Hattah-Kulkyne National Park – Noisy Miner
Our holiday in Victoria
September 2007
While we were having lunch on the banks of Lake Hattah during our holiday in Victoria last year we were visited by a group of honeyeaters, the Noisy Miner. These fearless birds are common in the camping and picnic grounds of the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park in north west Victoria.
They are quite unafraid of humans having a picnic lunch or camping near the lakes. They hang around under picnic tables – and even on the tables. They have learned that people will drop crumbs and tidbits from their food. This species will eat out of your hand and are not afraid to actually steal food from your plate when you are not attentive.
Hattah-Kulkyne National Park birds
Our holiday in Victoria
September 2007
One of the main reasons for visiting the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park last year was to do a few hours of birding in one of my favourite places. With large tracts of mallee scrub, the national park is an excellent place to see a large number of honeyeaters, especially when the trees are in flower.
Along the Murray River and around the various lakes the large stands of River Red Gums also attract a good range of honeyeaters. While we were having lunch on the bank of Lake Hattah I was pleased to get some good photos of the Blue-faced Honeyeater.
Mallee scrub, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park
Our holiday in Victoria
September 2007
There are two main features of the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park in north west Victoria. The lakes ecosystem complete with magnificent River Red Gum eucalyptus trees is the part that attracts most visitors to the park. This is only one of the attractions of this national park.
By far the greater part of the park is mallee scrub, an environment unique to Australia. I grew up in the Murray Mallee district of South Australia, so it is like home to me. This environment has a unique range of plants, insects and other fauna. When the mallee is in flower, the scrub can come alive with thousands of honeyeaters and other birds.
The mallee tree is of the eucalypt family of trees. There are many species of mallee, most typically have multiple trunks all growing from a stump, or lignotuber.
Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, Victoria
Our holiday in Victoria
September 2007
After leaving Swan Hill we travelled on towards Mildura in far north-west Victoria. We briefly visited one of our favourite places, Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. We have spent many very enjoyable camping holidays in this park. The park consists of a series of shallow lakes filled during high water levels in the nearby Murray River.
Recent visits to the park have been disappointing due to the low water levels in the lakes. During the drought of the last few years there has been little or no water in the lakes system in the park. When there is water present the bird life is prolific, including many species of waterbirds. My family has also spent many wonderful days exploring the lakes in our canoe. (Power boats are not permitted here.)
The photo above was taken in September 2007 with an abnormally low level of water in the lake. Normally the water would be several metres deeper and where I took this photo I would be standing in waist deep water.
Yellow Billed Spoonbill nesting
Wandering along the river bank near the caravan park in Swan Hill I observed several birds high up in a eucalypt tree on the opposite bank. With my camera I was able to zoom in reasonably close and see that it was a pair of Yellow Billed Spoonbills nesting high up in the tree.
The nest, clearly visible, was at least 15 metres up above the ground. From memory, this is the first time I have observed this species actually breeding. For more interesting observations of Australian birds, go to another of my blogs over at Trevor’s Birding (click here).