A year birding Oz & NZ (1 Viewer)

[podargus]

1. Striated Grasswren skulking
2. Variegated Fairy-wren
3 & 4. Sand Monitors
5. a cool Mantis

 

[podargus]

05/02/12
Tracking some radio-collared Numbats meant that I was exploring another new area. Brown-headed Honeyeaters were a new species, while White-browed Babblers and a nice pair of Little Eagles were also seen.
Highlight of the day came from a late afternoon walk near my quarters though, where I found a beautiful Black-eared Cuckoo, a scarce and elusive species. The usual White-browed Treecreepers were around in this patch, and a flock of White-winged Choughs were moving through the woodland.

06/02/12
Another day tracking missing wallabies produced a nice bird list for the day, which included Emus, Whte-browed Babblers, White-winged Choughs, Dusky Woodswallow and a female Gilbert’s Whistler. It took me a while to be sure that these plain female whistlers were Gilbert’s, but I did see a couple of males later in my stay which were much more straightforward.
That evening I decided to go for a night walk near my quarters. The moon was so bright that I didn’t need a torch, although I took one for spotlighting. Almost as soon as I stepped out of my door I noticed something flying over, and getting the light on it I saw the distinctive white wing patches of a Spotted Nightjar. The bird made a couple of passes before moving off elsewhere. Mammals seen included a few Boodies and Bridled Nailtail Wallabies. These aren’t meant to be in the home compound, but at some point Boodies managed to burrow under the fence and let everything else in!

10/02/12
A late afternoon walk produced a few Brown-headed Honeyeaters and a Gilbert’s Whistler near my quarters.
That evening I went for another walk, and was rewarded with three separate sightings of Eastern Barn Owl, although I’m not sure how many individuals were involved. At first I saw one gliding ghostlike towards me over some trees, but by making some squeaking noises I tempted it in to hang just a few metres over my head for a few seconds. My attempts at nocturnal wildlife watching are generally unsuccessful, so seeing the Nightjar and then these Owls was a major bonus.

Birds
370. Brown-headed Honeyeater
371. Black-eared Cuckoo
372. Gilbert’s Whistler
373. Spotted Nightjar
374. Eastern Barn Owl

 

[podargus]

1. the office
3-5. Bridled Nailtail Wallaby. This species has the strange habit of holding its arms out when resting, which means it constantly looks like it's holding an invisible football. They even do it when they're hopping, as in picture 5.

 

[podargus]

11/02/12
As well as the usual birds, I was finally able to confirm that the large Bearded Dragons I’d been seeing all over the place were Central Bearded Dragons. I also managed to get some proper looks at the attractive Painted Dragons too.

12/02/12
Pausing by a patch of trees, I noticed that some of the nearby Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters looked a bit odd. After a bit of time studying them my suspicions were confirmed, as at least some of the birds proved to be Grey-fronted Honeyeaters. One eventually gave outstanding views as it preened on a low branch just in front of me, showing off all the key id features including the tiny grey patch on the forehead which gives the species its name.

13/02/12
On this day, and a few others, I put a lot of time in to finding Malleefowl – these basically became the Cassowaries of this particular trip and once again I was unsuccessful, which was pretty gutting! There are very few on the reserve and so seeing one of these superbly camouflaged birds was always going to be tricky. Finding one beautiful Malleefowl feather, and seeing an active mound, was as close as I came.
I saw Numbats during the day-time tracking, and that evening another night drive gave further excellent views of Bridled Nailtail Wallabies, Boodies, Bilbies and Mala.

Birds
375. Grey-fronted Honeyeater

Reptiles & Amphibians
26. Central Bearded Dragon
27. Painted Dragon

 

[podargus]

1. female Gilbert's Whistler
2 & 3. Central Bearded Dragons
4. Painted Dragon
5. I'm not a big spider fan, so I wasn't overly happy about sharing the trailer at one of my monitoring sites with this monstrous, 16cm legspan Huntsman

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Great to read about some Mallee birding, and some cracking birds there. Such a shame Malleefowl's become so rare these days :-C

 

[podargus]

Great to read about some Mallee birding, and some cracking birds there. Such a shame Malleefowl's become so rare these days :-C

There was a weird gathering of them along a road south of Mildura recently but yes, sadly they generally seem to be pretty difficult to catch up with nowadays.

