2503 Eynesbury
Lei and I took the opportunity of a public holiday to get out to Eynesbury. It was my first visit in 2025, and our first together since September last year. It’s a remarkable place but under enormous pressure from human activity – the small remnant forest there seems likely to be protected while the surrounding grasslands will almost certainly be built over in the coming years. Housing on the western edge creeps closer every time I’m there, the barrier preventing vehicle access has been torn down and there have clearly been cars going through and driving off the track.
We started on the eastern side of the road at sunrise, around 7.15. Immediately overhead we had many starlings, as well as tree martins circling over the road, red-rumped parrots, galahs, and excitingly a white-throated treecreeper – my first in Melton! There are always brown treecreepers here (and we saw a few) but I’d never seen white-throated before.
Moving up the dirt road we had white-plumed honeyeaters, a grey shrikethrush, sulphur-crested cockatoo and spotted dove, as well as many more starlings and martins. It was apparently too early in the morning for small birds yet, but we did hear purple-crowned lorikeets calling in flight.
Here I started hearing Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo – repeated descending whistles – but there were so many starlings around I held off recording it in case I was getting confused. It’s one of those calls I only hear a few times a year, and it takes my brain a minute to warm up to it and remember. Happily, about ten minutes after I first heard it, it popped up into a nearby tree – backlit, but its barred belly clearly identifying it for us.
Continuing along the path we had eastern rosella, our first brown treecreepers, little ravens and magpie-lark. We stopped by a tree to photograph tree martins – I estimated around 90, counting in 10s. Through the central gate we got out first observation of the purple-crowned lorikeets as they fed in flowering gums near the path. A red wattlebird called somewhere nearby, and a striated pardalote fed on lerps.
We approached the back gate to the eastern grassland we had two kookaburras inspecting a hollow. I’d guess it’s too late in the season to be nesting, so they may have been feeding young in there – over about five minutes we watched one return to the same hollow twice, pause inside and then leave. It was around 300m away and we couldn’t clearly see what they were doing there.
Here we found a red-browed finch, more red-rumped parrots and a single dusky woodswallow. I saw a woodswallow last time I was here too when it hawked in front of the group I was leading for a few minutes, but didn’t get nearly as good looks this time – it popped up for us briefly then disappeared into the forest.
Here I also got another (surprising) first for me – two noisy miners yelling about something. They’re apparently common in Melton, but I’m guessing more in suburban areas than here. Eitherway, a nice second LGA tick.
Out to the eastern grassland and the sun was really up now. We had crested pigeons, a willie wagtail, and flyover from around 20 straw-necked ibis, as well as many more red-rumped parrots. An eastern grey kangaroo watched us for a minute before bounding away – just the one, curiously. Approaching the reservoir we accidentally flushed more crested pigeons, and two zebra finch popped up in the African boxthorn right at the end of the trail. I’d been hoping to show Lei these cuties – we heard them last time but couldn’t see them – so this was a welcome surprise.
On the water we had most of the usuals: welcome swallows, many hoary-headed grebes, a few pacific black duck, little pied cormorants, two musk ducks and two great-crested grebes. A masked lapwing made itself known in the way they do – by loudly shrieking and flying low over the water and away from us. The great crested grebes have been here almost every time I’ve visited, but they’re still marked as rare for some reason.
Far to the north of the dam a little eagle was circling.
By this point it was far too hot so we turned back, getting more good looks at the zebra finch (and no good photos) and adding Australian magpie, yellow-rumped thornbill and little corella. A black kite flew very low over us as we were about to get back into the forest itself, which was a real treat. It circled a few times before continuing on to the west.
I was hoping for diamond firetail on the walk back and jumped at every small bird hopping through the undergrowth, but in each case they were superb fairywren – finally woken up, I suppose! A fan-tailed cuckoo called, but we couldn’t see it.
The walk back to the car was uneventful and we went to the ornamental lake for a coffee and a more leisurely stroll. On the lake we added a common bronzewing, maned ducks, chestnut teals, Eurasian coots and Australasian grebes, as well as common mynas and house sparrows around the cafe itself.
A good day then – two LGA ticks for me, quite a few for Lei. I was definitely hoping to spot the reported eastern barn owl or Australian owlet-nightjar but they again avoided me. The former would be a lifer for me – I’ll get it one day!