Birding at Melton Botanic Gardens

This blog is about birding during lockdown at my local garden. After the Covid-19 cases rose up to 700 a day, the government here in Victoria imposed a strict lockdown to get things under control. This meant we were restricted to only one hour of outdoor exercise time that too within 5km of your home.

So after watching the sparrows coming to my backyard for a few days I remembered visiting Melton botanic gardens a couple of years ago while passing by but at that time they were still in the early stages. Though I saw a few birds there and thought it should be within 5km from my place and turns out it was!

On my first visit I realised the gardens were fully developed and even more work was being done. Now only being allowed one hour of outdoor time made it tricky for birding, and I decided to scout the area on the first day. The garden has a small lake which has a small island where a lot of birds nest (which I found out after talking with a volunteer who works there). The lake also has a couple of dead trees where a lot of parrots nest in the hollow, and some other birds make their nest on it too. First day there I saw an Australasian Darter drying off in the sun on one of these dead trees. It is also situated perfectly for photographing during morning as the sun hits it perfectly.

From there I went back to check the flowering plantation side of the garden and was blown away by all the different flowers that had bloomed! I immediately thought of so many good photo opportunities there. The birds I noticed there were New Holland Honeyeaters and Noisy Miners.

As it turns out spring was just around the corner hence all the flowers were blooming and birds were getting very active. After discovering the flowering side of the garden I focused a few days there photographing NHH on various plants as they were busy feeding. At the end I ended up with so many beautiful images of theirs on various flowering plants.

Now when you are walking around with a big lens people will notice you, and there were few locals who were really friendly and after realising I was photographing birds they informed me about a Swan nest on the lake. I believe at least four to five different people told me about this within a couple of days and it was good to see people so excited about this.

As the spring rolled in more birds could be seen as they were getting active. There were a lot of White Plumed Honeyeaters, Red Rumped Parrots, Rainbow Lorikeets, Crested Pigeons, Noisy Miners, Indian Miners, Welcome Swallows, Fairy Martins becoming very busy.

The dead tree hollows had a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets nesting in one hollow and a pair of Red Rumped Parrots nesting in another. I found this by hearing a group of RRPs fighting at the tree. Then after I spend some time at this tree trying to photograph them in flight. As getting birds in flight is my favourite type of photography and I would do only that if light permits. I love the patterns of wing feathers, colours and under body colours that you don’t see when the birds are sitting.

One hour outing limit was really a pain some days when the light was perfect, but it made me  think quickly and figure out possible compositions and instead of walking a lot I changed my approach to just standing at one place for a longer time, which gave me the best results. I always knew this would be the best approach to photographing birds but when I am in the bush usually I prefer to walk and explore the area as well, I guess I will have to separate those sessions from now on.

After having fun photographing the parrots, I moved on to photographing Welcome Swallows and Fairy Martins in flight as they are few of the most challenging birds to photograph in flight. Around the same time the Swan pair hatched four cygnets and again everyone started asking me whether I have seen the baby swans? The pair kept to the lake for the first few days but then after they started coming out to the shore to eat. The locals placed bird seeds at the lake shore daily so the ducks, pigeons and magpies used to get together there every morning and soon the swans started coming out to eat as well so one day I laid down in the grass and got few good shots. Soon it became difficult to photograph them as the swans being the regular there they were used to feeding from people’s hand and they were mostly surrounded by people.

One of the days I noticed a Crested Pigeon doing its breeding display where they fan out their tail feathers like a peacock and move their heads up and down. I managed to get some photos of this behaviour but it was on a garden fence but luckily the house at the back had a nice garden so it made for a beautiful backdrop. On one or two occasions I found them basking in the sun and managed a few close up shots.

Soon came the babies of other birds as well! One day I noticed babies of Purple Swamp Hen, they were following the parents in search of food. It was cute observing them flapping their tiny wings (pre-wings?) every time a parent turned to them with a beak full of food. They mostly hung around within reeds so it was difficult to get a clear shot. Later on I managed some good shots when they got a bit older and started to come out more.

Around the same time on a cloudy day I came across a family of Welcome Swallows where babies were sitting on sticks of newly planted trees while the parents were working hard catching insects mid air and feeding the babies. I wanted to photograph when the parent was feeding the baby but it was difficult as there was no sequence they were following. So one baby would get fed three consecutive times before they moved on to the other one,and the babies kept on changing their positions too. After trying and failing for 45 minutes I finally succeeded and managed a sequence of shots. Just like Swamp Hen babies the swallow babies were also becoming vocals and started flapping their wings when a parent flew by.

One evening I heard a quite vocal Reed Warbler and decided to wait out and see if it came out. And it came out just after the sun had set, luckily i was there with my 300mm F4 lens so I could manage to get some shots of it among the habitat.

The surprise bird I saw there was a Black Fronted Dotterel. When I was walking along the shore of the lake trying to photograph Welcome swallows flying around, I noticed something move near the shore line where a little stream is going in the lake. That area is a bit muddy so this Black Fronted Dotterel was having a feed. So I slowly laid flat on the ground to get eye level shots and even with a bit busy background I managed a few nice shots.

Then during my walk around the garden one day I noticed a few small parrots flying around and landing somewhere within the vicinity of the garden. On first glance they looked like Musk Lorikeets, and during one evening I walked towards the eucalyptus plantation side of the garden. To my surprise I found Musk Lorikeets and among them I noticed a smaller bird which turned out to be Purple Crowned Lorikeets – a lifer for me! In the same area I also saw Scaly Breasted Lorikeet – which I hadn’t seen since I saw them during my beginning year of birding three years ago. 

After finding these Lorikeets I spent a few days around this area to photograph them in flight. As there was not much of an open area it was hard to get the auto focus to stay on the bird but among a lot of failures I ended up with some good flight shots.

Another lifer I saw only briefly was Little Lorikeet, I saw a pair while walking back to my car and before I could get a decent shot they took off. That was the only time I saw them in that area though so I hope to get another chance to photograph them. Sacred Kingfisher is another bird I saw there but couldn’t get a good enough shot.

The spring is about to come to an end as I am writing this, the lockdown has ended in Melbourne as well so I can visit other areas now. But there are few more flowers blooming in the garden which is giving me some new canvases to shoot, and from talking with a local birder I found out we get Latham’s Snipe there during summer as well. So I have something to look forward to in future.a

If you are a new birder or someone who can’t travel much due to time restrictions I strongly believe that your local garden could be your best friend. Especially during spring time when all the birds are active and flowers have bloomed you’ll get beautiful frames without much effort. And while you are new you could practice your camera settings, learn more about bird behaviours and even if you have a smaller lens (which a lot of new birders have) you can still get nice detailed shots as you’d be able to get much closer to the birds here compared to national parks.

Hope you enjoyed this blog, if you have any favourite image please let me know via comments and until next time happy birding.