A year birding Oz & NZ (1 Viewer)

Hi guys,
Starting in July 2011 I was lucky enough to spend a year in Australia as part of my degree. This report is a bit late, but I’ve been meaning to do this for a while so thought I should probably get something down while I can still remember some of it. I was based at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, but over the course of the year I was able to do a fair bit of travelling, particularly during the 3 month Aussie summer holiday between November and February. Most travelling was done by keeping an eye out for good deals on internal flights and then using a combination of public transport, walking and cycling to get to birding spots. Before I came home, I also managed a brief trip to New Zealand, which I’ll include here too.

I’ll just write about days in which I had interesting sightings e.g. new species etc. That means that it’s quite heavy to start with, but the reports become less frequent as the year goes on! I hope it may be of use/interest to some people.

13/07/11 - Day 1
The flight landed mid-afternoon, and I was met at the airport by a uni bus service. While talking to the driver and the other passengers I was keeping a close eye out the window and, after a few unidentified flits, bird number one on the Oz list was a stunning adult Brahminy Kite gliding over Brisbane River. Any tiredness after the flight immediately disappeared once I arrived at my accommodation on campus and found that I was living opposite the promising looking UQ Lakes. I dumped my luggage, grabbed my bins and camera and headed out to make the most of the remaining daylight.

It was amazing to see species such as Dusky Moorhen and Torresian Crow, which are so unlike anything we have in the UK . However, personal highlights were Australasian Darter, Straw-necked Ibis and a tree full of Little Corellas around the lakes, plus brief fly over views of Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeet down by the river. It’s difficult to know how common things are going to be before you arrive – Straw-necked Ibis was something that had really appealed to me for some reason, but I assumed I’d only be encountering them occasionally in some of the larger wetlands. In actual fact they were common around Brisbane (although always outnumbered by Australian White Ibis). The light started going fairly early, but I was very pleased to see a female Australian Brush-turkey scratching around the lawn outside my building and, while watching it, a beautiful song alerted me to a Pied Butcherbird in a tree above. The tiredness eventually hit me and I fell asleep at 7pm having ended up with a total of 26 new species for the day.

Birds (new species in bold)
1. Brahminy Kite
2. Australian Magpie
3. Dusky Moorhen
4. Purple Swamphen
5. Masked Lapwing
6. Noisy Miner
7. Australian White Ibis
8. Torresian Crow
9. Pacific Black Duck
10. Hardhead
11. Coot
12. Straw-necked Ibis
13. Willie Wagtail
14. Welcome Swallow
15. Little Black Cormorant
16. Australasian Darter
17. Little Corella
18. Blue-faced Honeyeater
19. Little Pied Cormorant
20. Magpie-lark
21. Australian Wood Duck
22. Australasian Figbird
23. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
24. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
25. Rainbow Lorikeet
26. Pied Butcherbird
27. Australian Brush-turkey

14/07/11
Jetlag meant that I woke at 5, well before sunrise. This let me get out birding as soon as it got light, so I headed back to check the lakes again. I like the fact that Australian birds, particularly in urban areas, are often amazingly confiding which means getting great views of really nice species – it feels like you're in a zoo. That walk gave me point-blank views of White-faced Heron and Intermediate Egret, while some loud screeching alerted me to my first Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. After this I headed over the bridge to check out the other side of the river. A park here (Dutton Park) had Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets exploring nest holes, allowing me to get a proper look at these stunning parrots. I also came across my first funky-looking Crested Pigeon, another species I’d really wanted to see which turned out to be common in the city. Gull-billed Terns and Fairy Martins were feeding over the river itself.

In addition, my reptile list was started with a Macquarie Turtle in the uni lakes.

Birds
28. White-faced Heron
29. Intermediate Egret
30. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
31. Fairy Martin
32. Gull-billed Tern
33. Crested Pigeon
34. Pied Currawong
35. Feral Pigeon
36. Spotted Turtle Dove
37. Grey Butcherbird

Reptiles & Amphibians
1. Macquarie Turtle

Some shots from the first couple of days.
1. a female Darter
2. Little Corellas
3. Purple Swamphen
4. Little Pied Cormorant

1. an intent White-faced Heron
2. Intermediate Egret
3. Crested Pigeon & 4. trying to impress!

1. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
2. Rainbow Lorikeet
3. Scaly-breasted Lorikeets a few metres below in the same tree
4. Willie Wagtail
and 5. feeding the Turtles and Eels at the lake, because feeding the ducks just isn't exciting enough.....

15/07/11
Once again I spent a lot of the day exploring the other side of the river. This brought me my first few ‘small birds’, which had been notably absent in the first couple of days. I’d had a brief view of something landing in a tree on campus, but it was immediately chased off by a Noisy Miner. The Miners, which certainly live up to their name (perhaps not the mining part), appear to be the reason that a lot of smaller species are forced out of degraded urban habitats. I have mixed feelings about them: on one hand they alerted me to a number of nice birds with their incessant calling over the course of the trip, but then on a number of occasions they apparently decided that some innocent little bird that I was watching was posing a major threat and needed to be dive-bombed – what possible harm could a Fairy-wren do?!

