Victoria Visits: Ethan 01

My grandson Ethan is visiting this week and it is 100% birding. Yesterday, Friday, we spent the first three hours at the Heart Morass where Ethan scored 3 ticks - Brown-headed Honeyeater, Yellow Thornbill and White-winged Black Tern. We saw a respectable 51 species. Ethan is a pretty keen photographer so all the images are his.

The Heart Morass is drying fast with many hectares of mudflat happily growing grass and other assorted vegetation. We saw a few Red-necked Stints, some Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and a small flock of Common Greenshank. There were quite a few hundred terns mostly Whiskered but the occasional White-winged Black (Ethan lifer) in non-breeding plumage with the "ear muffs". I ALWAYS find terns hard to photograph so full marks to Ethan.

Australian Hobby

Brown-headed Honeyeater

White-winged Black Tern

White-winged Black Tern

 We chanced upon a flock of mixed species giving some flowering bushes and trees a bit of stick. As well as Yellow (Ethan lifer) and Brown Thornbills there were Brown-headed (Ethan lifer) and White-naped Honeyeaters.

Yellow Thornbill

Yellow Thornbill

Next stop was the Macalister Wetlands Reserve at Maffra. Star of a relatively sparse showing was a Spotless Crake (Ethan lifer). The wetlands has just one pool with a reasonable amount of water in it. The growth of vegetation is prolific.

Spotless Crake

Stop 3 was Bullock Island at Lakes Entrance where Black-faced Cormorants did not fail us (Ethan lifer).

Black-faced Cormorants

Last stop for the day was Lake Tyers Beach where we expected to see Hooded Plovers. It did not let us down. The lake is very low. At the moment you can walk across to the first island behind the bar between the lake and the sea. We were ambling along and a Hoodie was spotted (Ethan lifer). Great. We approached a lit bit then sat down as it was walking towards us doing its own thing on the water's edge darting here and there but getting closer. Eventually it was about 10 metres away, Ethan taking photos, when we heard a bunch of Australian Pied Oystercatchers making a noise. We looked up and right in front of us was an Osprey that was loaded down with a fish in its talons being chased by the APOs!

Magic. f8 and be there!!

Ethan is a Queenslander where every power pole has an osprey nest on it so not a life tick but you don't often see them with a takeaway meal!

PS We also saw some breeding plumage Fairy Terns.

Hooded Plover

Hooded Plover

Eastern Osprey

Fairy Tern

NZ Visitor_Bernd_Western Treatment Plant

Bernd spent 13 hours of his last day in Australia at no better place for birding -- the Western Treatment Plant. An early leave from Sale - 4am!! - meant we were at the crake pond by 7.15 for all the action and it went on for the whole day totally 80 species. Highlights were 10 species of duck, a family of Black-shouldered Kites, a Black Falcon overfly whilst a dozen Brown Quail whizzed about the track next to the Crake Pond, and some Zebra Finches.

Australian Spotted Crake Porzana fluminea

Black Falcon Falco subniger

Brown Quail Coturnix ypsilophora

Black-shouldered Kite Elanus axillaris

Australian Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus australis

Fairy Martin Petrochelidon ariel
Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris Acuminata

White-winged Black Tern Chlidonias leucopterus

Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata

Broome 2017 _ Wave The Waders Goodbye _ Day 04

Day 04

Birding at dawn anywhere is usually pretty good, especially on a calm morning. The BBO has a couple of paths through the bush to take. This morning I came across a small flock of Red-winged Parrots.

Red-winged Parrot Aprosmictus erythropterus
Male first image, female in other two.

The trip for today was out onto the flooded Roebuck Plains. Flooded enough that we didn't leave the safety of the tarmac of the Northern Highway.

Black-winged Stilt (White-headed Stilt) Himanoptus leucocephalus

Plumed Whistling-duck Dendrocygna eytoni
And one lone Australian Wood Duck Chenonetta jubata on the left.

White-winged Black Tern Chlidonias leucopterus Coming into breeding plumage

Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa

Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus

Brown Goshawk Accipiter fasciatus
Secondaries not bulging beyond trailing edge of wing. Plenty of tail behind feet. Tail rounded as the outer retrices on BG are shorter as they go out from the midline. Juvenile bird.

Little Friarbird Philemon citreogularis

This, and the following two birds, were seen at the Roebuck Bay Roadhouse.

Pied Butcherbird Cracticus nigrogularis

Australian Magpie (Black-backed) Cracticus tibicen eylandtensis
This subspecies of magpie has white trousers and is found on Groote Eylandt in the NT and the Kimberley area.

Roebuck Bay
The view from the observation station [chairs on the cliff top!] towards dusk. The colours are just stunning. There is no way that any of my images do it any sort of justice. The first image is off to the left of our position looking directly down the light whereas the second is looking across the light to the southern end of the bay.

The reason that so many waders are here is the amount of food it produces aided by a variance of up to 10 metres between high and low tide. It is shellfish heaven -- both for birds and humans. These lads were crabbing. 

Here are some images of the main reason we were there. Watching and recording the species and numbers of birds heading off northward on their migration.

Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola

Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica

Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis

Dutchman twitchy about twitching megas

Pronounced meguz i.e. the plural of mega. In The Netherlands Robert is a bit of a dedicated twitcher chasing rare vagrants [which the Dutch call megas] across the country at the drop of a hat. Remember The Netherlands is not that big so three or four hours will put you from one border to the other.

So after Merimbula we headed north without Heath who had taken the second car to visit mates in Sydney. We wouldn't see him for 4 or 5 days. We went to Cape Jervis to bird the Eastern Bristlebird - a mega although not a vagrant. Just hard to observe due to secretive nature and rarity. We set up our camp then, with not much daylight left went to check out the potential spot for the bird at Cape St George. Well, we hadn't gone 400 metres and had just turned south at a main intersection when we spotted the aforesaid bird on the verge. Instant stop and a great view of the bird with juvenile in tow for about 5 minutes but we were so close [5 metres] that I dared not move to get camera for photo as I had hopped out of the car [Robert had a great view from the passenger seat] and was looking over the bonnet. Hence no image but a mega and life tick x 2 birders.

Next day we moved on to Lake Wollumboola at Culburra Beach near Nowra to twitch the Hudsonian Godwit. Alas, we dipped but there were plenty of other birds there. Highlights were Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits, Fairy and Little Terns, Lesser Sand Plover and Sanderling [2 x life ticks for me but common as Starlings to a European!].

Lesser Sand Plover

Robert in typical pose

White-winged Black Tern, non-breeding

Little Tern, breeding plumage. Black lores goes to bill. 

Little Tern, non-breeding

Rear: Fairy Tern, breeding plumage. Black loves does not extend to bill.

Red-necked Avocet

Sanderling