Hi birdlovers... Lorne here...
I'm back from northern NSW, with its gren-brown wonders and natural
delights. Here are the highlights...
NOISY PITTA - Brand new for me! A tick!!!! A bird I've been after for
close on eight years, after hearing one call at Boarding House Dam in
the Watagans at 4am one morning. I found this one at Victoria Park
nature reserve, a remnant of The Big Scrub, out of Alstonville, on the
road between Lismore and Ballina. I called for it several times, and it
called back which was uplifting, exciting!!! I saw it for about twenty
seconds as it tossed leaves in this patch of watery sunlight. Brilliant
aqua, black and butterscotch plumage. Also heard pittas at Blue Knob,
near Nimbin, and at Dorrigo National Park.
I also got about 6 Land mullets, Red-necked Pademelons and Parma
Wallabies at Victoria Park. Hoped for White-earaed Monarch, but it
didn't show. Great views of Pale-yellow Robin and Spectacled Monarch
here.
MARBLED FROGMOUTH - Heard, but not seen, close to Rocky Creek Dam, out
of Dunoon. Amazing call!!! The beak clap at the end is funny. In this
area I also had Parma Wallaby, pademelons, antechinus or native rat,
mastiff bat (heard its tick tick call), Northern-barred Bandicoot, Noisy
Pitta, Spectacled Monarch, Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Owlet Nightjar (heard
at Dunoon too), Tawny Frogmouth... heard Little Red Flying foxes in
area... searched some dry lantana/eucalypt woodland with clinging plants
for Black-breasted Button-quail, but no luck!! I was intense, focused,
driven by anticipation. they would've been a mega-tick.
GREY GOSHAWK - Flying over Boat Harbour Nature Reserve, on the
Lismore-Bangalow road (also good for Green Catbird). Also south of
Ballina's big prawn complex.
OSPREY - A pair by their nest at Double Crossing Creek, 23km north of
Coffs Harbour... spectacular views, one eating a snake... maybe worth
watching, looking after... they are very close to the Pacific highway
(left hand side as going north).
TOPKNOT PIGEONS - Close to 30 at the skyway at Dorrigo National PArk.
Gorgeous creatures. Great view of red eye!!! I amde Wompoo Pigeon calls
and birds were still, intense, lsitening, with crooked heads!!!
WOMPOO PIGEONS - Boat Harbour, subtropical rainforest near Rocky Creek
Dam... most birds not doing full 'wom-poo' or 'wollock-woo' call...
mainly just 'wom'. Friend of mine who lives at Blue Knob, about ten
minutes out of Nimbin, though that 'wom' noise was the spirit-God of the
rainforest when he heard it the first time!!!
BRAHMINY KITE - Flying over Byron Bay's shops in light rain. Saw it
soaring with a rainbow and the moon behind it... truly picture postcard
stuff!! Saw several along the Clarence, in the vacinity of Grafton.
CHANNEL-BILLED CUCKOOS - snorting and puffing when flying over
Nimbin!!!! Fantastic things!!! Fit in well with Nimbin's eccentricity.
REGENT BOWERBIRD - One female eating fruit by skyway at Dorrigo NP.
BARN OWL - Had me going for a Masked, but unfeathered legs!! This was on
the Nightcap Range Road somewhere or other, on a roadside fencepost.
Brilliant! Only the second time I'd seen one in OZ.
I prayed for Coxen's Fig-parrot, Red Goshawk, Rufous Scrub-bird,
Albert's Lyrebird etc. No luck. The Border Ranges National Park,
although intoxicatingly gorgeous with all its myriad of emerald, didn't
produce much of note, apart from Large-billed and Yellow-throated
Scrubwrens. I went to the Antarctic beech glades of Bar Mountain, which
were AWESOME. Country I'd like to die and be buried in. Had a flat tyre
up near Brindle Creek, which Peter Ekert tells me was good for
scrub-birds.
Interestingly, the Pied Currawongs in Lismore sound different from
Sydney's. More of a bell-like piping call.
I thought I may have seen Forest Ravens up near Dorrigo and Armidale.
Can anyone help me on that???
A great trip. Eventually I'll tick those other species. Patience.
Thanks to Peter Ekert and his mate Damien for their assistance.
Peace to all,
LORNE.
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