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Visited: summer
Recommendation: The settlement itself is rather quiet for wildlife but there are great opportunities in the surrounds and on the water that warrant investigation.
Cervantes is a small settlement, largely based around crayfish harvesting. The focal point of the area is the Lobster Shack. Their food is excellent and they also run tours of to see the local Sea Lion population. The caravan park here backs onto a paved walkway and the beach is beyond that. It is a very pleasant place to visit. The caravan park is home to plenty of noisy Galah and other locally common birds like the Singing Honeyeater, Magpie and Red Wattlebird. Other than that, i didn't see too much in the settlement or along the beach.
I headed a little south to the Pinnacles Desert, thinking it would be a good place for reptiles. There is a 4km drive around the park, with plenty of stopping bays. On the day I visited it was 40 degrees by 10am so I didn't do to much stopping. The pinnacles are stunning and their formation really interesting. In fact the whole coastline here is fascinating. Huge, brilliantly pale sand dunes line the Great Ocean Road and where there are parts that are not covered with scrub, they are spectacular.
Anyway, back in the Pinnacles, I only saw a few honeyeater and no reptiles. To hot for everybody, I think. But just on the way out a pair of wren dashed across the road and at up briefly for me. Western Fieldwren, another lifer. They have been split out from the Rufous Fieldwren found further north. They didn't hang around in the open for long.
Western Fieldwren (Calamanthus montanellus)
On the way back to Cervantes my partner and I stopped at a couple of lookouts. It was brutally hot by now and we didn't stay long. But just long enough for this Bumblebee Robber Fly to take a shine to us. It was huge and very odd looking. These scary looking creatures are incredible hunters, paralyzing and mulching up victims before sucking up their liquified guts. Once a second one arrived, we left rather quickly.
Bumblebee Robber Fly (Laphria flava)
Back in Cervantes, I went out on the boat with the Lobster Shack. It was a week run trip with experienced staff who took us to South Cervantes Island to look for the Sea Lions. We settled along several islands and I was hoping to find Roseate Terns, which I knew had been seen in the area recently. Vagrant sightings are made on the mainland as the birds tend to stick to offshore islands.
Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii)
It's always a bit tricky using a telephoto lens on a moving boat but I was thrilled to spot a group of then sitting on the end of one of the islands. The pale plumage and red bill was a give away. The only other terns I'd seen were the dark Bridled and the yellow billed Great Created.
There was obviously a breeding colony of Bridled Tern here with lots of young birds either sitting and waiting to be fed or testing their wings out. They boat has to moor quite a way from the island so it was hard getting good shots of them.
Bridled Tern (Sterna anaethetus)
At the furthest island, the but moored and we waited for the Sea Lions to appear. Regulations dictate that swimmers can only be in the water for 45 minutes and there is a camera monitoring activity around the island. As soon as a Sea Lion appeared, everyone jumped in the water to snorkel with it. I stayed on the boat and watched proceedings.
The Sea Lions were interesting. A young male swan leisurely up and down the edge of the island trying to attract the attention of the females basking on the rocks. This female has a clean, creamy breast. At times the lions were curious about the swimmers but mostly they stayed away. On the way back the skipper was kind enough to sail closer to the islands so we could look at a White-bellied Sea Eagle nest and i also got a little closer to the terns. It was very satisfactory!
Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea)
Australasian Osprey (Pandion haliaetus cristatus)
Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax varius)
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