I found out about Jawbone area during my early days of searching for places to go birding within metropolitan Melbourne. It is a fairly large area along the coastline with few different types of habitat and wide variety of birds, mainly water birds. The place is home to all three Grebe species, various Ducks, Cormorants, waterhens and few migratory birds.
Depending on which way you start from, you can walk along the cycling tack and photograph along the way. For the purpose of this blog I will start from the parking near the football ground and walk you through towards the ramp which goes in to the beach.
From the carpark, walking towards the lakeside apartments you can find few Spoonbills or Ibises feeding on the channel depending on the water levels. There are good amount of Superb fairy wrens, Eurasian Starlings and Yellow-rumped Thornbills among the vegetation. (If you decide to go the other way and follow this creek to the mouth of sea, you can also find a lot of shore birds near the beach)
Once you go up the slope and reach the lake along the apartments, you can make your way down to the shore near the apartments side as that is where you can get eye level shots of all the water birds. Depending on the day you may come across Pacific Black Ducks, Grey Teals, Hard-heads, Chestnut Teals, Blue-billed Ducks, Purple Swamphens, Dusky Moorhens, Eurasian Teals, Australasian Grebes, Hoary Headed Grebes and Great Crested Grebes.
Among the bushes along the shoreline you can also find the wrens and European Goldfinches and Greenfinches. Welcome swallows are often feeding on the insects all around this area.
Since last couple of years I have visited here during spring time and also at the end of spring to see all the baby birds. One year I saw a lot of Dusky Moorhen chicks and Eurasian Coot chicks of various age. And last year I managed to get Blue-billed Duck chicks and some Juvenile Welcome Swallows.
As you walk further alongside the apartments, there are four white poles in the lake where you’d often find Little Black Cormorants or Silver Gulls sitting on them. And as it is quite close to the walking path, you can get really nice close up shots there. During the breeding season, the Little Black Cormorants have beautiful purple eye ring and some silver feathers near their eyes.
Along this walking path, there’s a small boardwalk where there is a viewing platform/arm rest kind of set up where Silver Gulls or Welcome Swallows can be found resting, and depending on the light you can get some creative shots here.
Further along the path, the birds can be seen in the lake but it is impossible to get eye level shots. But once you get back to the main cycling track and walk a bit more, there are tiny patches along the shoreline of the lake where it is possible to get eye level shots of water birds.
Once I noticed some juvenile Welcome Swallows resting on the pole of the small bridge and hoped it would stay there and to my delight it id long enough for me to get few shots.
There is one small island which often has Pied Cormorants, Little Pied Cormorants, Royal Spoonbills and Australian White Ibises sun bathing. The rocks along the shoreline are also popular among the birds to rest on. The area around here is very good for eye level shots, and during golden hour when the water turns yellow due to the reflections of dry grass you can get some really nice photos.
When I came across Great Crested Grebes here first, and having seen a lot of photos of their courtship display on social media I wanted to watch them do that. So during 2020 I visited Jawbone quite regularly and though I didn’t see the full on dance, I got the tiny samples and even managed to get few photos.
Though I wanted to photograph them carrying their chicks on their back, I missed that window. When I saw the chicks, they were grown quite big and were happily swimming on their own. And the parents were working hard to feed those hungry babies. All of this happened at a place where it was not possible to get eye level shots and the light was not that great as well so I only have some memory shots.
Throughout this area, on the grass lawns a lot of bird can be seen feeding, one of the surprising find here was the Black-tailed Native Hen. It is a very shy bird so it’s tricky to get a close up shot of theirs. I love the colours of their beak.
Some other regulars here would be Willie Wagtails, Red-Wattle Birds, Crested Pigeons, Eurasian Starlings and in spring time Reed Warblers.
Through this patch of lake I have managed to get some flight shots as well, as the bird keeps moving up and down the lake giving you enough opportunities for birds in flight shots.
If you are like me and would hang out at the same place for multiple days, there are chances here that you would run into one of the local photographer, I won’t reveal his name just to respect his privacy as he’s not aware I am writing about him here. He is a local bird photographer and has been doing this since a long time. Once during the migratory bird season there was a Whimbrel stopped by, and as it was on the other side of the lakes where the beach is, I had never attempted to go there. There are couple of gates but they are always locked so I assumed we were not allowed in there, but he had the key as he’s also part of the local bird group and runs the bird surveys regularly. He took me to the other side, where I got a distant shot of the Whimbrel.
Further along the road, there is a bird hide which would give good views of ducks, cormorants and other waterbirds if not for the tall grasses obstructing them. So far I haven’t had any luck at this bird hide due to aforementioned tall grass. But I have learned from previously mentioned birder that during summer Latham’s Snipes reside in these tall grass.
Upon reaching the ramp which goes into the beach, on the right hand side there is an arboretum of native plants. During my various visits I have seen New Holland Honeyeaters, Silver Eyes, House Sparrows, Red Wattlebirds, Willie Wagtails and Eurasian Starlings.
The ramp is surrounded by samphire and during low tides teals, stilts and shorebirds hang around here. I saw my first White-fronted chat here too. Among others, I have often seen White-browed Scrub-wren, White-faced Herron and even Singing Honeyeaters sometimes.
On one evening, there was a pod of Bottle nosed dolphins swimming very close-by and and the boats had stopped to enjoy the show. And on one morning I saw Red Fox having a sun-bath on the rock near the water.
One of the other memorable find here was Australasian Gannet, which was doing a flyover just after the sun had set.
That’s if for this time, I hope you enjoyed the photos and if you visit the area this blog would be of some help.