15/02/12
After an excellent couple of weeks I was leaving Scotia. It was a shame to go, but I now had a bit of time before term started to do some travelling down south and I was quite excited about some of the trips lined up.
I got a lift back to Mildura, and after saying good bye to the staff I had plenty of time to kill before my 9pm bus. Walking along the river produced many of the usuals, including Whistling and Black Kites, Yellow Rosella and Red-rumped Parrot. However, White-browed Babbler and Dusky Woodswallow were species that I hadn’t encountered during my previous stay in the town, and there were also a few Brown Quail scurrying around rat-like in the grass.

 

[podargus]

1. final Scotia sunrise
2. White-browed Babbler
3. Whistling Kite
4. Brown Quail

 

[podargus]

16/02/12
I had another overnight bus journey, but before reaching Melbourne I had a 5am change at Ballarat, before catching a 6.30 bus to Geelong. From here I had to wait until 10.30 for a bus to my next destination – Anglesea. Anglesea is a town on the famous Great Ocean Road, and it’s a beautiful spot. As well as the spectacular coastline, there are some really good heathland areas on the hills behind. There are lots of good birds here but I had one main target – Gang-gang Cockatoo.

Heading over to my campsite, I very nearly walked straight past a flowering tree full of chattering Musk Lorikeets, assuming that they’d be Rainbows. Indeed, this turned out to be the only place that I visited in Australia where Rainbow Lorikeets were not the standard Lorikeets, with Musk Lorikeets being common around the town instead.
After setting up my tent I headed down to the sea. The beach itself was quiet, but a scrubby patch behind had Red and Little Wattlebirds, New Holland Honeyeaters and, best of all, a cracking male Crescent Honeyeater. After this, I headed up through a wetland area towards the heathland on the hills behind the town. There were a couple of Little Grassbirds in a swampy patch, and some wailing Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos went over. I didn’t get particularly far into the heathland on this occasion before I started heading back, but it was good to see a Grey Currawong (ssp. versicolor, which is actually grey unlike the mallee subspecies) in a wooded area, and in the same patch there were two Scarlet Robins, including one beautiful adult male. Back in the wetland area there were a few White-eared Honeyeaters and Dusky Woodswallows, and a brief glimpse of a Spotless Crake moving through the reeds was an unexpected bonus. As I started heading back towards town, I heard the ‘creaky door’ call and looked up to see a pair of Gang-gang Cockatoos flying over - all Cockatoos are brilliant, and I think that these might be the best of the lot :t: Having seen my number one target I could relax a bit, but there were still plenty of good birds to be found.

That evening I headed over to Point Roadknight. To start with I could just have easily been on the Cornish coast, with a Kestrel (Nankeen) hovering over the heath-covered cliff top, although that illusion was slightly spoilt by the Crimson Rosellas present in the same area. There were also a couple of Brown Rats in scrubby patches along the track. Once at the point I walked over to the seaward side. The beach towards the point was empty apart from a few Silver Gulls, so I turned away momentarily to scan the sea. When I looked back, a stonking adult Pacific Gull had magically appeared from somewhere – nice! Walking back along the coastal track, some Fairy-wren type calls alerted me to a group of Southern Emu-wrens in the low heath, looking beautiful in the low evening light. These are really great little birds, and they’d have to rank as one of my favourite Aussie species.
To finish up the day’s sightings, there were a few Australian King-parrots in the town as I walked back to my campsite.

