💾 Archived View for apintandaparma.club › ~ajft › phlog › 2021-11-13.gmi captured on 2021-11-30 at 19:37:34. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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My annual venture out into the western part of Gippsland for a long ride, it used to be an organised one until they ran out of enthusiasm or time or volunteers, now I just go and ride it myself around this time of year. I only made it around a third of the course before calling it a day, the torrential rain took all the fun out of it
The flooded flat paddocks and roadside ponds were alive with frogs, everywhere I went all day I could hear them; Pok Pok Pok! and Reee-reee-reee, even though it's FrogID week that's the best I can do, the weather wasn't conducive to stopping and recording the calls
Plenty of birdlife around too, from the raucous Red wattlebirds[1] at 5am to the blackbird[2] singing at 5.30am and the Mynas[3] squawking and yelling in the garden... and that was before I'd even got to the station to catch the train out to the ride
Once out into the farmland from Pakenham I started to see other birds, although the most common all day were endless numbers of Mynas[3] and Starlings[4]. A Black-faced cuckoo shrike[5] flying up to a tree, a Letter-winged kite[6] perched on a dead branch watching me pass below, appearing to scowl
Waterbirds aplenty in the channels and near overflowing creeks, a solitary emu[7] in the Bayles wildlife park -- although I don't think that one should count. Several farms had peacocks too, I could hear them as I rode past, didn't get to see any.
One the last 5-10km back towards Pakenham a squawking and flapping in a tree near the road caught my attention, a small group of 3-4 Yellow-tailed black cockies[8] were feeding and seemed to be arguing over who got which branch. Close to the road and only about a metre off the ground, reminding me again how big they are
Not the best day I've had out, but plenty to see along the way
[8] Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
November 2021
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12001 👣 / 78.5km 🚴 / 56bpm / 75kg