191002_Wirilda and Tyers Park

It was a beautiful day in the wilds of the foothills north of Traralgon where the Tyers River bubbles out onto the lush, verdant floodplain of the Latrobe River. Hardly a zephyr stirred the newly awakening leaves on the deciduous trees and the warmth in the air, with a clear sky above, moved the birds to seek the oohs and aahs of an appreciative audience (us).

Thirteen Heyfield Birdos and 6 Friends of Tyers Park gathered at the BBQ Shelter. Joe van Beek gave a quick introduction to the park and then we were off, heading up river at a less than great rate of knots but one typical of intrepid birdwatchers. We hadn't gone 10 metres when a Mistletoebird and a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater claimed attention amidst the cloud of Grey Fantails.

It was just lovely walking through the shaded track on the righthand side of the river. Black wattles and pittosporum seemed to harbour more birds: Brown Thornbills, White-browed Scrubwrens, Bassian Thrushes.

Angry bird -- White-browed Scrubwren

A male Golden Whistler gave us marvellous views as we headed both up and back.

Golden Whistler, male

We heard, but never saw, 4 species of cuckoo. Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Horsfields Bronze-cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo and, wait for it, ..... a male Eastern (or Common or Pacific) Koel. Top bird. They have been heard and seen for probably the last 3 summers in Traralgon and 4 in Sale but this is a good 6 weeks earlier than previous years.

Before the main mob arrived, a Brown Falcon darted through the carpark with a pair of magpies hot on its tail. It retraced its wingbeats whilst we were assembling.

Someone commented that it was a good spot to see Rose Robin. Jack said you usually hear them first with their very distinctive call and, sure enough, within a few minutes one was heard calling fairly close to us. A single playback had a male and female winging in giving everyone great views and Jack very excited, before they whizzed off.

We went about 1km in 80 minutes, had a stop for morning tea and chat and then retraced our steps back to the cars and luncheon.

Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and Grey Fantails kept a constant background chorus going for the entire visit. Satin Bowerbirds were seen around the car park with their whirring call.

Satin Bowerbird

Images by Ross Stothers.

Perhaps the star of the morning was a single male Scarlet Honeyeater well seen on a dead branch for several minutes.

A very noisy lunch ensued and eventually we departed. Thank you to the Friends of Tyers Park for being hosts for our visit. It was a great morning.

Here is the list.

1 Pacific Koel
1 Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo
1 Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
2 Fan-tailed Cuckoo
2 Australian Pelican
1 White-faced Heron
2 Laughing Kookaburra
1 Brown Falcon
2 Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
6 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
1 Crimson Rosella
1 Superb Lyrebird
2 Satin Bowerbird
1 White-throated Treecreeper
2 Superb Fairywren
1 Eastern Spinebill
8 Yellow-faced Honeyeater
1 Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
4 Red Wattlebird
1 Scarlet Honeyeater
4 White-naped Honeyeater
1 Spotted Pardalote
1 White-browed Scrubwren
1 Brown Thornbill
1 Black-faced Cuckooshrike
1 Eastern Whipbird
1 Grey Shrikethrush
2 Golden Whistler
1 Rufous Whistler
4 Australian Magpie (White-backed)
2 Pied Currawong
7 Grey Fantail
2 Rose Robin
1 Eastern Yellow Robin
2 Bassian Thrush
1 Mistletoebird
3 Red-browed Finch

190807_Heyfield Wetlands and Glenmaggie FFR

With a general dearth of birds around, we finally settled on to visit the Heyfield Wetlands today; 10 attendees having a nice day with some changeable, but ultimately warmer, weather.

The wetlands are about to receive a gift of 10-16 megalitres of environmental water and Marg and John have been doing 2-3 surveys a week to get a “dry baseline” count ahead of the water going in next week. We’ll do 3-4 “wet baseline” counts to hopefully be able to tell GCMA that the water attracted birds.

With the dense plantings of scrubby trees and bushes, plus new water diversion drains in place, there is generally a good supply of birds larger and small. The water is very low though and quite dirty. Still, the waterbirds like it, especially a pair of Yellow-billed Spoonbills. We got 41 species in and around the established lagoons and paths. Lots of Superb Fairy Wrens, Red-browed Finches, Silvereyes (Tasmania variety with gorgeous buff shading) and a single Buff-banded Rail (which dashed along the path) were the highlights. I can’t see how you can get a printed list from Birdata so go to this link for the list.

Australian Wood Duck -- female

Chestnut Teal -- male

Silvereye  Zosterops lateralis lateralis (Tasmanian ssp)

Onto the newer lagoon area, the area to be filled next week. There are heaps of new bird boxes up, two with motion and sound-activated cameras. The area has been sparsely populated over the previous two counts but today we found 16 species; or maybe it was 10 pairs of eyes instead of two. Birdata list here.

After the usual leisurely morning tea, we wandered down to the Thomson River and along it to come out on Bessant St. The highlight here was a pair of Spotted Pardalotes cavorting on the opposite bank and close above our heads for quite a while. The lowlight was the dense spread of escaped Honeysuckle choking the small trees on the South bank of the river. Species count of 16 (list).

Striated Pardalotes checking a nest site

Striated Pardalote Pardalotus striatus ornatus (small red dot on wing)

Yellow Thornbill

Off to the Glenmaggie Flora and Fauna Reserve (map) for lunch. After lunch, we walked down the Eastern edge to Back Creek and return, for 9 species. Recent forays into the reserve had turned up exactly no birds.

Species count for the day was 51; not shabby by the current dry standards.

Next month, we will go to ….. WATCH THIS SPACE!

190605_Marlay Point to Sale and all avian points in between

Armed with multiple layers of clothing, beanies and gloves, nine of us gathered at Marlay Point in a biting south wind. We all enjoyed and photographed the 8-10 Little Terns resting on the pylons with dozens of Crested Terns. A few Musk Duck were also spotted plus 25+ other species. 

