Hi all
Last week (12-19 January) I spent a week at the Murramarang Eco-Resort in
South Durras (NSW South Coast, about 10kms north of Batemans Bay) on a
family holiday. As is usual when I go away with my family, this was not a
birding specific trip, but there's always an opportunity to do some birding.
Across the week we did some bushwalks in Murramarang National Park and spent
a fair bit of time in coastal locations (otherwise known as beaches.).
On the Wednesday night we went spotlighting in the forest in the national
park near Durras Lake with a chap called Paul May. We didn't see or hear
any night birds but we saw a good number of Greater Gliders in several
colour morphs, plus some possums, micro bats and frogs. (Boo - I was hoping
to perhaps at least hear some owls). I asked him if he'd be happy to be
mentioned on this forum and he said yes - so I have his contact details if
anyone. He was excellent with my two junior spotlighters (10 & 7), making
sure that they saw all the animals and could navigate around in the forest
in the dark.
Overall, I recorded 121 species for the week, with 56 seen in or close to
the resort itself. Highlights for me were:
- Big flock of Topknot Pigeon (50+ birds) and 1 Peregrine seen from the
Cliffhanger Cafe at Bulli Tops
- Lunch on the way south at Lake Conjola, where the Little Terns were very
busy. There were several Curlew, Bar Tailed Godwit and Red Capped Dotterel
on the sandbank, plus several Pied Oystercatchers, a single Golden Plover
and a single Whimbrel.
- An Osprey at Ulladulla, which flew inland from the harbour just as we
passed along the road, so I got a good look at the very pale underside,
necklace, wristy wings and straight tail
- Close in views of Sooty Shearwaters on Sunday, one of the windier days
(the birds were passing between Wasp Head and Wasp Island) and also close in
views of Pomarine and Arctic Jaegers harassing the fishing terns
- Pairs of Red Capped Plover with large young and Hooded Dotterel (no kids)
on Durras Main Beach on Monday morning, just south of where Durras lake
enters the sea (and a single Caspian Tern in the tern/gull loaf at the lake
entrance)
- A single Wedge Tailed Eagle sitting far off in the top of a dead tree
behind North Durras the same morning
- Lots of Little Lorikeets in the Spotted Gum forests along the Old Coast
Road (runs into the southern section of the park from South Durras), which I
walked several times Tuesday, Weds & Thurs (also plenty of Musk Lorikeets
and Scarlet Honeyeaters and a few sacred Kingfishers in here)
- A single Red Browed Treecreeper at the Myrtle Beach track off the Old
Coast Road that was feeding in the low part of the forest where growth has
been stunted by the salt laden wind
- Gang gangs calling from high in the trees at the same location in a deep
gully at the Myrtle Beach car park (but I couldn't see them, only hear the
"creaking".)
- A Cicadabird calling on Weds morning a bit further along the coast road
and a female Rufous Whistler (not a spectacular bird in itself) trying to
manage a phasmid about as long as she was - and she did in the end
- good selection of birds all feeding noisily in a patch of rainforest off
the Murramarang Discovery Track (accessed off the Mt Agony Rd that goes into
Depot Beach and North Durras) including Large Billed Scrubwren, Rufous and
Grey Fantail, Brown Gerygone, Lewins and Brown Headed Honeyeaters, Eastern
Spinebills and Silvereyes.
- Sooty Oystercatcher with large chick on a rocky area next to Mill Beach
(apparently the pair had 2 chicks but one parent and one chick had
disappeared)
I was interested that there were not many raptors around. Yes, Whistling
Kites and Sea Eagles along the coast, but apart from the Wedge Tailed Eagle
and the Osprey, that was it.
Cheers
Tom Wilson
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
