds but stops were brief and it was difficult to get decent shots. A lunch break at Appolo Bay gave me a few opportunities but Fairy Martins at the Twelve Apostles stop proved to be too much of a challenge. Forty or fifty flight shots and I didn't get single one in frame.

Australian King Parrot

Poor shot but it's the only one I managed to get. The Eastern Great Egret below Ardea modesta is considered by most authorities to be a sub species of the Great White Egret Casmerodius albus found in Europe.

Eastern Great Egret

New Holland Honeyeater

Pacific Black Duck

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Welcome Swallow

Willie Wagtail

We arrived in Warrnambool about an hour before sunset with the light starting to fade. What to do? Probably 30 minutes of decent light. The Merri River estuary just by the hotel; South Warnambool Wetlands; Thunder Point Coastal Reserve; E Johnson Reserve; Warnambool Foreshore Reserve; Lake Pertobe; Merri Marine Sanctuary with its Little Penguins on Middle Island and the harbour all within a kilometer of where we were staying.

The penguins were particularly interesting as they are protected from predatory cats and foxes by Maremma Dogs. Click here if you are interested.

I managed to get as far as the estuary before the light went completely.

Australian Pelican

Pacific Gull - distant but no mistaking that bill

Singing Honeyeater- in very low light

This looked a really great place for walking and birding but we were up before dawn and back on the coach before it was really light. I needed at least a full day here. Fortunately we made an unscheduled stop about 15 kilometres down the road at the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve.

Tower Hill is an inactive volcano that had been stripped of its timber by early settlers, used for farming, quarrying, motor cycle racing and as a rubbish dump. Over the past 40 years it has been repopulated with 300,000 native trees and now supports an extensive wildlife population.

It was raining but the larger animals and birds were easy to spot.

Kangaroo

Emu

Grey Fantail

Make it two days at Warrnambool. I could easily spend a day wandering around this wildlife reserve.

It was more than 600 kilometres to Adelaide so most of the day was spent looking out of the coach window and studying the maps. So many places I would have liked to stop. A few where we did and one new bird, a Superb Fairy Wren.

Superb Fairy-wren   -   breeding male

Superb Fairy-wren   -  non breeding male

and one more picture just because it is such a wonderful bird.

We arrived in Adelaide late afternoon with the prospect of a whole day to explore the city and the surrounding area. Just the sort of thing that I always laugh at visitors to my own country for doing. Still, got to make the most of it.