PORT FAIRY, JULY 2016

Because recent pelagic trips had been producing such exciting sightings (and mainly because the latest Port Fairy pelagic had recorded Antarctic Tern) Neil Macumber put on a special trip on Saturday, 16 July, 2016.

An enthusiastic group of birders gathered on the wharf in the dark and boarded the Perceive with hungry anticipation.  Neil had mentioned the possibility of Kerguelen Petrel.  Most people wanted Antarctic Tern.  I was secretly hoping for a Southern Fulmar.

The first bird we saw was (appropriately) a Shy Albatross.  I've never done a pelagic out of Port Fairy (or, indeed, Portland or Port MacDonnel) without seeing Shy Albatross.  They are beautiful birds and should not be overlooked because they are common.

The next bird that flew into sight was a Crested Tern.  We saw several Crested Terns throughout the day and I don't remember terns ever being exposed to such scrutiny.  No matter how we examined them they remained stubbornly Crested Terns and refused to morph into anything else.  We did see one Arctic Tern later in the day, but apart from that, every tern was Crested.

We saw both Fluttering and Hutton's Shearwaters - large rafts of both, close to the boat.  I saw just one Sooty Shearwater - the keen-eyed youngsters probably spied more.

There was a sprinkling of Australasian Gannets throughout the day.  There were Fairy and Slender-billed Prions, a handful of Grey-backed Storm-Petrels and three or four Northern Giant-Petrels.  I saw one Great-winged Petrel.

And then there were albatross.  We'd have had a hundred around the boat at a given point in time.  Magnificent!  We had Black-browed, Campbell's, Yellow-nosed, a couple of Northern Royal and one young clown - an immature Wanderer.

There were two metre swells on the way home and a few people were queasy.  One unfortunate fellow spent the day on the deck.  The rest of us proclaimed it a good day at sea.  If we'd managed to chalk up a lifer, it would have been a great day at sea.

On board the Perceive with two metre swells,
One man on the deck (he'd forgotten his Quells).
Albatross, shearwaters loving the weather
Soaring with pleasure, not ruffling a feather.
We saw several terns, all of them Crested.
Cold and uncomfortable, patience is tested.
Wet through from seaspray and feeling quite queasy,
Getting a lifer was not meant to be easy!

EAGLEHAWK NECK JULY 2016

Last weekend I had a wonderful time seabirding off Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania.  Highlights were the albatrosses, so many birds and so many species.  Also several Blue Petrels, a couple of Grey Petrels and (perhaps my favourite) a few White-headed Petrels.  Jaegers were quite absent, there was just one Brown Skua, and very few diving-petrels and storm petrels.  We were on the Pauletta, seas were calm and no one was seasick.  It was cold, but for a winter pelagic off Tasmania, you really couldn't ask for better conditions.

White-headed Petrel, photo by David Mitford

Most people had difficulty arriving at Eaglehawk Neck, because, without explanation or apology, Jetstar deferred or even cancelled just about every flight.  I flew Qantas and arrived on time.  David Mitford, who organized the trip, flew from Sydney.  His flight was cancelled, so he flew to Launceston and another obliging birder drove up from Hobart to collect him.  I flew home with Jetstar and arrived three hours late.

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, photo by David Mitford

Sooty Albatross, photo by David Mitford

On Saturday, the albatrosses were nothing short of spectacular.  The most numerous species was Shy, but there were plenty of Buller's too, and close sightings of both Black-browed and Campbell's.  We saw several Wandering Albatrosses and more than one Southern Royal.  Of course, the most exciting were the Sooty and the Light-mantled Sooty.  Altogether, an exceptional array of albatrosses.  Then, on Sunday, the icing on the cake, a Grey-headed Albatross appeared.

Southern Royal Albatross, photo by Andrew Walker

Grey-headed Albatross, photo by David Mitford

We saw both Fairy and Slender-billed Prions, as well as the Blue Petrel, both races of Cape Petrels, and both Great-winged and Grey-faced Petrels.  Each day, just one Sooty Shearwater put in an appearance.  

