Pardalotes, whistlers and several sorts of honeyeaters can now often be found in many places along the river.

They were previously absent or rare.

Habitat is the key to attracting birds to take up residence.

The Yarrowee plantings have been varied, with some grasses and sedges added to the mix of trees and shrubs.

It is this variety that provides both food and shelter for the birds.

Among the first to return - when young trees reach four or five metres tall - are brown thornbill, superb fairy-wren, grey fantail and yellow-faced honeyeater.

Their habitat choice is not very specific.

Brown-headed, New Holland, white-naped and yellow-faced honeyeaters move in early too.

The New Holland honeyeater prefers shrubs, but will also move up into trees.

Brown-headed and white-naped honeyeaters are birds of the gum trees, as is the red wattlebird. The spotted and striated pardalotes are both dependent on eucalypts.

Frequently feeding under wattles is the common bronzewing, another bird now often seen along the Yarrowee, but almost unknown there before planting commenced.

The sulphur-crested cockatoo comes for wattle seed too, getting its seed from the pods on the trees rather than on the ground.

Yellow-tailed black cockatoos come to extract seeds from the planted hakeas and banksias.

Crimson rosella, grey shrike-thrush, golden whistler and rufous whistler are other eucalypt birds, apparently at home from the time the eucalypts reach seven or eight metres or more.

The same applies to the grey and pied currawongs.

The golden whistler and the crimson rosella readily use wattles as well as eucalypts.

Needing bushy plants for shelter is the red-browed finch, found along the Yarrowee mostly where shrubs and grassland merge.

Yellow robin, grey shrike-thrush and white-throated treecreeper are slower to move in to the Yarrowee's young plantings, preferring larger trees.

Most of the Yarrowee plantings are no older than 25 years, which does not appear to be old enough for these three species.

Less than 30 years can make a big difference for birds, bats, lizards, and numerous insects and other small creatures.

A welcome recent discovery was a cicadabird at Spargo Creek. This is normally a bird of eastern Victoria.

After annual visits by a pair for several years, there were no reports in the area last year, and it was feared that they might not return.

We think this bright flower is either a native pelargonium or geranium. It was photographed in dry forest near Berringa.

I.C., Mt Clear.

Yes, this is a native type of pelargonium, commonly known as magenta storksbill.

Its flowers appear after the spring rush of other wildflowers, with the colour prominent in drying forests in summer.

The magenta flowers are nicely set off against rich green leaves if conditions are not too dry. In drier sites, many leaves die back as summer progresses.

Magenta storksbill is a perennial plant, growing in the same spot year after year.

It has a robust branching rootstock that can withstand hot dry summers.

It is a "true" pelargonium, related to the common and showy garden pelargoniums, which are artificially-bred annuals.