Hi all,
Herewith the Hunter Home Brewers 2008 Twitchathon wrap-up, direct from the pen
of Jacqueline Winter. Hope you all enjoy it.
As always, I worry about formatting but this looks perfect to me as I send it,
so here goes...
Mick Roderick
Twitchathon 2008 – "The ABC of Good Brewing"
October 2008 and the calendar was gravitating heavily towards the annual NSW /
ACT Twitchathon. The lead-up to the 2008 event was punctuated by the screening
of “Chasing Birds” on ABC TV – a film that documented 3 teams and the goings-on
during the 2003 Twitchathon. Mick Brew had endured a string of ABC radio
interviews in the days preceding the show though this didn’t prevent him from
carrying out some ‘good oil gathering’ in the preparation for the Hunter Home
Brewers title defence.
“Chasing Birds” screened the Thursday evening before the 2008 Twitch. Around 8
hours after the show had ended the Brewers were on the road, headed for the
same locations they had just watched themselves running around on national
television – generally the same locations anyway. Perhaps it was the
humiliation of being done over like a Barking Owl’s breakfast on national
television that spurred them on this year? More likely it was the sniff of a
3rd consecutive victory, aspiring to join the now legendary ‘Grey Toilet
Thrushes’ and sparring partners, the ‘Whacked Out Woodswallows’, as teams to
have achieved the elusive hat trick of wins.
Following mid-year threats of changing their now tried and tested route, the
boys decided that if they did actually get the hat trick, that they would agree
to try something different in 2009. Besides, there was a reasonable amount of
face to be saved after seeing the cringe-worthy complacency of lying around in
a park in the 2003 silver-screened affair in which they were monstered by the
Woodswallows, as well as being beaten by local doyens, the Hunter Thickheads.
The bottom line was that it was simply too tempting not to head back onto the
same route, especially in light of the ruthless efficiency they had now built
upon with this run.
And so it was, Mick, Steve, Ando and Grena Brew piled into Larry Landcruiser
and were Gunners-bound early on the Friday morn. Eric the Esky was primed and
the predictions in the annual ‘Twitch Tab’ were mooted before the Brewers
embarked on the ‘Dummy Run’. Cracker’s Disco was held on the Friday night, with
the Brewer’s voting their Top 10 Twitch moments to celebrate their 10th
campaign this year. They will be pleased to explain what these are in person.
Come 2:59pm Saturday and 3 of the Brewers were locked onto a perched Red-winged
Parrot, which soon thereafter became Bird No. 1, keeping the Twitch Tab bookies
happy. A new record was set at their starting point this year, with a total of
51 seconds spent there. They all agreed that this was highly inefficient
birding and jumped quickly into the vehicle to get to the next location.
Spotted Harrier and Plum-headed Finches were welcome accomplices to the
customary White-winged Fairy-Wrens and Singing Bushlarks on their next tick
session.
Their key woodland site was red-hot and Turquoise Parrot, Speckled Warbler,
Diamond Firetail, Inland Thornbill, Brown Treecreeper, Crested Shrike-tit and
Hooded Robins (the latter feeding dependant young) were all seen. The Scissors
Grinder that they somehow missed in 2007 was also added to the list along with
a Black Falcon that did a very timely flyover. A Little Eagle also soared
overhead, the 5th of what was to be a great haul of raptors for the lads this
year. Blue Bonnets were mopped up en-route to the Southern Whiteface site where
the pre-brewed White-eared Honeyeater was also seen – the first time they had
found this bird since their first Twitch in ‘99. Of greater concern was the
lack of Common Bronzewing and this was commented on literally seconds before
Grena Brew alerted them all to a barrelling bronzy weaving its way through the
trees.
Zebs presented themselves up as the 100th bird before heading to their first
wetland site where a flurry of new birds was seen, though nothing of crippling
magnitude. Down in the creek the resident Blackbird was conspicuous by its
absence but Azure Kingfisher and White-backed Swallow eased the pain a little.
The Black-eared Cuckoo seen the day before was alas a no-show. The Brewers then
made a twilight dash into the Gunners poo-ponds to try and find the Freckled
and Blue-billed Ducks seen there a week earlier by a certain oil baron. It was
a dip, but Pink-eareds were still a very handy tick.
The Breeza Plains did not produce their customary nocturnal trio this year,
although joining the Barn Owl were a Nankeen Night Heron and remarkably a
Black-tailed Native-hen, spotlighted being flushed from the table drain. An
executive decision had been made to eat earlier than normal this year and
Quirindi’s ‘Bleached Possum’ Chinese restaurant provided the boys with a
right-royal take-away shandy that went down a treat and which was to accompany
them in some form or another for the remainder of the Twitch. Edging closer to
their camp, the same punctual Masked Owl obliged by being perched in the same
fork, same tree as it was in 2007 – this bird was keen to be brewed.
Just 5km short of their camp, Larry Landcruiser struck the Brewers a blow with
a flat-tyre. This was actually a tick for Larry and Toyota manuals sprung forth
out of the glove box, making for a painfully slow pit-stop – they couldn’t even
manage a Boobook call during the time spent changing the tyre. On their way
again and following a Tawny Frogmouth gratefully mopped in the campground, the
brewing team rested for the remainder of the night with 129 on the notebook
scoreboard.
