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Having flown into Australia's first convict settlement (Sydney
Jan 1788) from our second convict settlement (Norfolk Island- later in 1788), I
immediately caught a plane to our third convict settlement (Hobart 1803).
The purpose was to go on a pelagic off Eaglehawk Neck the next
day with a Taiwanese tour group. I would be visiting Tasmania later in the year
so didn't try for any endemics, yet on the drive down I still added
Black-faced Cormorant, Pacific Gull, Tasmanian Scrubwren (a
bird that will probably be lumped with the mainland scrubwrens in the next
checklist, but for now it counts as a separate species) Green Rosella,
White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Tasmanian Native-hen and Forest
Raven.
Waiting for the tour group to arrive the next morning I picked
up a bonus bird, a Beautiful Firetail feeding in the carpark at
Pirates Bay. The sea had been dead calm the night before, but this morning a
strong easterly had whipped up the waves. The "Pauletta" though a small boat
handled the conditions exceptionally well, and I felt really well throughout the
trip. Pity the same couldn't be said of the tour group. Their leader, Peter
Lansley, had ensured they all took their sea-sickness tablets in plenty of time.
The tablets worked for Peter, and two others in the group but within half an
hour six of the group were all lying prone vomiting politely into garbage bags.
Before they had succumbed we had already seen a few birds on
the way out to Hippolyte Rocks and the shelf including new birds for my year
list, Shy Albatross, Buller's Albatross, White-headed Petrel
(the only one for the day) and Fairy
Prion.
At the shelf, things seemed strangely quiet considering what
we had seen on the way out. The crew began chumming and after a while a couple
of White-chinned Petrels flew in. This was the precursor to an
onslaught of birds. Over the next hour numbers built up massively. The number of
White-chinneds reached close to forty, with birds coming very close, including
twelve fighting over a fish carcass that was thrown to them. Adding to the
magnificent sight, they were joined by very close Buller's and Shy Albatross,
Short-tailed Shearwaters, Wandering, Yellow-nosed and
Black-browed Albatross. Even the Wanderers came to within a
couple of metres, a truly awesome sight.
Things were just getting better and better, it was only a
matter of time before something really rare turned up. A potential Royal
Albatross was spotted in the distance. It was coming in closer.
Then the mutiny occurred. Rousing from her prone misery, one
of the tour group cried, "We go back now!" and the others raised their ashen
faces, nodding in agreement. The trip was, after all specifically undertaken for
their enjoyment so reluctantly we headed back home, leaving those rarities just
out of reach.
The same boat went out the next week and by the sounds of it,
they didn't have as good a trip, but they did get five Gould's Petrels, a bird I
was desperately after. I couldn't attend this trip because I had to attend a
friends' wedding. Some friends. Their happiness came at the expense of my best
chance of Gould's. How do you forgive something like that?
I flew back to a rain soaked Sydney that night. A quick check
on Birding-Aus at the airport determined my route back to Melbourne. I would go
via Royal National Park where a Superb Fruit-Dove had been recorded, and then
along the coast to pick up the Ringed Plover at Marlo.
Arriving at Royal at 4:30 in the morning I realised in the
darkness that there was no chance of the Fruit-Dove as the pelting rain had
flooded the entrance to the track it had been seen on. So I drove on. The rain
was so thick I didn't see a bird, any bird until about eight o'clock when a
sodden Magpie could be seen through the gloom.
The rain cleared south of Bateman's Bay and I stopped at the
Mummuga Creek Forest Walk just out of Narooma. Here amongst others, I saw a few
new birds: Striated Heron, Noisy Friarbird, Azure Kingfisher, Leaden
Flycatcher and Variegated Fairy-wren. Just as
entertaining was reading the Forest Commission propaganda on the signs along the
walk. One in particular caught my attention.
It read, " ... without disturbance [rainforest] species
would take over the [eucalyptus] forest." Thank God for the Forest Commission,
keeping that rampant rainforest at bay. Without their good work, our children
could be overrun by feral rainforest species in the middle of the
night.
Into Victoria now, and a all too brief couple of hours at
Mallacoota saw the list rocket along with some particularly good birds
including: Wonga Pigeon, Satin Bowerbird, Eastern Whipbird, Brown
Gerygone, Sooty Oystercatcher, Glossy Black-Cockatoo, Red-browed Treecreeper,
Scarlet Honeyeater, and Brush Cuckoo.
I arrived at Marlo an hour before dark. With the vague
direction recollected from Mike Carter's Birding-Aus message I made my way to
the mouth of the once mighty Snowy River. With the damming of the river back in
the fifties it now reaches the coast in an emasculated trickle. Going on
instinct I headed to where I thought the bird was most likely to be seen. I
added Little Tern and Hooded Plover without
much trouble, and then I managed to find the Ringed Plover. It
was getting too dark to get any photographic record, so I resolved to come back
the next morning.
The next morning I failed to find the bird at all. I did add
Fairy Tern, but there was no sign of the Ringed Plover. It
turned out I had been looking in the wrong area. I did not know to look a
further couple of hundred metres on, nearer the tern colony, so I was
incredibly lucky to have fluked it the night
before.
I spent the rest of the day meandering back to Melbourne via
Cape Conran (Gang Gang, Southern Emu-wren) Sale (no Whistling
Ducks seen) and the Strzelecki Ranges (Pilotbird, Grey Currawong, Superb
Lyrebird, Brown Goshawk, and Blue-winged Parrot).
That night, (6th February) I arrived back in Melbourne after
my first big "Big Twitch" trip with the total on 261, a total of 84 additions
since the day I left for Wollongong twelve days earlier, including twelve new
life birds for me.
But my convict trail odyssey doesn't end there. After a couple
of days recovery, I was out on Sunday 10th to do my regular Seaford Swamp
survey. Again Peter Lansley joined me, and we stopped in briefly at Edithvale in
the hope of seeing the Long-toed Stint, but it wasn't around, though we again
got good views from the hide of Spotted Crake, Magpie Goose, and a Marsh
Sandpiper coming into breeding plumage.
Conditions at Seaford were disappointing, for despite recent
rains, the best areas for waders had dried out completely. Only a hundred
Sharpies and seven Latham's Snipe brightened up a rather dull day. Due to the
paucity of birds, we finished the survey an hour or two earlier than expected.
There was that Red-necked Phalarope at Hospital Swamp near Geelong, but it was
going on six, would we have time to get there before dark?
We decided to risk it. We thought we would save time by headed
south down the Mornington Peninsula and catching the car ferry from Sorrento
(another convict link- Sorrento was the original site of the convict settlement
that eventually moved to Hobart) across to the Bellarine Peninsula. (For those
of you not from Melbourne, Seaford is virtually directly opposite Port Phillip
Bay to Geelong.) We arrived at Sorrento at one minute to seven. The last ferry
left at seven. Made it. The trip across the bay yielded little apart from masses
of Gannets and a pod of Bottlenosed Dolphins.
Once ashore at Queenscliff we raced off toward Hospital Swamp
trying to beat the sinking sun. We found the site, got permission from the
owners and headed out. Nothing. We were about to head back to the car defeated
when Peter had one last look and got the previously hidden bird in his scope as
it came out to swim. Red-necked Phalarope, a nice bird to have
on the list. Five minutes later it was too dark to see.
I drove back to Melbourne very satisfied, but knowing I
couldn't rest easy as the next morning I was off for a week in
Brisbane.
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