Check my birding map for specific location.
The You Yangs Regional Park is north of Serendip Sanctuary and I went there looking for my 500th bird species of 2022. It was New Year's Eve so really my last chance. The park is on a slope and the view back down to the south coast of Victoria was breathtaking, particularly in the early morning light. As I arrived, there was a large, male kangaroo grazing next to the car park. He was so big, I actually thought for a second he was a cow! I cannot get over being able to get so close to these huge animals.
Around the car park were areas to picnic and a track leading to a lookout. I could already hear people screaming and yelling down there so I headed up the hill. Crimson and Eastern Rosellas were zipping around with their distinctive pinging calls.
My first find were some thornbill chattering away. I was hoping to see the Buff-rumped as that would count for number 500 but there was no sign. I saw Brown, Yellow and Yellow-rumped Thornbill here, although they were difficult to photograph.
I found a spot near the track where there was a lot of activity. A family of Scarlet Robins zoomed about, squabbling furiously, the rosellas called from high up and Silvereye sang away from the foliage. I was moving around all the time, trying to pin down what I was seeing. I was moving from dark leaves to bright sky and after a while it was all abit blurry. Then I saw something land and as I moved my lens towards it, I just knew I had hit the jackpot. Not a great photo - I only had one viable out of 10 I snapped. There were 3 of them and after stopping for about 10 seconds, they disappeared and I didn't see them again.
