Birding at Altona Beach

This post I am moving from woodlands and showing you some of the water birds. As I lived closer to Altona beach this has been my go to place to photograph shorebirds. And after exploring the area over the time I have found few good spots for bird watching around Altona – the main Altona Beach, Laverton Creek Trail, Truganina Swamp, Paisely-Challis Wetlands, Jaw Bone Flora & Fauna Reserve & Cherry Lake. The photos in this post will mainly be from Altona beach and Laverton creek trail.

Australian Pelicans, Black Swans, Silver Gulls, Pacific Gulls, Grey and Chestnut Teals, Cormorants, Egrets, Herons, Spoonbills, Hoary Headed Grebes and Pied Stilts are some of the water birds you’d frequently come across along the shorelines on any time of the year. But during the summer the place becomes alive when all the migratory birds arrive. Then Red Necked Avocets, Banded Tilt, Sharp Tailed Sandpipers, Sanderlings, Curlew Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers, Bar Tailed Godwits, Common Greenshank, Crested Tern, Banded Stilt, Red Necked Stilt, Whiskered Tern and Pied Oystercatcher would join the list as well.

During my early days of birding I did not have much interest in waders; as they all looked to me as different shades of brown. But after a while noticing few different waders and their different shapes of bills had me interested in them. Their bill size and shapes depends on the type of food they consume and that’s how you’ll find them along the shore. The smaller billed waders like Common Sandpipers, Red Necked Stilts and Sharp tailed sandpipers would be feeding way closer to the shore where there is little of no water while Godwits, Greenshanks, Avocets and Banded Stilts would be a bit further down the shore using their long (and curved in case of Avocets) bills to access food.

On the other side of the water; in the vegetation along the coast line Superb Fairy Wrens, Yellow Rumped Thorbills & House Sparrows can be seen feeding on the grounds closer to the shrubs. On Coast Sheaoks a Singing Honeyeater can often be heard before it can be seen. Crested Pigeons use the cones of Sheoaks to perfectly camouflage themselves while resting on the tree. In the grasslands during sunset or sunrise it is feeding time or Starlings, Crested Pigeons, Red Browed Finches, Galahs and Magpie Larks. And some of the birds seen flying from tree to tree could include Red Wattlebirds, Little Wattle Birds, Rainbow Lorikeets and Corellas.

While I was exploring the area around Laverton Creek Tail I found few more birds in the woodland area going towards 100 steps of Federation. There were New Holland Honeyeaters, Grey Fantails, White Plumed Honeyeaters, Welcome Swallows, Wattlebirds, European Starlings and when water level was lower White-faced Herrons and Egret were seen fishing along the bank.

Along the shoreline at Altona there are few places where Estuary forms – I learned what it’s called from an Instagram post! These during a non windy day creates perfect opportunities for reflection shots. In such areas before sunrise or after sunset beautiful you get orange or pink colour reflections in water which creates for some beautiful backgrounds.

To get the best out of your day birding at the sea is to check the tide times. As most of the shore birds prefer the time around low tide so that they have easy access to food. As low tides are not always around sunset or sunrise, there might not be good light for photography during every low tide but those days are good to spot the areas where the birds hang out most and to figure out which are the best spots to be at when the light is right to get the best backgrounds.

On the day of writing this blog we are in a lock down due to Covid-19 but I hope before the waders arrive we can go back to normal. If you are local and happen to see me there stop by and say hi, you’ll usually find me there when the tide is low. Until then happy birding.