A couple of days at Yanalinga, Terip Terip

I am lucky to have family who live at Terip Terip at their property, Yanalinga. Terip Terip is north of Melbourne, via Yea, and then Yarck. I drove via the dirt track up through the hills on a rather warm day and the birds were high up in the treetops, more neck-stretching bird watching. Upon arrival it was nice to sit down and have a chat with Jill and Jim, and then have a guided tour around the property. They enjoy the birdlife that constantly flutter around the house, and have a number of birdbaths that are frequently visited by Red-browed Finches, Superb Fairy-wrens, New Holland Honeyeaters and Striated Thornbills. Normally Eastern Spinebills also spend time at the birdbaths but generally in the morning. Crimson Rosellas are the main parrot in the yard, although Eastern Rosellas and Red-rumped Parrots are nearby. Sulphur-crested Cockatoos occur in large numbers and fill the air with their calls. After driving around fairly constantly for the previous 4 weeks from Alice Springs to Melbourne and then around Melbourne, it was nice to have a full 24 hours out of the car, and even though it was hot, it was a fairly dry heat, so quite normal being from Central Australia. Jill and Jim pottered around the place doing little jobs, readying the fire-fighting equipment in case of a fire, tending to the garden and fruit and veg patches, as well as lots of other things, and let me just wander around the place.

I tried a new photography technique called "in the swag". Using my swag as a temporary hide under a tree, in the heat of the day, some of the birds came very close to the point my focal length was too long. I'll start off the photos with a few shots from that experiment:

Superb Fairy-wren

Crimson Rosella

White-browed Scrubwren

The scenery around Yanalinga is pretty spectacular. Away from the wonderful garden surrounding the house are fields and rocky outcrops. This scene in particular caught my eye in the early morning light.

Sitting under the verandahs close to the birdbaths allowed wonderful opportunities to observe a number of species, and of course take some photos. Here is a selection of other photos taken from under the verandah:

Brown Thornbill

Crimson Rosella

Grey Shrike-thrush

New Holland Honeyeater

Silvereye

Striated Thornbill

And finally, I couldn't write a post about Terip Terip without a couple of photos of the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. Aside from the calls booming across the valleys and the hills, they sometimes gather in large numbers, the second shot below was taken on the drive out of Terip Terip and doesn't include nearly all of the birds in the flock. As I drove further along the road I saw flocks well into the hundreds. Pity the poor folk who had them hanging around, the noise must be deafening.

It was a wonderful time spent at Yanalinga with Jill and Jim, thank you both, and I hope you don't mind me returning whenever the chance presents itself in the future.