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NSW Hunter Region and Port Macquarie (27-29th December 2004) - Part 2

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Subject: NSW Hunter Region and Port Macquarie (27-29th December 2004) - Part 2
From: "Edwin Vella" <>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:09:55 +1100

Continued from Part 1……

 

We spent most of the 28th December up in Port Macquarie to see if David could see his first Barred Cuckoo-shrikes. We checked out the usual spots for them including Sea Acres Nature Reserve. Sea Acres was quite depressing (probably hard hit with the recent drought like other areas along the east coast) with only a couple of Brush Turkeys, a single Rose-crowned Fruit-dove heard, one of both Black-faced and Spectacled Monarchs, a few Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, 2 Green Catbirds and nothing much more than that. This was a few years ago (and before the drought) quite a fruitful spot where I have seen 8 Barred Cuckoo-shrikes together at one time, numerous Fruit-doves and much more. 

 

We also checked for the Cuckoo-shrike at the Flynns Beach Caravan Park were I have seen a few in the past, and again we had no luck but we did spot a Tawny Frogmouth and a Koala (the later in the same tree as my last visit here).

 

Our last spot for the Cuckoo-shrike was a walk along Kooloonbung Creek in the middle of Port Macquarie were we saw a White-headed Pigeon, 2 male Cicadabirds, a Brush Cuckoo, Azure Kingfisher, numerous Dollarbirds (10 perched together on a powerline), a colony of roosting Grey-headed Flying-foxes and another Koala. 

 

We also went back to Harrington (next door to Crowdy Bay NP) to look for the Barred Cuckoo-shrike in the Litoral Rainforest there (I have seen the Barred Cuckoo-shrike on 3-4 occasions within the last  8 years at Harrington) but again no luck. However our list of birds here over the few days included 3 Ospreys (all having a drink of water at the Harrington Waters Golf course) with one being chased by a Collared Sparrowhawk, Brahminy Kite, at least 5 Varied Trillers, 4 Spectacled Monarchs, Striped Honeyeaters, 4 Regent Bowerbirds (2 adult males and 2 females). A Sacred Kingfisher was also seen here having a go at a Lace Monitor.

 

With the strong southerly conditions, David and I put In a hours sea watch from Crowdy Head (approx. 9 km north of Harrington) on the 28th December where we saw 200 plus Wedge-tailed and 10 plus Short-tailed Shearwaters, at least 100 Australasian Gannets, lots of Crested and smaller numbers of Common Terns and a single (light-phase) Pomarine Jaegar passing by.

 

We did attempt to spotlight again that night around Harrington and Crowdy Bay NP and all we had was 3 Latham’s Snipe flying away from us as we walked through an open grassy area next to the town in the evening.

 

At Old Bar the next day (29th December), the gale force southerly winds was again a big hindrance to our birding as many of the shorebirds were hiding against the wind in the sand dunes. Here we managed to see about 50 Pacific Golden and a few Red-capped Plovers, at least 50 Red-necked Stints, a Great Knot, about 150 Bar-tailed Godwits, an Eastern Curlew and a Pied Oystercatcher.  About 60 or so Little Terns and 95 Common Terns were also about with a number of the former still nesting.

At the Old Bar camping area we saw a pair of Striped Honeyeaters with an active nest and there were two hollows in two separate trees with begging Dollarbird chicks waiting for the adults to come  quickly and give them a feed.

 

Before heading back home, we made a brief stop around Lenaghan an Pambalong were at the later place we saw 3 species of duck with young – Plumed Whistling (3 ducklings), Black Duck (5 ducklings) and Chestnut Teal (3 ducklings). There were also other Whistling-ducks heard, 4 Channel-billed Cuckoo around the fig trees, Pheasant Coucal and several White-breasted Woodswallows about.

 

Edwin Vella   

 

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