Anyway, back to the sightings. I caught up with my first Caspian Tern over the river, a species I’d been really looking forward to seeing. There was a White-browed Scrubwren in long grass on the river bank, and shortly afterwards a long-tailed brown bird popped up in the same area – my first Fairy-wren! Female/eclipse Fairy-wrens are tricky, but while checking it a stunning male Red-backed Fairy-wren appeared alongside, making identification a little easier. In the mangrove trees I noted the distinctive silhouette of a Spangled Drongo, and following up a faint tinkling call I eventually pinned down a couple of Striated Pardalotes high up in a eucalyptus.

Birds
38. Caspian Tern
39. White-browed Scrubwren
40. Red-backed Fairy-wren
41. Spangled Drongo
42. Silvereye
43. Striated Pardalote
44. Tree Martin

16/07/11
On this day I headed in to check out the city centre on the Citycat ferry, which gave me my first encounters with a couple of Aussie bird icons. There were a few things I needed to do in town, but it was mainly an excuse to check out a couple of new green areas.
A few Silver Gulls were flapping around the parks towards the CBD, and there were Crested Terns flying over, along with Caspians and Gull-billed. Once I was in town, I headed to the Botanic Gardens and spotted a couple of beautiful Galahs flying up the river. Walking further in to the gardens, an instantly recognisable call lead me to a pair of Laughing Kookaburras, really cool birds! Shortly afterwards, I was stopped in my tracks when out the corner of my eye I noticed a Bush Stone-curlew stood completely still in a flowerbed a couple of feet to my left. It turned out that there were 4 birds, and it was awesome to be able to watch them so closely, especially considering how wary the European version is! There were some impressive Golden-orb Weavers around too – apparently the largest Aussie spiders by leg span.
Next I headed to Roma Street Parklands. The highlight was undoubtedly coming across a group of Superb Fairy-wrens, which included one stunning adult male. A female Rufous Whistler, which had me confused for a while, was also new and it was nice to get eye-level views of Australasian Figbird from one of the park’s raised walkways.
Back at my uni accommodation, there were a few of the introduced Asian House Geckos hanging out by the artificial lights outside.

Birds
45. Silver Gull
46. Crested Tern
47. Galah
48. Laughing Kookaburra
49. Bush Stone-curlew
50. Superb Fairy-wren
51. Rufous Whistler

Reptiles & Amphibians
2. Asian House Gecko

A few more shots:
1. Noisy Miner - looks sweet, but it isn't.
2. Little Black Cormorant
3. male Red-backed Fairy-wren
4. Caspian Tern

1. Bush Stone-curlew
2. Golden Orb-weaver
3. female Rufous Whistler
4. male Australasian Figbird

17/07/11
Another day spent exploring the other side of the river. I headed upriver with the plan being to get a view of the Indooroopilly Flying-fox roost, but I didn’t walk far enough in the end. However, it still turned out to be an extremely productive walk.
On the way out, a Great Egret fishing at the lakes was new for the trip list. Once over the bridge, I had a brief view of a Buff-banded Rail as it dashed out of some long grass down the bank – another species which I thought would be tricky to find during the trip, I shouldn’t have worried. Further up the river, I noted a large raptor floating around the canopy on the opposite bank, and I was amazed when checking through bins and finding it to be a Square-tailed Kite. This is a scarce species and I really thought that I’d be lucky if I saw one at all over the course of the year, so to find one within four days in the middle of Brisbane was awesome! Eventually it cruised over the river and circled low over my head, giving amazing views, before disappearing over the trees. Heading back along the river, I happened to spot a couple of Tawny Frogmouths in one of the riverside trees, a species which had been very high up on the wish-list. Back at uni there were a pair of Long-billed Corellas mixed in with the Little Corella flock.

I was also pleased to find a couple of impressive Eastern Water Dragons by the lakes. They weren’t exactly inconspicuous, so I’m assuming (and hoping) that the fact I hadn’t seen them over the previous few days was due to unusually low temperatures rather than me being unobservant!

18/07/11
Common Mynas, apparently coming in to a communal roost by the uni lakes, were new for the trip list.

Birds
52. Great Egret
53. Buff-banded Rail
54. Square-tailed Kite
55. Tawny Frogmouth
56. Long-billed Corella
57. Common Myna

Reptiles & Amphibians
3. Eastern Water Dragon

19/07/11
A check over the river at Dutton Park provided a few new species. A Gerygone in the mangroves gave me some identification difficulties as I tried to choose between Mangrove and Brown, before deciding it was a Mangrove Gerygone. In retrospect, Brown wasn’t really an option in that habitat and I didn’t see any of that species in Queensland until I got to some proper rainforest later in the trip. The calls of the two species are completely different too! Grey Fantail and a female Golden Whistler were also new, while a pair of scruffy looking Pale-headed Rosellas (they look as though they’ve been coloured in by a toddler) made it 7 parrot species in 7 days.

