Birdline Australia Weekly Update

Birdline Australia

Published sightings for the week ending 10 Oct 2010.

Sun 10 Oct	Flock Bronzewing and Grey Falcon Tanami Rd and Gary Junction Hwy, Northern Territory Yesterday morning a single Flock Bronzewing sitting on the road 3 km past the turn off to Hamilton Downs Youth Camp on the Tanami Rd. Today a lone adult Grey Falcon roadside in a tree and flying views also, 136kms west of Mt Liebig community on the Gary Junction Hwy. Chris Watson
Sat 9 Oct	Little Shearwater Sydney Pelagic Trip, New South Wales The highlight of today's pelagic trip out of Sydney was not one but, amazingly, two Little Shearwaters, the first seen off the Halicat since January 1997. Also notable were large numbers (>10,000) of migrating Short-tailed Shearwaters, 140 Wilson's Storm-Petrels and 30 White-faced Storm-Petrels. Twenty one species recorded in all. Roger McGovern
	Red-whiskered Bulbul Ferntree Gully, Victoria Observed in melaluca in a suburban street. Calling strongly. Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow
Fri 8 Oct	Arctic Tern (update) Mordialloc, Victoria The winter plumaged bird is there 11.30 am on the sand at the end of the pier. Bill & Shirley Ramsay per Mike Carter
Thu 7 Oct	Plumed Whistling-Duck The Warmies / Yarra River mouth, Victoria I managed to see the 20 Plumed Whistling-Ducks at 19:20 yesterday 6/10/10 in fading light just before the downpour hit. They were initially on the beach but quite nervous and took off, circling around 'The Warmies'/Yarra River mouth and over Greenwich Bay. A return visit at about 18:00 this evening (7/10) failed to find them. Peter Lansley
Wed 6 Oct	Plumed Whistling-Duck Greenwich Bay, Williamstown, Victoria Was surprised to see a group of 20 Whistling Ducks while on a short walk through the reserve near "The Warmies" boat ramp. Were swimming on the bay when I first saw them but quickly came to shore in a sheltered area near the carpark. Also Red capped Plovers (x8) and a small flock of Red necked Stints huddled together in the wind and rain. Paul Randall (wingsonwire.com) Paul Randall
	Arctic Tern Bridgewater Bay, Portland, Victoria 2 non-breeding birds resting, preening with group of 35 crested terns. 10.15am Left beach with crested terns. Not sighted this morning. (wed 6th Oct). A-M Burgoine
	Princess Parrot Cadney Park roadhouse , Australian Capital Territory Late report: Cadney Park roadhouse on 19th August. Sean wrote "I had one call from a Stephen from South Australia. He said that while he was not a huge birder, his father was, and on returning from a trip to Central Australia (where they had not seen Princess Parrot), they had stopped at a roadhouse some 150km north of Coober Pedy on the Stuart Hwy. I didn't quite catch the name he mentioned but I am pretty sure it was Cadney Park Homestead. He said that there was a pair of Princess Parrots in a nearby tree. I quizzed him as to whether he was sure, and he said his father was definite, very excited and spent a couple of hours watching them. I also suggested they may have been escapees but he was adamant they were wild birds. Who knows how genuine the sighting is- I wouldn't be travelling all that way to twitch them myself- but if anyone is travelling through that area it would be well worth checking out. The roadhouse is most definitely not off limits to the public, so you could do worse than have a look." [Ed note: see Sean's interview on Tony Delroy's Nightlife. Listen http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/listen.htm ] Per Sean Dooley / and Graeme Chapman
Tue 5 Oct	Grey Falcon Wangarra Lookouts, Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, South Australia While we were on the top of the Wangarra Lookouts, Wilpena Pound, at about 2:00 - 2:15pm, what appeared to be a Grey Falcon flew quite low over the upper lookout (which is approx. 4km by road/walking trail from the Wilpena Pound Resort). The falcon then flew out over the south-eastern edge of the pound, after which we didn't see it again from that same spot. About 45 minutes later when we were on our way down the track we spotted two Grey Falcons circling overhead and we were able to get a good view of them from the underside. We distinguished them by the straight shape of the wings as they were gliding head-on, the colour of the body and darkness of wing tips from underneath. David, Ross & Michael Krippner and Jackson, Richard & Karen Hagley
Sat 2 Oct	Arctic Tern, Common Tern Mordialloc, Victoria Following on from my tern reports on sunday, I have finally got the two identified. My guide lists the Arctic Tern as a rare migrant and the Common as a migrant from November throughout the summer, so I presumed both are fairly unusual. The Common tern was identified by black cap and dark bill, and the Arctic by the proportion of head, eyes etc. and the pattern underwing. I have attatched the Arctic Tern. James Bailey
Thu 16 Sep	Bourke's Parrot Lake Hart, South Australia Two birds flushed from feeding on ground. Both then flew off to west. Ventured after them, thinking I had lost them after a few minutes, and then flushed them -or another two- again. Seems a long way south outside of their usual range. (2). Michael Wood

Birdline Australia is sponsored by Birds Australia and co-ordinated and hosted by Eremaea Birds.

===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, 
send the message:
unsubscribe 
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================