Near the turn off from the main highway (also called the Great Ocean Road) along the Point Addis Road is a small carpark and the start to a wonderful short walk around a mixed growth forest. At the moment the tall Iron Bark trees are flowering and while there may not be a huge number of species there are very good numbers of a few forest species. Walking around the forest track we came across the usual birds like Red Wattlebirds, Eastern Yellow Robins, New Holland Honeyeaters and Rainbow Lorikeets and a few rarer birds like the Gang Gang Cockatoo and Varied Sitella. While trying to find a Painted Button Quail that we could hear calling we became immersed in a small feeding flock of Striated Thornbills. Their cousins the Brown Thornbill are quite common in most forests and even in my own street in suburbia but striated seem to be a bit rarer and difficult to photograph – they are always on the go, hunting for insects and chasing each other. It is a real treat to find (usually by their calls) and photograph these tiny 10 cm birds.
Striated Thornbill, Point Addis Iron Bark Track, Victoria
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The Gap Year and Beyond 