Apart from a Nankeen Kestrel on the fence, crawling along Frawley Rd was a bit fruitless but the view of Lake Kakydra brought forth large numbers of White-headed Stilts and Red-necked Avocets. The large dam on Hearthall Road treated us to a Swamp Harrier and a Whistling Kite working up the hundreds of Grey Teal present. Pretty soon, the Kite was enjoying lunch on a nearby fencepost.

We checked the paddocks around Talbots Lane for Blue-winged Parrots (spotted last week) and Dotterels but no luck. The Dotterel paddock has been cultivated since last year.

Onto the old, closed bridge on Freshwater Hole Road where we spotted a few White-fronted Chats and European Goldfinch in the paddocks. At the river, we were stunned by a massive tight raft of European Coots drifting along. The initial estimate was 1,000 but a bit of maths at home (JG) showed the raft to be about 40m by 20m or 800 square metres. Given the density in the photo, the count is probably at least 3000; that is only 4 per square metre and it looks denser than that.

Frozen by now, we adjourned into town for lunch to Lake Guyatt where there are hundreds of Grey Teal and Freckled Duck. We were too cold to count them! 

A personal detour on the way home along the Back Maffra Rd wetlands in Sale showed large numbers of Grey Teal, dozens of Chestnut Teal plus four Pink-Eared Ducks (it pays to scan these large mobs carefully) plus a few Red-kneed Dotterels.

All up, about 45 species for the day; worth freezing our butts off.

Report by John Gwyther.

190501_Welshpool and Big Dog Island

(John)

An even dozen of us gathered at Welshpool to conduct a Birds on Farms
<http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/woodland-birds-for-biodiversity/birds-on-farms-wl>  survey at Gary Wallis' Hedley Farm and Big Dog Island<https://goo.gl/maps/bdNy5XYv2jzjA4NKA> ; some others of you may recall our visit there last May. Gary signed up for this program earlier this year and asked us to conduct the surveys, so we did.

A cool-ish day that threatened rain, but it stayed dry - and we became warm later in our thermal underlayers (worn in preparation for it being wet and windy) as the temperature climbed into the 20s.

We had four survey areas of two hectares each to spend 20 minutes in each observing. The first area was medium density Banksia forest (BOF survey list<http://birdata.birdlife.org.au/survey?id=2924107&h=fc43c2bf> ) where the highlight was 15 Nankeen Night-herons that flew out of the area into a big dead tree nearby. Despite the cloud cover, the lighting was great. Alas, I'd left my camera in the car to concentrate on ensuring the survey ranaccording to the rules. In a show of colour solidarity, a Nankeen Kestrel flew low over the top of them.

The second area was a low grass and small bush area with a couple of drainage channels, fenced off for regeneration. The highlight here was a pair of Striated Fieldwrens (BOF list<http://birdata.birdlife.org.au/survey?id=2924117&h=5124f4ae> ).

A late morning tea at the third; more fenced off regeneration area (BOF list<http://birdata.birdlife.org.au/survey?id=2924133&h=a819ec8f> ). Not a lot of birds in the area but plenty outside of them. The BOF rules limit in-site counting to birds interacting with the area, not just flying or moving about outside of it. Nearby, we had quite a good sighting of a dozen or so Blue-winged Parrots and several Brush Bronzewings.

The last area was a hike down to the point of land for a stand of ti-tree and other medium-sized scrub. Not a lot of birds there (BOF list<http://birdata.birdlife.org.au/survey?id=2924146&h=f044632b> ) but we did surprise a mob of kangaroos. One got spooked and waded across a 100m, waist-deep stretch of water to a mud-bank, straight across that and another 200m swim to the other side.

Lots of water birds and waders though; of course, at 2-300m away, hard to see in detail. Never mind, we had a beautiful view of the northern hills of Wilsons Promontory. A Swamp Harrier was the last sighting as we ate a very late lunch. 

(Jack)

Val, Jack and Ross headed further west to the Toora Bird Hide. It had started to rain as we arrived but quickly stopped and the sun came out and the mangroves and mud flats were bathed in the light that delights a photographer. Although we saw only 13 species here, another three were added to the day list.

A big day with 52 species.

Next month's outing may well be a 500m boat trip from Sperm Whale Head for a day (or even overnight if interested) to Rotomah Island <https://goo.gl/maps/XE2hubJgnNzTkPHE6>.

Birds in BoF Areas (20)

Nankeen Night-Heron, Nankeen Kestrel, Crimson Rosella, Grey Fantail, Eastern Yellow Robin, Grey Shrike-thrush, Superb Fairy-wren, White-eared Honeyeater, Grey Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Little Raven, Grey Teal, Grey Shrike-thrush, Striated Fieldwren, Australian Magpie, Eurasian Skylark, Brush Bronzewing, Eastern Rosella, Blue-winged Parrot, White-browed Scrubwren, Superb Fairy-wren.

Additional birds outside BoF Areas (32)

Australian White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Australian Shelduck, Pacific Black Duck, Chestnut Teal, Swamp Harrier, Brown Falcon, Eastern Rosella, Blue-winged Parrot, Welcome Swallow, Willie Wagtail, Grey Shrike-thrush, Magpie-lark, Australasian Pipit, Cattle Egret, Silver Gull, Pacific Gull, Australian Pelican, Black Swan, Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Sooty Oystercatcher, Red-necked Stint, Crested Tern, Great Egret, White-faced Heron, Little Corella, Golden Whistler, Australian Raven, Common Blackbird, Common Starling, Common Myna.

Blue-winged Parrot

Eurasian Skylark

Red-necked Stint

Sooty Oystercatcher