Greetings,
Mark Bennett and I travelled to the coastal heathlands south-east of
Melbourne. The first stop at Kilcunda to search for chestnut-rumped
heathwrens was not too productive but did result in huge numbers of striated
calamanthus. Later in the day on the beach we found a penguin and a fairy
prion sleeping very soundly or possibly dead (unfortunately no tick for dead
birds).
At Wonthaggi heath we had a great look at a beautiful firetail near the trail
head. The white-naped HE and grey shrikethrush were almost deafening here.
Other somewhat interesting birds here were Horsefield's bronze-cuckoo, both
pardalotes, lots of dusky woodswallows.
The next stop was the heathland at the mouth of the Powlett River in search
of Latham's snipe. After a fair bit of walking finally flushed out a single
bird. The real highlight here was the number of cuckoos. We observed 4 Fan-
tailed cuckoos, 2 Horsefield's bronze-cuckoos, and 1 Pallid cuckoo. We also
observed some odd behaviour with a royal spoonbill and great egret acting
like they were mates. They stood very close together, flew together and
landed within about 3 feet of one another. Maybe the egret was waiting for
the spoonbill to stir up something tasty for it. Finally, a flock of yellow-
tailed black cockatoos graced us with its presence.
Scott
P. Scott Chandry
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