Blue Petrel, photo by David Mitford

On Saturday evening, after the pelagic, we all drove down to Port Arthur to see the Masked Owl.  We arrived on dusk and waited just a few minutes before the owl appeared.  It flew and was quickly relocated, allowing everyone to have magnificent views.

Tasmanian Masked Owl, photo by David Mitford

Thank you, David, for organizing the weekend and for providing the beautiful photos shown here.  It really was a terrific weekend.  Great birds, great company, what more could you want?

A GANG-GANG AT LAST!

On my routine morning walk today, I heard, then saw, a single Gang-gang Cockatoo.  It flew into the Kew Cemetery.  This was a new bird for my list for Kew and a new bird for my annual list.

My cousin, who lives in Blackburn, tells me that she either sees or hears Gang-gangs every day.  I've been walking with her along Gardiners Creek hoping to come across these wonderful cockatoos, but we've had no luck.  I grew up in Ringwood and Gang-gangs were quite common then.  I remember they were always exciting to see.  And they still are.

Gang-gang in Cooma some years ago

I was delighted to add this bird to my list for 2016 as I reckon I've been a bit unlucky with my birding in June.  I visited both Wilson Reserve and Banyule looking for the Powerful Owl, but did not see one.  I visited Karkarook looking for a Flame Robin, but did not see one.  With BirdLife Australia, I pulled out boneseed at the You Yangs, but did not see anything new for my 2016 list.  With a friend, I visited Werribee looking for Double-banded Plover and did not see one.  We visited Stockyard Point also after a Double-banded Plover and all we saw was an enormous flock of Pied Oystercatchers.  After this disappointment, we drove on to Flat Rocks at Inverloch where the Beach Stone-curlew had been reported.  It was school holidays and the beach was full of dogs.  There were no waders in sight.

This week we again visited Werribee, this time looking for a Lewin's Rail.  Again, no luck.  Three Australian Spotted Crakes were happily feeding in the open, walking very close to us and seemingly oblivious of our presence.  That was nice, so was a pair of Brolgas that flew overhead, bugling, but they weren't Lewin's Rails!

Now, with my Gang-gang today, perhaps my luck is turning.  Just in time.  This afternoon I fly to Hobart to do pelagics off Eaglehawk Neck on both Saturday and Sunday.  Who knows what we might see.

WERRIBEE IN WINTER

It was early June.  Melbourne's cold and often miserable winter stretched ahead of me and I confess I was feeling sorry for myself.   I had nothing planned until November, when I was scheduled to go to Ashmore Reef.  How would I survive until then?

I was still missing some easy birds from my annual list.  I wanted Flame Robin, Double-banded Plover and Red-kneed Dotterel.  They are all possible at Werribee.

I decided to contact Philip.  I'd met him at the Long-billed Dowitcher twitch at Lake Tutchewop in November 2014 and he'd proved to be a great birding companion.  "How about a trip to Werribee?" I asked.  Not only did Philip say 'yes' quite enthusiastically, he offered to drive.  We consulted the weather forecast and selected a sunny day.  Unfortunately, it was also a public holiday and it seemed that half of Melbourne's birding community was visiting Werribee that day.

The crowds were attracted by reports of Orange-bellied Parrots and lots of happy birders added them to their lifelists that sunny day.  Philip and I did not see the parrots.  We were disappointed, but not devastated, as we'd both seen them before on many occasions.

We had a most enjoyable day with lots of good sightings, starting with Banded Lapwing in Beach Road.  We had a great view of a Brown Goshawk sitting on a fence post and one Intermediate Egret stood out in one of the lagoons.  The crakes performed well, with both spotted and spotless ignoring us and venturing very close.  We saw a few Tree Martins amongst the Welcome Swallows, a bird I don't often see at Werribee.  We thought we were going to miss out on Brolga, when Philip saw three in the distance at Paradise Road.  We did well with duck species, seeing all the usual species except Freckled Duck.

We saw lots of Black-fronted Dotterels and the Banded Stilts seem to have moved in permanently.  In fact, we saw more Banded Stilts than their Black-winged cousins.

