Challenge Count

I was fortunate to be part of a BLEG [Birdlife East Gippsland] Challenge Count team on Monday. We birded from Hollands Landing to Bairnsdale. Highlights included ...

1. Brown Goshawk ripping past with freshly caught bird in its talons. I could see its meal fluttering and kicking as it was pecked to death in a wattle close by.

2. Many dozens of Red-necked Avocets.

3. Great Crested Grebe on Lake King.

4. A White-necked Heron.

5. A Marsh Sandpiper hanging out with a bunch of Silver Gulls and a pair of Masked Lapwings in a puddle [big] in a paddock.

6. A Striated Fieldwren showing for a magnificent photo-opportunity. The image was taken by Ian Wright as I was lugging the scope around at the time. Thanks Ian.

Striated Fieldwren  Photo by Ian Wright

7. Most of the resident ducks in our part of Victoria. The Pacific Black Duck, Australian Shelduck, Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal, Australasian Shoveler, Pink-eared Duck, Hardhead, Australian Wood Duck and Freckled Duck. Dipped on Blue-billed, Musk and Garganey.

8. On the way home I was able to take some images of Whiskered Terns. They were collectively hunting over new, ephemeral, freshwater lakes generated by the big downpour on Saturday and Sunday caused by the East Coast Low.

Just magic. f8 and be there.

The Barry Way 3

Behind all of this activity at the Jacobs River campsite were the Dusky Woodswallows attending to their young. It took me a while to locate their nest. It was in a tree as you might expect.

Can you spot the nest?

Can you spot it now?

I expect nests to be high up, out of the way of ground-based predators. In this case perhaps not. It was only five feet off the ground wedged where a piece of substantial sized bark had fallen away from the trunk, a bit like a sock with a loose top. There were three inhabitants.

"Where's that food?"

"Aren't mums marvellous?"

"Feed me. Feed me. Ta Mum"

Waste disposal service too. Mum/dad reaching to take away
a capsule of white material from an anus.

"All we have to do is wait for the next round of food".

"Perhaps a spot of preening and sunbathing.
Ahh. Life is good".

Magic. f8 and be there.

The Barry Way 2

Perhaps the birding wasn't THAT basic. A honeyeater landed on the ground near me and I thought ... Yellow-plumed HE. I took some photos.

Yellow-plumed Honeyeater ??
No. Fuscous Honeyeater

A look at the maps in the books showed that its range is nowhere near the Black-Allan Line which runs between Cape Howe and the start of the Murray River at Cowombat Flat. I have had a good look in the learned tomes at all the honeyeaters with yellow ears/plumes, examined my photos and have decided it was a Fuscous Honeyeater. The yellow is not a "neck-plume" across the neck but a "small, black-edged plume on the neck" Pizzey & Knight p368. There is no marked flecking of the breast nor yellow eye-ring which are both present on the Y-P. An interesting challenge. Happy to enter into correspondence!

From this encounter, I walked a few paces uphill and was marvelling at a Willie Wagtail nest ...

... when a brightly coloured parrot flew straight at me and landed just a short distance away. I snapped off some good photos, it didn't make a sound or seem too concerned as I walked around to get a better angle on it, then quietly flew off after about 10 minutes as I became engrossed with Willie Wagtail parental responsibilities.

Back to the books. The orange beak is not present on any parrot with this colouration in Australia! There is lots of yellow underneath. Parrots of this hue in the area include Blue-winged [perhaps], Red-rumped but I settled on an immature female Turquoise Parrot. Happy to enter into correspondence!

Whatever, just magic. f8 and be there.