Birds
376. Musk Lorikeet
377. Crescent Honeyeater
378. Scarlet Robin
379. Gang-gang Cockatoo
380. Pacific Gull
381. Southern Emu-wren

Mammals
42. Brown Rat

 

[podargus]

1. Anglesea, with Point Addis in the distance
2. looking towards Point Roadknight
3. Musk Lorikeet

 

[podargus]

17/02/12
I think this was probably my favourite day of birding in Australia. The species seen weren’t necessarily that colourful or rare, but there were just a lot of really quality birds in a really beautiful location. If I was going to live anywhere in Oz, Anglesea might be the place.
Anyway, I set off in the morning along the coastal track to Point Addis. In the open heath at the start of the track a Striated Fieldwren flew up, and then gave good views as it sat on top of a low bush. There was a group of Southern Emu-wrens in the same spot, and these cracking little birds were seen at regular intervals along the walk. Crimson Rosellas were quite common in the heath here too, and I saw a few more Grey Currawongs. At one point, a pair of huge Wedge-tailed Eagles were playing on the updrafts at the cliff edge, giving great views before being seen off by a pair of territorial Peregrines. On the beach by Point Addis it was a shame to see a dead Little Penguin, and at the Point itself there was no sign of the hoped-for Rufous Bristlebirds. The previous evening I’d seen numerous dark shearwaters passing by offshore, and although I knew they were pretty much guaranteed to be Short-tailed Shearwaters they were too distant to identify properly. However, on this day there were a few passing much closer to the shore which allowed me to confirm it.
Walking up the track behind the point I had a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren fly up from the low heath, pause momentarily on a branch, then disappear back into the undergrowth. This is a scarce and elusive species and I didn’t think I stood any real chance of seeing it, so this sighting was a major bonus. There were also a few Jacky Lizards in this area. Heading back down towards the point I came across a mixed flock of birds, which contained both Striated and the attractive Buff-rumped Thornbills. I wasn’t sure whether the tide was going to cut me off, so I had to give up on the Bristlebirds at the point and start walking back towards Anglesea. However, a little further along the track I was stopped by an interesting song coming from some dense scrub. At that point another walker called me over to try and show me a snake which had just crossed the track – it had disappeared by the time I got there so I went straight back to try and catch a glimpse of my mystery singer. After a short wait, a brilliant Rufous Bristlebird hopped out into the open, gave excellent views for a few seconds, and then disappeared back in to the heath – result B
Getting back to Anglesea I was fairly tired from the day’s walking, but in the end I decided to carry on to Point Roadknight. In town, there was a pair of Pacific Gulls in the lagoon behind the beach, and both Musk Lorikeets and Gang-gang Cockatoos were in the trees by the campsite. Reaching Point Roadknight, it looked like it was going to be a wasted trip as I couldn’t see any birds on my first scan. However, once again the magic stretch of beach came up trumps – after turning away for a moment I looked back to find a beautiful Hooded Plover trotting along the strandline a few metres away – how had I missed that? I then had the predicament of having a rare, easily disturbed wader between me and my route back, but eventually I managed to very carefully circle around past it. It immediately took off and positioned itself between me and the track back once again, so I’ll have to assume that they get a kick out of forcing birders to sneak past them

Birds
382. Striated Fieldwren
383. Chestnut-rumped Heathwren
384. Buff-rumped Thornbill
385. Short-tailed Shearwater
386. Rufous Bristlebird
387. Hooded Plover

Reptiles & Amphibians
28. Jacky Lizard

 

[podargus]

1. Point Addis
2. Southern Emu-wren - terrible photo but great bird
3. Hooded Plover
4. Jacky Lizard

 

[podargus]