20/07/11
A Little Egret at the uni lake was new for the trip.

Birds
58. Mangrove Gerygone
59. Grey Fantail
60. Golden Whistler
61. Pale-headed Rosella
62. Little Egret

Photos from UQ Lakes:
1 & 2. Eastern Water Dragon
3. Straw-necked Ibis
4. Great Egret
5. Long-billed Corellas

1. Square-tailed Kite on a gloomy day
2. Two Tawny Frogmouths
3. Mangrove Gerygone
4. Pale-headed Rosella

Great report - hoping to pick up some ideas here.

George Edwards said:

Great report - hoping to pick up some ideas here.

Click to expand...

Cheers George!

21/07/11
At UQ Lakes, a Royal Spoonbill was a new arrival among the Ibises, but once again I spent most of the day over the other side of the river. This was one of the days where I had to be grateful for the existence of Noisy Miners, as a chorus of piercing calls took me off route into a small park to check out what the fuss was about. There was nothing obvious on view, so I started to think that it was a false alarm, but then a bird of prey glided out from a tree and landed nearby – a Pacific Baza! It turned out that there were two individuals, and they continued hunting in the trees just over my head, apparently completely unconcerned by my presence. It was great to watch – they would sit on a branch surveying the surrounding vegetation before launching themselves into the tree, dangling by their feet for a moment and then emerging with a stick-insect. They were catching some huge specimens too but sadly my attempts to find some myself ended in fail, I don’t know how they manage it!

Birds
63. Royal Spoonbill
64. Pacific Baza

23/07/11
As I was moving into a new place I ended up staying in an extremely dodgy hostel for a couple of nights, which gave me a good incentive to get out and bird some new areas. I’d mainly been moving luggage around the day before, but an evening visit to the Botanic Gardens in the city gave excellent views of an extremely confiding Buff-banded Rail foraging in the flowerbeds.

On the 23rd I decided to check out Mt Coot-tha, getting a bus up to the top first before walking down to the Botanic Gardens to get a return bus. The forest on the mountain had a few nice species, including Noisy Friarbird, Lewin’s Honeyeater and Rose Robin, but the highlight was seeing a few beautiful male Scarlet Honeyeaters. I also had another brief view of a Pacific Baza, and came across my first male Golden Whistler.
Australasian Grebes were on the lakes at the Botanic Gardens, and following up a scuffling sound in a flowerbed eventually gave me a great view of a male Eastern Whipbird. It was also quite amusing to watch Sulphur-crested Cockatoos shredding various plants in the veg patch, that bill can do a lot of damage!

Birds
65. Noisy Friarbird
66. Scarlet Honeyeater
67. Lewin’s Honeyeater
68. Rose Robin
69. Eastern Whipbird
70. Australasian Grebe

24/07/11
I headed down to the coast for the first time, checking out the mudflats and mangroves at Wynnum. There are regular trains from the city, and it’s a short walk to the sea front from Wynnum Central station. On the journey over I saw my first few Australian Pelicans soaring overhead.

Upon reaching Wynnum, the first good sighting was a group of Black Flying-foxes roosting in some mangroves, my first mammals in Oz and not something I was expecting here! The mudflats were quiet, but there were a few Pied Stilts, as well as a Striated Heron fishing in a pool. The mangrove boardwalk at the North end of the beach yielded the hoped-for Collared Kingfishers, and one gave great views as it went about hunting crabs. There were a few Chestnut Teal in the pools by Lytton Wader Roost (but no waders other than more Stilts), and the nearby grassland and trees gave me my first Golden-headed Cisticola, Grey Shrike-thrush, Brown Honeyeater and Chestnut-breasted Mannikin. Both Red-backed and Superb Fairy-wren were present in the grassy areas. Walking back, some fishermen had started discarding some of their catch off the seawall, drawing in a number of Australian Pelicans and providing great views of these huge birds!

Birds
71. Australian Pelican
72. Pied Stilt
73. Striated Heron
74. Collared Kingfisher
75. Chestnut Teal
76. Golden-headed Cisticola
77. Grey Shrike-thrush
78. Brown Honeyeater
79. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Mammals
1. Black Flying-fox

Some Pacific Baza shots - number 5 is out of focus, but shows what they were eating.

1. Buff-banded Rail in the Botanic Gardens near the CBD - blurry, but amazingly confiding!
2. Laughing Kookaburra at Mt Coot-tha
3. Brush-turkey at Mt Coot-tha
4. Galah at Wynnum

And more shots from Wynnum:
1. Black Flying-foxes
2. Grey Fantail
3. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
4. Australian Pelican
5. Blue-faced Honeyeater