Note that not only did we dip on Orange-bellied Parrots, we did not see any Little Black Cormorants, Cape Barren Geese or overwintering sandpipers - all birds I had expected to see.  Worse, we did not see any Flame Robins, Double-banded Plovers or Red-kneed Dotterels!  So I came home without adding anything to my annual list.  But I can't complain.  It was a great day.  With my batteries re-charged, I can now face Melbourne's winter.

PORT FAIRY PELAGIC MAY 2016

My sister-in-law, Susie, had never seen an albatross.  I decided that this situation must be rectified, and booked us both onto Neil Macumber's May 2016 Port Fairy pelagic.  The trip planned for 8 May was cancelled due to bad weather, and re-scheduled for 29 May.  On Saturday, 28 May, Susie and I set off together like excited schoolgirls wagging school.

I'd selected the May trip in the hope that Susie might see a great albatross.

I explained to Susie that she must take Travacalm, that the seas would be rough, it would be freezing cold, and we would get wet:  if it did not rain, we could expect to be engulfed in seaspray.  Everything I said was wrong.  The seas were calm; the temperature was mild; the weather was fine; we came home quite dry.  We did not need Travacalm.

The boat left port right on time at 7 a.m.  It was still dark.  Nothing much happened for a while, but I thought it didn't matter.  Susie would certainly see some sort of albatross during the day, so she'd come away happy.  Sure enough, not all that far out of port, a Shy Albatross flew past the boat, giving us all good views.  Susie cheered.  I relaxed.  Mission accomplished.

Then a Northern Giant-Petrel flew past, very close, letting us all admire it without using our binoculars.  Susie made all the appropriate noises.

By the time we got to the shelf at 10.30, my bird list was not long (Fairy Prion, Crested Tern, Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Australasian Gannet, Yellow-nosed Albatross, Little Penguin, Great-winged Petrel) but I was happy.  Susie had now seen two species of albatross, and it didn't matter if nothing else appeared.  Susie, who is an artist, was admiring the cloud formations as much as the birds.

Slowly, things started to happen.  There was a Black-browed Albatross, then a Campbell's.  I was delighted when a Wandering Albatross appeared.  It flew around slowly, allowing Susie to drink it in.  It was the first of six wanderers we saw during the day, including one young clown.  Not only had Susie now seen five species of albatross, she'd seen a great one.  What's more, it was a pleasant, calm, mild day.  We were blessed.

Suddenly, a Grey-headed Albatross appeared!  I could not believe my eyes.  It had a very dark head, looking more black than grey.  Then a Sooty Albatross flew overhead!  And very soon after that a Light-mantled Sooty Albatross put in an appearance!  These were birds I'd never dared to hope for.  The albatross were making a special effort for Susie.

Grey-headed Albatross, photo by James Mustafa

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, photo by James Mustafa

The whole boat was in celebratory mood.  Everyone was happy.  We saw a Grey-backed Storm-Petrel and a Cape Petrel.  We'd seen quite a few Fairy Prions throughout the day, and suddenly a Blue Petrel appeared!  On the way back home, there were large flocks of Fluttering Shearwaters, and suddenly, a tern caused great excitement.  General consensus was that it was an Arctic Tern.

Blue Petrel, photo by James Mustafa

What a day!  Several people on board considered it the best pelagic they'd ever been on.  Susie has gone home with quite the wrong idea about pelagic birding.  I should take her again just to show her what it's usually like.  

AND NOW FOR THE NARETHA BLUEBONNET

Buoyed by my success in sighting the Copperback Quailthrush, Rog and I set off westwards, confident in our quest for the recently split Naretha Bluebonnet.  This bird has an interesting distribution, with two discrete populations:  one centred on Rawlinna and Naretha along the transcontinental railway and the other further south, from Cocklebiddy to Border Village, straddling the Eyre Highway.  It is found in pairs or small parties up to ten birds, and inhabits myall, with bluebush, mulga, belar or sugarwood.  Forshaw says:  'It shows a definite preference for certain species of trees and one can often predict its presence merely by the vegetation.'  I've spoken to people who've seen Naretha Bluebonnets at Rawlinna and at Border Village.  I was aware that the bird was classified as moderately common to common, so why not be confident?