The rainforest dawn chorus was a bounty of new birds as it always is. Soon
however, a high-pitched whistling call was one that they didn’t recognise and
it seemed to be coming from Larry Landcruiser; indeed it was another leaking
tyre. This was a potential tragedy as a second flat tyre, stuck in the
rainforest, could have been disastrous and without time to bird their key
rainforest site they had no choice but to make like a tree and get outta there.
Whilst they rallied, a female Paradise Riflebird seen feeding in a tall shrub
above them was some consolation (especially for tick-happy Ando Brew!) but they
had to count their losses and head for Dungog to fill this deflating tyre and
pray to the brewing gods that it would be a gradual leak and not a second flat.
As it turned out, it was to be a slow leak and they were able to brew-on. There
was a lot of pressure now placed on the rainforest back-up sites – far more
than was in any of Larry’s Twitch-weary tyres! Fortunately these spots came
through with some great birds such as Regent Bowerbird, Catbird, Wompoo
Fruit-Dove, White-headed Pigeon and Cicadabird.
Downward through the valley they continued, armed with 174 species just as 8am
clicked over. It was decided to visit one of their woodland sites en-route to
the Hunter Estuary, where they needed to be for the high tide. The woodland was
generally quiet but it did produce Black-chinned Honeyeater and White-bellied
Cuckoo-shrike. Some very good oil nearby also produced New Holland, Blue-faced
Honeyeaters and the mop of the twitch in the form of a pair of Blackbirds in a
backyard.
A quick scan of Hexham Swamp produced White-necked Heron and 3 new raptor
species before it was time to hit the estuary on-tide. A lone Yellow-tailed
Black-Cocky flying along Cormorant Drive was an unconventional tick – a great
mop, bringing veritable pandemonium to the fore. The estuary was looking good
and at 10:15am they notched up their 200th bird (Mangrove Gerygone) before
heading over Stockton Bridge. Peering nervously from the bridge towards the
sandspit, it looked promising – there were bulk birds present. Before working
the spit, Grey-tailed Tattlers, Tereks and Golden Plovers were ticked from
their respective locations. An Eastern Osprey was the first maiden bird for
2008 and a flock of Needletails zooming down Stockton Beach were a very welcome
sight. Half a dozen wader species were present on the sandspit along with
Caspian and Gull-billed Terns plus a Pied Oyk. After writing-off dips such as
Blackwit and Great Knot it was time to leave
Stocko and head for the big city.
Scoping from a new coastal location in Newcastle provided them with what they
could have reasonably expected such as Sooty Oyk, Ruddy Turnstone, Common Tern
and, eventually, a Gannet. Although there were lots of Shearwaters working the
inshore waters they were all the usual Wedge-tailed. They left here just before
midday, perched on 220 species and with 4 hours up their sleeve. It was then
time to roll the Ash Island dice to see what they could find.
Red-kneed Dotterel was the first new bird – a good start. Then followed Little
and Tawny Grassbirds and the obligatory White-fronted Chats. Sharp-tailed and
Marsh Sandpipers were found as well as Greenshank. Ash had come through with
the goods and at the all-important time of ten-to-one with 227 under their
belt, it was time to begin the great brewer’s mop-up.
First stop was the now famous Green Wattle Road (where the 3 teams had
converged on “Chasing Birds”). This was to be a very productive visit as they
picked up some great birds such as Painted Button-Quail, Varied Sitella and
their second maiden bird for 2008 in a Pacific Baza. Then followed an early
Maggie Goose at Seaham, Geoffrey (Mallard) at The Terrace and Musk Duck on the
Brewer’s first ever visit to Grahamstown Dam. A Grey Goshawk near the botanic
gardens brought a tumultuous applause from the Brewers and this was their 15th
raptor for the twitch.
The Goshawk took them to 236 with which they arrived at the Wetlands Centre.
With the goose already in the bag, there were no ‘dead certs’ here. They
couldn’t even find what was to be their biggest dip, a Black-fronted Dotterel
and nor could a Latham’s Snipe be found. They only managed one species from the
final location, Wandering Whistling Duck, and so moved to 237 which was their
final tally – one less than last year’s record total.
Mick Brew collected the lists from the various teams and soon it was revealed
that the Brewers had gotten up – just. They had pipped the Menacing Monarchs by
one single bird. A new outfit, the Rampaging Raptors came in with an impressive
debut of 226, just pipping out the Woodswallows on 225 who were well down on
last year’s score. Those Dodgy Drongoes nearly matched them on 223 and it is a
testament to the contemporary competition that a score of 223 only gets you to
5th place.
‘Relief’ was certainly the operative word for the Brewers and all agreed (Eric
included) that the recovery after the near-tragedy in the rainforest was fine
brewing and worthy of celebration. Over a couple of hard-earned brews they
resolved to start thinking of where to commence the 2009 crusade – the emphasis
being on “thinking”. There are many options on the brewing table but rest
assured that the lads will be out there somewhere in NSW on the last weekend in
October doing what they do best – chasing birds.
Jacqueline Winter
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