Today was one of those days where nothing seemed to go my way. I started the morning out trying to see the Helmeted Honeyeater, an endangered subspecies of the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater I photographed last month. These birds are only found in one little park and access is rather limited. It took me a while to find the place but I think Iended up at the right spot but am not totally sure. Anyway, there was a huge colony of bell miners which alwyas makes birding difficult because it is so hard to hear anything over their constant racket. After wandering around for a bit Igave up and decided to move on.
From there my plan was to head to Starling Gap in the Yarra Ranges. I knew there was a campsite there but I really didn't know the exact location of the spot but there was a campsite labeled on my map in Yarra Ranges National Park so I figured I would head there. Turns out that it was the wrong campsite and there was no one around to ask for directions. So I ended up driving around for a while seeing if I could stumble across it without any luck. Finally, after giving up, I happened to look at the map and there it was, not actually in the national park on my map soI had overlooked it. Of course it took a bit of backtracking to get there but by midafternoon I arrived.
My main target bird here is a Pilotbird but I will search for it tomorrow. This evening I focused on trying to photograph the pair of Flame Robins that were quite active around the campsite but I ended up without anything worth keeping. Also, after the sun had dropped below the ridge, a large flock of Gang Gang Cockatoos came in to drink but of course there wasn't enough sun to photograph them. Still, it is always nice to get so close to one of my favorite cockatoos. Hopefully tomorrow Iwill finally get my Pilotbird.
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