Jack Smith lake game reserve 15 Dec 2016

We took a holiday in Eastern Gippsland in Dec 2016. In another sign of impending aging it was based around bird watching sites. I would like to acknowledge Ben Cruachan for his tips on birdying sites in the area.

Our first stop off point was Jack Smith game reserve, a duck shooting site in season, but thankfully we were out of season. There is a rough dirt road down to a series of freshwater lakes close to 90 mile beach. On the way we met a blue tongue lizard.

At the far end of the dirt road we hit the aptly named 90 mile beach. Just inland was a waterway filled with waders including red capped plovers, the photo below showing both male and female.

 

And a new spot for us was the red necked avocet

 

 

A bush walk later on revealed some more new birds for us, including a golden headed cisticola

 

 

 

And a few we have seen before, such as a brush cuckoo

 

 

and red browed finch