Well here is the first post for my new birdwatching guiding and tour enterprise called Bronzewing Birding Services. This blog will serve as a place to report sightings, news and information about the birds of North East Victoria, and updates about Bronzewing Birding Services. The business will be up and running soon (in a few weeks) and then hopefully I will have some keen birdwatchers willing to take tours. The tours will focus on the North East area of Victoria and just into southern NSW. There are some fantastic birds to be found in North East Victoria such as the Regent Honeyeater, Swift Parrot, Grey-crowned Babbler, Turquoise Parrot and Painted Honeyeater just to name a few. All the information about Bronzewing Birding Services can be found at the website http://www.bronzewingbirdingservices.com which will be published soon. I have chose the name Bronzewing Birding Services as I am particularly fond of pigeons as a group of birds, and the Common Bronzewing can be found throughout North East Victoria in a variety of habitats. Here is a picture taken by David Kleinert of a male Common Bronzewing.
As for myself, birdwatching is, and always has been, the biggest interest in my life. I gain such joy and satisfaction of being outside in the environment searching for and watching birds. Having grown up and spending most of my life in North East Victoria I am intimately aware of where to find particular species, the changes in bird numbers and locations over and years, and the best times and habitats to find birds. I particularly enjoy watching the seasons change over the year and the variances in bird populations and numbers as this occurs. To describe some of my favourite North East Victorian birding experiences read on.
Watching a flock of Flame Robins in winter by the Murray River feeding in a verdant green paddock. The afternoon light is fading and the breast of the male birds is the colour of a burning ember as the last rays of the sun shine low across the landscape. Just brilliant. Spring in Chiltern Forest when the Ironbark and Box trees and in full flower. Ten or more species of honeyeater flitting from tree to tree, searching each one and checking, is it a Regent Honeyeater? The deafening calls of Noisy Friarbirds drowning out nearly every other call of bird in the forest.
A warm spring day in Wilby when a strong northerly wind blows. First of all I hear "chap-chap" calls and then look up and see flocks of hundreds of White-browed and Masked Woodswallows returning south to breed. In the following days and weeks every little patch of woodland or roadside with trees has a pair or more of birds nest building and starting to breed. A mild autumn day in the Warby Ranges. A flock of twenty to thirty Turquoise Parrots feeding on on the ground while a Speckled Warbler sings its pretty song from shrubs growing around lichen covered granite boulders. Overhead a Little Eagle soars past and the upward whistle of a Diamond Firetail can be heard in the background.
I could go on with this but as you may gather birdwatching in North East Victoria is sensational. Keep checking this blog regularly for updates, recent sightings and the latest news about the birds of North East Victoria and Bronzewing Birding Services.