18/02/12
I was leaving Anglesea that afternoon, so I got up early to try and track down a couple of missing species. It didn’t take long to find one of these, as a Blue-winged Parrot flew up from a marshy patch in the wetland area. There were also a few White-naped Honeyeaters in the trees here. Unfortunately the other species, Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, never appeared, but it was still a very good morning of birding.
I headed up into the heath covered hills behind the town. There’s a huge opencast coal mine here, and in the surrounding ironbark woodland there were both Yellow-tailed Black and Gang-gang Cockatoos, as well as a few more Blue-winged Parrots. Once again, Southern Emu-wrens were encountered fairly frequently. Further along the track some flowering trees had attracted a nice selection of Honeyeaters, including another Crescent and some White-eared Honeyeaters. However, the highlight in this patch was my second Echidna sighting. Like the one I’d seen in Cunnamulla, this one had buried itself firmly in the ground, with its head pressed up against a tree trunk. However, this one was slightly less stubborn than the previous one, and I eventually got a glimpse of its face as it peered around to see if the danger had passed. There hadn’t been any hair visible between the spines on Queensland Echidna either, but this one was noticeably furrier. A little bit later on the same track I had another Echidna trundle across the path well ahead of me. It had disappeared by the time I got there, but it was good to finally see an Echidna actually doing something! Higher up in the hills I had a brief view of a possible Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, and there was another nice pair of Scarlet Robins. Walking back, there were a few Eastern Grey Kangaroos visible in the distance on the local golf course.
The journey back to Melbourne was fairly uneventful, but I did get a look at a nice white morph Grey Goshawk sat in a tree by the road.

Birds
388. Blue-winged Parrot

 

[podargus]

1. the coal mine
2. New Holland Honeyeater
3 & 4. furry Echidna

 

[Edward]

Great thread and made all the better with the excellent photos. Especially envious of the trip to Bowra. I noted that you made a "half-hearted attempt" to see Rufous Scrub-bird at Lamington, are you planning to make another attempt (or is that going to appear in a later installment)? Has anyone seen Rufous Scrub-bird at Lamington? I'll be in Brisbane for a few weeks in June-July (family holiday with kids), my third trip to Brisbane and I'm toying with the idea of going to Lamington again to see Rufous Scrub-bird - have been twice before but didn't try either time for the scrub-bird for one reason or another.

 

[podargus]

Great thread and made all the better with the excellent photos. Especially envious of the trip to Bowra. I noted that you made a "half-hearted attempt" to see Rufous Scrub-bird at Lamington, are you planning to make another attempt (or is that going to appear in a later installment)? Has anyone seen Rufous Scrub-bird at Lamington? I'll be in Brisbane for a few weeks in June-July (family holiday with kids), my third trip to Brisbane and I'm toying with the idea of going to Lamington again to see Rufous Scrub-bird - have been twice before but didn't try either time for the scrub-bird for one reason or another.

Cheers Edward :t: I never got the chance to go back to Lamington, but people do manage to see Scrub-birds there. My main problem was that I'd been lazy and got up late, and so there wouldn't have been enough light left to make it out to their favoured area.
The hotspot is roughly halfway along the 21km Border Track between O'Reilly's and Binna Burra Lodge, so you'd really need to get up early to be able to spend a good amount of time there. I think that they may present slightly closer to Binna Burra than O'Reilly's though, so staying there may be your best option. Once you get to the right areas you'll almost certainly hear a few (depending on time of year perhaps) but getting a glimpse is a different matter - good luck if you attempt it!

 

[podargus]

19/02/12
After a night in a Melbourne hostel, I got up early to take a train east to Belgrave. From here it is a fairly short walk up to Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges. The forest here is pretty impressive, mainly comprised of huge Mountain Ash trees with plenty of large tree ferns in the understorey.

At the visitor centre there were Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Crimson Rosellas sat around waiting to be fed, and a Swamp Wallaby was grazing on the lawn. I set off along one of the forest trails and thought about how best to track down my main target for the day. Fortunately after about 5 minutes that problem was solved for me when a big male Superb Lyrebird, with his ridiculous tail, dashed across the track ahead of me B Over the rest of the day I had 3 more sightings of this species (all males) including some really excellent views of one digging around in the leaf litter. I was visiting outside of the breeding season, but I still got to see one lazy attempt at displaying (well, some white plumes waving around above some ferns) and hear some half-hearted, but still extremely impressive singing. It was brilliant to get to spend a bit of time watching these special birds, particularly as my view of the Albert’s Lyrebird in November was very brief.

