Cape Chatter 50 comes to you as us Victorians endure COVID Lockdown 5.0. The lockdown has coincided with some pretty average weather so opportunities to get out and undertake some exercise with the camera has been limited. So again, nature in the home garden habitat has kept me engaged. I did manage one decent stroll with the camera and came away with a few snaps of some of our resident small birds, and living near the wetlands and creek line has allowed me to keep an eye on the comings and goings amongst our freshwater birds. Fellow resident Joe Spano has also been fine-tuning his photographic skills in The Cape garden habitats, and passed on to me for inclusion in this Chatter some lovely shots of the territorial Little Wattlebird among some grevillea.

Well, we are pretty much in the dead of winter here at The Cape and bird observations have been limited … as has the photography opportunities given the wind and showery weather. It is really only those hardy souls of the avian world that are about … our permanent dwellers so to speak … with the occasional visitor re-appearing. Since last Chatter, there are signs of a pick up in activity with some “duck-after-duck activity’ going on, some Grey Fantails returning, and just to prove me wrong, ‘Gabi’s Grebe’ moved back to the big central wetland despite the presence of the waterfowl. There goes my theory! One highlight of the past week was another sighting of a beautiful pair of Black-shouldered Kite, on the stags in the creek line, this time juveniles. And to top it all off, thanks to an alert by resident Richard Keech, an uncommon sighting of a Southern Right Whale lounging just off Cape Paterson for an hour or so.

The end of the 2020-21 FY (EOFY) coincides nicely with the  period of The Cape fauna observation list which was started in late July 2019. A lot has changed in that time with further areas of the estate developed for  housing and extensive habitat areas developed which are now  beginning to provide shelter and food for our local fauna. Our bird list is up to 111 species, we have 8 frog species identified and all the well known Australian mammals are about in varying numbers, including identified bandicoot diggings.  They are positive signs for the expansion of habitat of The Cape’s natural world—a world that was previously degraded farming land.