Chiltern ? Mount Pilot National Park: 29-31 November 2003 - Short Trip
Report
Hi All,
I recently spent 3 days birding with Euan Fothergill atChiltern ? Mount
Pilot National Park in Victoria?s North. Here's some observations on
irds seen.
Turquoise Parrot: quite common at Bartley?s Paddock. Park near the gate
mark Bartley?s Paddock (approx 3 km from the centre of town) and search
the area to the right (near the ruins of the old 19th century brewery).
A point of interest about Turquoise Parrot - there were a number of
immature birds all of which lacked the distinctive blue marking around
the face and red wing patch. In essence there were fairly ?non-
descript? Neophema. None of the standard field guides ?draw? reference
to this, and consequently they could easily be mistaken for Blue-winged
Parrot.
White-throated Gerygone: also quite common at Chiltern at present. All
were calling loading, with birds seen at Bartley?s Paddock and on the
edge of the golf course on Main Road
Black-chinned Honeyeater: common at Bartley?s Block and Honeyeater
Picnic Ground.
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike: 2 birds seen at Frog?s Hollow.
Grey-crowned Babbler: a happy family of 8 birds at Fishers Lane.
Other birds seen included: Dollarbird (Fishers Lane), Blue-faced
Honeyeater (Chiltern Lake), Gang-gang Cockatoo (2 birds seen at the
Honeyeater Picnic Ground), Little Friarbird (Chiltern Lake), Restless
Flycacther, Yellow-faced and Brown Headed Honeyeater, White-browed and
Ducky Woodswallow. There are also large numbers of the following birds:
White-winged Chough, White-winged Triller, Rufous and Brown Songlark,
and both Olive-backed Oriole and Sacred Kingfisher were more common
than I?ve recorded before. The current bird of the district is
undoubtedly the Rufous Whistler, which was calling incessantly at every
point that we stopped. The most common honeyeater were Yellow-tufted
and Fuscous Honeyeater, although the numbers of White-plumed and White-
naped Honeyeater were low. Numbers of cuckoo, thornbill, finch and
robin were also all well down.
We search for Chestnut-rumped Hylacola at the Skeleton Hill Track and
on Tower Hill Track with no luck. Due to the drought there was VERY
little low heath cover, and I wonder how these birds have faired. It is
interesting to note Steve Clark?s comment of seeing a Chestnut-rumped
Hylacola (Edenhope) in a dead banksia and not in the heath. I wonder if
the Chiltern birds could cope with the same situation?
Finally, a spot worth investigating is around at the base of Mount
Pilot. This forest here is regenerating from the recent bush fires, and
the bird life was very active ? i.e. nesting Fuscous Honeyeater, large
numbers of Rufous Whistler, Yellow Robin and White-winged Chough etc. I
also recommend a look is the section of the park between Woolshed and
Eldorado. This section contains large sections of Black Cypress-pine
(and has a feel/look similar to Terrick Terrick, which has White
Cypress-pine) - it rained while we were here, but looked really
interesting.
Tim
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