Further up into the forest I managed to track down another of my targets, with a pair of Red-browed Treecreepers working along a tree. They were very high up to start with, but eventually came low enough for me to see the distinctive red face patch. My final target, Pilotbird, never appeared, but there were a few other nice species around including Rufous Fantail and Lewin’s Honeyeater, and Yellow-tailed Cockatoos could be heard moving through the forest.

All in all it was a very successful little day trip, and I headed back to Melbourne happy. That evening I got a bus to the airport for a late flight over to Launceston, Tasmania.

Birds
389. Superb Lyrebird
390. Red-browed Treecreeper

 

[podargus]

Just for a change, here's a video of one of the Lyrebirds singing (hope it doesn't make you feel seasick, I don't have a tripod ). Here he's copying Laughing Kookaburra (duetting birds, which makes it all the more impressive), then (if I'm remembering the Aussie bird calls correctly) a bit of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, some Crimson Rosella, a perfect Eastern Whipbird call and a bit of freestyling at the end. I also heard Pied Currawong, Rainbow Lorikeet, Blackbird and Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo being copied while I was there - amazing! http://vimeo.com/37652592

1. a terrible photo of the Lyrebird singing
2 & 3. the beautiful forest at Sherbrooke

 

[Edward]

That's incredible mimicry, as you say the Eastern Whipbird is perfect. Actually the Laughing Kookaburra isn't far behind.

 

[podargus]

That's incredible mimicry, as you say the Eastern Whipbird is perfect. Actually the Laughing Kookaburra isn't far behind.

It was great to hear them in action, awesome birds :t:

20/02/12 - Cradle Mountain
In the morning I headed over to Launceston's coach station and got myself a ticket up to Cradle Mountain (apparently I was lucky to get one without booking in advance, but the coach was pretty quiet). As we were leaving the town I saw my first Goldfinches in 8 months, flitting around on a verge, and Forest Ravens and Swamp Harriers were seen later in the journey. I had my first Tassie endemics before reaching Cradle too, with some Tasmanian Native-hens feeding in a field.
After setting up my tent I headed over to the Cradle Mountain visitor centre, where there were a few Black Currawongs hanging around in the car park. From here I hopped on a shuttle bus to the first stop along the road up the mountain, and then walked the boardwalk trail to Ronny Creek. The list of endemics grew as the walk went on, with Tasmanian Scrubwrens and Tasmanian Thornbills in the first patch of forest, Yellow-throated Honeyeaters, Scrubtit and Yellow Wattlebirds in trees further along the track, and further sightings of Black Currawong and Tasmanian Native-hen. As well as the beautiful scenery there were a couple of Crescent Honeyeaters around too, plus some cute little Rufous-bellied Pademelons in the dense forest.
The highlight of the day came from the area around the Ronny Creek car park where there were a number of ridiculously confiding Common Wombats grazing on the slopes including some small young'uns - really charismatic animals, and it was great to spend some time watching them dawdling around by the boardwalk.
Back at the campsite I added Green Rosella to the day’s list, while Scrubtits and Rufous-bellied Pademelons were also present near the tent.
That night I set out with a torch to have a look around. Tasmania really is a hotspot for native marsupials, and in a short search around the visitor centre car park I came across numerous Bennett’s Wallabies (the furrier Tassie subspecies of Red-necked Wallaby), Rufous-bellied Pademelons and Common Wombats, although there was no sign of the hoped-for Quolls or Devils. Common Brushtail Possums, in a wide range of colour forms, were common both here and back at the campsite, and they were huge compared to the ones up north! In the distance I could hear an owl calling which according to the IOC would be a Morepork, although I still can’t really understand how Tasmania would have ended up sharing this species with New Zealand, rather than having the Aussie Southern Boobook. I didn’t manage to track it down anyway, so I suppose I don’t need to worry about that

Birds
391. Goldfinch
392. Tasmanian Native-hen
393. Forest Raven
394. Black Currawong
395. Tasmanian Scrubwren
396. Tasmanian Thornbill
397. Yellow-throated Honeyeater
398. Scrubtit
399. Yellow Wattlebird
400. Green Rosella

Mammals
43. Rufous-bellied Pademelon
44. Common Wombat