2503 Yellingbo NCA
My first trip out to Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area (NCA) with the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater for 2025 was also my first trip to this part of the reserve. Led by Bruce and with Rachel, Ron, Peter, Allison, and Jake, we met at 7.50 at the Giles Road gate.
It was a busy morning in the reserve, with weed spraying and helmeted honeyeater feeding happening alongside our survey. There was a great deal of smoke from controlled burns in another part of the ranges – unhappily that haze really settled on the reserve and only lifted late morning.
At the carpark as we began we had white-throated treecreeper, two king parrots, a yellow-faced honeyeater, grey fantail and both magpies and magpie-larks. Heading from there down a long road past a pony stud, we added both crimson rosella and eastern rosella, superb fairywren in the undergrowth and spotted pardalote.
Turning left up toward the north we had a grey shrikethrush, laughing kookaburra and pied currawong. Here we also had the first of many eastern yellow robins of the day. We had more grey fantails here too – I inspected a lot of fantails across the day trying to find a Tasmanian r. a. albiscapa individual but without success. Hoping for a better shot on the next trip in April.
Overhead we had two galahs fly past and from behind us a red wattlebird called.
Ducking quickly down to a swamp area of the Cockatoo Creek we hoped to find more than we did. Through thick smoke we counted 18 welcome swallows perched and hunting in the distance, our first two New Holland honeyeaters of the day, and a white-faced heron flew past and gave its gutteral honk as if to confirm the identification.
Continuing up the track we heard but didn’t see masked lapwing. Pausing in a small dip near some gums and banksia we had a lot of success – more grey fantail, our first white-browed scrubwren, and a (for now) unidentified whistler. My ears aren’t good enough to pick them apart yet, and I’m the only one who heard it. Here there was also a wombat digging out a burrow, largely unbothered by our presence.
In a small gully we had more superb fairywren, two red-browed finch coming and going from a blackberry bush, and a couple of silvereye back behind us.
Overheard we had brown thornbills, white-eared honeyeaters chasing yellow-faced honeyeaters, spotted pardalotes, our first white-naped honeyeaters for the day and – very excitingly for me – I saw my first Yarra Ranges varied sittella. They’re not unheard of in the reserve, but they are quite uncommon, so that was a great find.
Through a clearing on the right we saw 15 dusky woodswallow.
We kept going up the track but didn’t add too much more before we turned around. A rainbow lorikeet flew overhead, there were common starlings on an adjacent paddock, and a swamphen shrieked from somewhere on the creek.
On the walk back we had a willie wagtail which was chased off by a grey shrikethrush, which was itself then chased off by a yellow-faced honeyeater. More grey fantail, brown thornbill, and a large flock of red-browed finch passed by. The whistler that we heard earlier revealed itself as a male golden, he hoped around above us for a while but was broadly silent and disinterested.
More yellow robins led us back down the path. Over the Cockatoo Creek three Pacific black ducks flew by; Ron able to make a quick ID as their silhouettes shot through in the smoke. Three little ravens flew overhead.
We paused at a small revegetation area hoping to see blue-winged parrots – apparently uncommonly common in the reserve. We didn’t see them, but I did hear them – two that passed close by but through vegetation, that buzzy parrot call that can only be neophema. Another LGA tick! Here we also had little corella and sulphur-crested cockatoo making plenty of noise. A blackbird shot through the vegetation.
We had a better view of the swamp down here. Ron spotted a black-shouldered kite perched prominently atop a dead tree, and I picked a wedge-tailed eagle doing similarly on a distant ridge. Otherwise it was very consistent: mostly welcome swallows, a couple of dusky woodswallows, grey fantail, New Holland honeyeaters, and a white-eared honeyeater. A short-beaked echidna popped out from the grass alongside the trail and settled in, waiting for us to pass, before heading down to grab a drink. It was, by this point, quite hot.
On the walk back Ron picked out a brown-headed honeyeater which was feeding in a mixed flock with yellow-faced. The brown-headed was my third LGA tick on this trip. Another mixed flock turned up my first striated thornbills of the day, though apparently others had seen them earlier. From somewhere back behind us two Australian ravens called.
The last new bird of the day, a fan-tailed cuckoo, was spotted by Allison and identified by Rachel as we were eating lunch. A wedge-tailed eagle circled high over our cars as we finished.