We started looking as soon as we reached Border Village, which is located (appropriately) on the Western Australian/South Australian border.  We stopped at every roadside stop.  I walked in every easily accessible stand of myall.  We spent the night at the Mundrabilla Roadhouse.

Eyre Highway from Eucla

I am too old to make basic mistakes.  Or I should be.  I have been birding for too many years to go anywhere without my binoculars.  And yet I did.

The next morning, while we were having breakfast in the Mundrabilla Roadhouse, I saw a parrot fly past the window!  I dropped my knife and fork and rushed outside, pushing past the bewildered tourists milling about in the shop.  Of course the parrot was no longer in sight.  It had flown to the east.  My binoculars were in our room, in the other direction.  Now, what should I do?  Chase the parrot, and not be able to identify it without binoculars?  Or go and collect my binoculars and risk losing the parrot in the meantime?  I opted to get my binoculars.  I ran (yes, ran) to our room.  Hardly dignified I know.  But this was a possible Naretha Bluebonnet.  A lifer.  My uppermost thought was, how delighted Roger would be if I saw the parrot now and he could go home!  I grabbed my binoculars and returned to the tree where I'd last seen the bird.  It was still there!  But, before I could focus on it, it flew again.  Alas!  I could see immediately that it was not a bluebonnet.  It was too big, with an extremely long tail.  It was, without doubt, a Princess Parrot!

The parrot flew over the buildings, never to be seen again.  I returned to Roger and enjoyed cold scrambled eggs more than I ever have before.  Or probably will again.

Roger was reading a newsletter from Norseman, which announced that the Cocklebiddy/Rawlinna Road was to be sealed.

We drove on to Cocklebiddy, where we were told that the road to Rawlinna was impassable. People instead took the road to Haig, which was slightly better and took five hours.  I had with me an extract from Finding Australian Birds, A Field Guide to Birding Locations by Tim Dolby and Rohan Clarke.  At page 425, it states:  'A good spot to search for [Naretha Bluebonnet] is 10 km north of Cocklebiddy. . . the Blue Bonnet often perch in stands of Sheoke (Allocasuarina) in this area.'   I asked the helpful fellow at Cocklebiddy if we could make it up the Rawlinna Road for 10 km.  He said that we could.

And so we did.  We drove up the Rawlinna Road as far as the Arubiddy homestead.  (We had phoned Arubiddy before we left, to inform them of our plans.)  Alas, I did not see any casuarina at all.  There were few trees.  All I identified were myalls.   There were certainly no 'stands of Sheoke.'  (I've always said 'she-oak,' but I defer to Dolby and Clarke.)  Disappointed, we returned to the Cocklebiddy motel, and planned a trip up the road to Haig the following day.

When we walked to the diningroom in the dark at 6.30 the next morning, it was cold but fine.  While we were eating breakfast, the fog rolled in.  Our departure was delayed.  The roads to Rawlinna and to Haig are not signposted.  There is a star picket in a 44 gallon drum at the intersection of the road to Haig.  It is off-road, half hidden in tall grass.  It is difficult to see in daylight, without fog.  In the dark and the fog we had no chance.  We waited.  I admired many spider webs outlined in dew, very pretty in the fog.

The spider webs were beautiful in the morning fog.

Finally we left, but I knew in my heart of hearts that this trip to Rawlinna via Haig was doomed from the start.  The road was not in good condition, forcing Rog to crawl along frustratingly slowly.  The gates were extremely difficult to open.  In fact I could not open them:  I simply was not strong enough.  At the fourth gate, we'd been driving for an hour and had covered 12 km.  We weren't going to make it in five hours as predicted by the helpful fellow at Cocklebiddy.  It was 130 km to Haig, and from there we'd have to go to Rawlinna.  For us the trip was impossible in a day, even if we had not suffered a fog-induced late start.  We turned back.

As I'd ticked the Copperback Quailthrush thanks to local knowledge, I decided to seek some local knowledge to help with the Naretha Bluebonnet.  I phoned the Eyre Bird Observatory to ask about sightings.  There was no answer.  I left a message, but my call was never returned.

