As previously mentioned I’m on a trip up toward the Mallee and Riverland.

After two nights in Bendigo, on my third day I got out early, keen to reach Ouyen and start my Mallee birding proper. Almost as if they were teasing me, the roadside was absolutely teeming with bronzewings – mostly common, though I reckon I saw some brush as well. I’ve never stopped there but Inglewood seems to have more pigeons than people.

I stopped for a coffee at Bridgewater Bakery, then ran through to Wycheproof as my next stop. I’m a big fan of Bakery on Broadway here, where I got my second coffee of the day, and I also took the opportunity to do a light bit of birding while drinking it.

Mount Wycheproof

I’ve seen the sign for the Mount Wycheproof lookout every time I’ve been in town but never gone up there. Mountain is definitely overstating it – at 42m above the surrounding plains, it’s more of a big hill, but for somebody who hates heights that’s kind of perfect.

I spent about 25 minutes here. On arrival I had a purple-crowned lorikeet flyover (or I may have flushed it), there were a few beautiful flowering gums on the hill which I’m guessing it was feeding in. A few little ravens chased common starlings around the hill, and somewhere nearby I could hear white-winged choughs calling to each other – a very mournful, slow, descending whistle.

I climbed the hill to a water tower, where I had two white-faced herons fly over, found more ravens, little wattlebirds, musk lorikeets also in the gums, and an Australian magpie – firmly in black-backed territory now after being in the intergrade zone back in Bendigo.

From the top of the hill I also heard (but sadly didn’t see) a rainbow bee-eater, which I think must have been hawking from the powerline back down at street level.

On a powerline extending up the hill I had a couple of eastern rosella, and was pleasantly surprised to find a yellow-subspecies crimson rosella associating with them – or attempting to, though they were quite happy to leave it behind. I grabbed some pictures of the crimson rosella, and I’m glad that I did, because it turns out to be the first eBird record of a crimson rosella anywhere in the Shire of Buloke! Their range does not ordinarily extend this far west, with the closest record being 50km to the east in Boort, that itself being unusual and in 2014.

Lake Tyrrell

I didn’t stop again until Sea Lake, where I grabbed one more coffee and some lunch, which I then took over to Lake Tyrrell. It had been just over a year since I last visited, and despite having a bit of luck with the white-winged fairywren last time I’ve never managed to find any of the rufous fieldwren or orange chats here.

I parked at the top lookout carpark and walked down to the main viewing area – where the TYRRELL sign is, if you’re familiar with the place. I’m absolutely convinced that it’s the most fly-infested part of Victoria, and that was true again today. There were both singing honeyeaters and brown songlarks calling away, and welcome swallows feasting on the small swarm of insects buzzing around me at all times.

Still, it was worth doing the walk rather than driving down. I met two other birders, from Queensland, themselves on their way through to Hattah. They let me know that they had seen a chat just seconds ago – yellow, they thought, but probably orange since they look similar and yellow don’t extend into Victoria. We couldn’t locate that, but did see some Australian pipits, and we had a good chat ourselves (ha) anyway.

They also let me know about a small flock of red-capped plovers feeding on a shallow salt lake. These I found pretty easily, and they were quite calm. In the end, it wasn’t just red-capped plover – I found a couple of red-necked stint and a single sharp-tailed sandpiper in the group as well.

While sitting shooting all these shorebirds, I also got very lucky. Behind me, a rufous fieldwren hopped up onto a small branch, looked directly at me and sang its little heart out. It stayed there while I edged closer, and I was within 10 metres when it finally decided to move on. This was a lifer for me, and what a great one – an absolutely gorgeous, charming little bird.

I continued on to the platform where I pretty easily found a small flock of white-winged fairywrens hopping up and perching on the saltbush. I love this behaviour. There were two more rufous fieldwrens in this same flock, so I sat for about 20 minutes with them all – the fairywrens much more wary, unfortunately, and in the harsh late morning sun here I don’t think I improved on my previous shots.

While sitting there I heard a ‘thump’ as a Nankeen kestrel hit the ground hard and then took off with something in its talons. I was worried it was one of my wren friends, but the long, thin tail suggests its prey was a mouse of some kind.

I didn’t add any more birds on the walk back up, but right as I reached my car I got a brief glimpse of a spotted harrier as it flew low over a field away from me. That was my first time seeing a spotted harrier – surely our most attractive raptor in Victoria – since 2023, so I was a bit sad to have missed the opportunity to shoot it!