When we realized we could not make it to Haig, then to Rawlinna and back in a day, we repeated our earlier plan.  We drove up and down the Eyre Highway, stopping at every roadside reserve, or accessible stand of acacias, and having a good look.  Unidentified perched birds brought us to a halt.  They were usually Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, and once, a pair of Welcome Swallows.  Once I saw a parrot.  I jumped out of the car and scrambled over hills I would usually have thought too steep.  But I found the parrot.  It was an Australian Ringneck.  Wedge-tailed Eagles and kestrels dominated our bird list.  

I'm not sure whether I am in a position to dispute that Naretha Bluebonnets are moderately common to common along the Eyre Highway, but I can say with confidence that there were none in the places I looked for three long days between Cocklebiddy and Border Village.  Rog had had enough and we turned for home.  We spent the night at Border Village.  The mallees were flowering.  I wandered around in the national park, enjoying the honeyeaters, and wishing just one of them was a parrot.  The most common bird was the Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater.  There were also two species which were present which were well outside their recognized range:  Brown Honeyeater and Brush Bronzewing.

I was very disappointed.  It is human nature.  Rather than celebrate my Princess Parrot, I mourned the lack of Naretha Bluebonnet.  The ultimate irony was watching Eastern Bluebonnets as we had coffee at Lake Tyrrel on the way home.  I did not enjoy them as much as I usually do.

Roger jokes that each new tick costs $1,000.  This trip cost roughly $8,000 for both of us, so that's $4,000 for me, and I got two ticks.  Seems like the cost of a tick is now $2,000!   I suppose it makes sense, that birds get harder and hence more expensive as your lifelist grows.  I shouldn't complain about that.  But still, we travelled around 5,500 km, and I worked hard.  I felt entitled to my bluebonnet!

I came home to learn that my piece about Noisy Miners had been broadcast on the ABC and that the Eaglehawk Neck pelagic had recorded Southern Fulmars.  My plans for 2017 were starting to form.

THE QUEST FOR THE COPPERBACK QUAILTHRUSH

I set off full of hopeful anticipation.  I was on a roll.  Apart from dipping on the seemingly impossible White-necked Petrel, I'd done very well so far in 2016, starting with the cooperative Paradise Shelduck at Lake Wollumboola in January, then surpassing all expectations in the Torres Strait in March.  So I expected to see the Copperback Quailthrush, a bird I had heard in 2011 at Yumbarra Conservation Park and whose nest and eggs I'd admired at Lake Gilles Conservation Park.

I had four possible sites to look for it:  the above mentioned Conservation Parks in South Australia and two sites in Western Australia:  scrub around the Mundrabilla Roadhouse and Karrawang Nature Reserve near Kalgoorlie.  I knew Roger wouldn't want to drive as far as Kalgoorlie, but I wasn't concerned.  I expected to get the bird at Lake Gilles.

Lake Gilles Conservation Park

Heaven knows why I was so confident.  My eyesight is not what it once was.  And I had missed out on seeing this bird on at least three occasions, when I'd been with other birders who had seen it.  And yet I expected to see it.

Our trip started off in Port Fairy, where I was booked on a pelagic with Neil Macumber on Sunday 8 May.  My sister-in-law had never seen an albatross, and I wanted to rectify that situation.  The weather was dicey and Neil could not confirm that the pelagic would proceed, but we set off from home nevertheless.  On Saturday, Neil gave us the bad news:  seas were too rough; the pelagic would not proceed.  My disappointed sister-in-law and I enjoyed a rainy day walking around Port Fairy instead.  Then she and my brother headed east, and Roger and I set off westwards, towards Copperback Quailthrush territory.

The Big Galah, Kimba

There is little to report of interest about our trip from Port Fairy to Kimba, where we were basing ourselves for three days to explore the Lake Gilles Conservation Park.  The best bird sighting was a pair of Brolgas that flew low over the car on the first day as we left Port Fairy.  It was a breathtaking site.  Then we recorded huge numbers of Black-shouldered Kites as we travelled from Bordertown to Clare.  At Wilmington, we saw Rainbow Lorikeets, a familiar bird from home, but here well outside their recognized range.  We observed two interesting insect phenomena (which actually occurred later in the trip, but this is as good a place to mention them as any).  One was many thousands of flying termites which must have just erupted:  this was in the middle of the day, south of Lake Gilles.  The other was several swarms of unidentified insects flying out of the roadside trees, like thought bubbles in a cartoon.  I don't remember seeing such a thing ever before.

We drove directly to Lake Gilles and I spent some time looking for quailthrush.  There were Emus, Crested Bellbirds, White-browed Babblers and lots of honeyeaters:  White-fronted, Yellow-plumed and  Brown-headed (the latter were more colourful than I'm used to).  There were several sorts of thornbills and friendly, noisy Weebills.  But there were no quailthrush.

I wasn't daunted.  We had three days.  And I'd been told to be there at dawn.  So one afternoon's absence of quailthrush did not upset me in the least.

The next morning, I was up in the dark.  It was cold, 3 degrees according to the car thermometer.  But worse than that, it was foggy.  I drove at 60 k for the 17 kilometres from Kimba to Lake Gilles.  I felt very brave, very cold and, I confess, a little scared.  The road trains on the Eyre Highway do not slow down because of a little fog.  I thought of Rog snuggled into his warm bed as I drove slowly, expecting kangaroos to jump in front of the car at any second.

Perhaps I have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, but I do believe that a girl who gets up in the dark and drives by herself 17 kilometres in the fog, is entitled to see a Copperback Quailthrush.  I did not.  The dawn chorus was subdued, perhaps because of the fog.  I identified Grey Butcherbirds, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, Red Wattlebirds and corvids.  Later, magpies and Galahs joined in.  I did not hear any quailthrush.  The first birds I saw were Yellow-rumped Thornbills, then White-winged Choughs.  As soon as I could see, I drove up and down the road, with the windows down.  To my mind, enduring the cold was, in itself, justification for seeing a quailthrush, let alone driving from Melbourne to Kimba, then to Lake Gilles in the pitch dark.  By 8 o'clock the fog had lifted and there was a beautiful blue sky.  I had fun birding until 9, when I returned to Kimba for some breakfast.

Of course I was disappointed.  But I put the lack of quailthrush down to the fog.  I'd have better luck tomorrow.  I knew that.  After breakfast, Rog and I both returned to Lake Gilles and I explored the scrub some more.  After lunch, we visited Secret Rocks, which had very healthy populations of both Singing and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters and one very confiding Black-eared Cuckoo, who really wanted his photo taken, if only I'd had the appropriate photographic gear.  I also saw some spectacular fairywrens that day.

The next morning, I ate some cereal as I dressed.  There was no fog, so the trip was much quicker.  However, this morning there were kangaroos, which kept me on my toes.  The temperature was 3 degrees again.  This morning, there was no dawn chorus at all!  Yesterday, I'd put the unimpressive dawn chorus down to the fog, but today, I was forced to explain the total absence of dawn chorus by the time of the year.  I walked up and down and I drove up and down, but there was no hint of quailthrush.  I returned to Kimba very disappointed, and seeing one very large black feral cat heading into the bush did not improve my mood.  Rog and I returned to Lake Gilles and I walked every track I could find while he sat in the car reading his newspaper.  I saw several White-eared Honeyeaters, a bird I had not seen yesterday, and conversely, dipped on Brown-headed Honeyeaters, which had been so numerous yesterday.

At the end of the day I was exhausted from so much walking, but I still did not have my quailthrush.  Now this was getting serious.  We were due to move on tomorrow.  I really did not want to leave Kimba without the quailthrush on my lifelist.  At dinner, we complained to the publican that the local quailthrush were not performing on demand.  She suggested we contact a local friend of hers who had lots of birds on his property. 

So we did.  And to cut a long story short, the next morning we visited his place and I ticked the quailthrush.  Howzat!

In an exceptionally good mood, we set off westwards towards the Nullarbor and our other target species:  the Naretha Blue Bonnet.  But that's another story.