G'day Birders,
A couple of days after my last report I managed to
tick Brown Thornbill, right where Stuart Dashper said
they would be, at Hall Reserve in Clifton Hill (approx
5 km SW of Melbourne CBD). This is on the Merri Creek
right opposite Neville Pamment's 'thornbill haven' at
Westfield Reserve, where I suspected I'd seen one the
previous fortnight. Again this delightful little
songster was in a mixed flock with Yellow and
Yellow-rumpeds, with a few Grey Fantails thrown in for
good measure. After initially struggling to get a
Red-browed Finch for my list I now almost have to shoo
them out of the way along this stretch!
After this one tick things went very quiet on the Puny
Twitch. Station Pier (Port Melbourne) has been closed
on quite a few days due to visiting ships. The two
days I did find it open I was scratching to get even a
Silver Gull! The nearby Westgate Park remains almost
dry and I haven't been lucky enough to find anything
new there. However, there was at least one Red-kneed
Dotterel, a couple of Royal Spoonbills and a pair of
Red-capped Plovers (possibly with young) still there
last week.
I think the lack of new inner city ticks was more
exasperating because of a great time I'd had at a BOCA
camp on the long weekend before. Three days on (or
near) Phillip Island (well outside the Puny Twitch
area at 75 km SE of Melbourne) with wonderful company,
terrific leaders and a fantastic variety of birds.
Highlights included lots of White-throated Needletails
hawking over the nearby Wonthaggi Heathlands, the
shearwaters coming in at dusk near Cape Woolamai,
Hooded Plover at the mouth of the Powlett River and
the abundant Ruddy Turnstone and Golden Plover on Reef
Island.
Anyway, enough reminiscing, back to the big smoke.
Late last week I was cycling home wondering when I
would get something new for my list, when I came to
the path that leads to Royal Park. Feeling lousy with
a head cold it would have been very easy to continue
on home. Again the great Dools was my inspiration. I
thought that if he can travel thousands on kilometres
to (maybe) tick one bird then I could go a few extra
kays even if my head was pounding. As you have no
doubt guessed by now it was all worth while.
I had travelled through the long railway cutting that
dissects the western end of the park when I heard some
Magpies carrying on a treat. I stopped and looked back
to see them in hot pursuit of a raptor. Already
distant, it was being chased further away and I was
only getting glimpses between the tree-tops. I was
struggling to get my binocs out in the hope of
identifying it before it disappeared when it hooked
into a thermal and rapidly ascended as the breeze
carried it directly overhead (you have to win
sometimes!) ID was easy, it was your classic Little
Eagle and a fine looking specimen at that. As I
watched it slowly disappear to the North, my only
regret was that I had only an old pair of 7x35 binos
and not the 10x42s that I usually carry.
In my experience, Little Eagle is a rare sight near
the city. John Boyce had seen one in Flemington
recently and my wife Jan suspected she had caught a
glimpse of one near home (West Brunswick) the week
before (quite probably the same bird). We have only
ever seen them a few times over our place, usually at
this time of year. Each time we have been alerted to
their presence by the local magpies. They seem to have
a warning call reserved for such threats. It's a
drawn-out descending 'peww', repeated many times and
often produces a good sighting for us.
After this memorable sighting (and all the hills
behind me) my headache was much better so I decided to
explore a bit more. I followed what remains of a small
creek that runs between a factory fence and some
government land. The access ends where it enters a
large drain-pipe with a sign that warns of entering
due to 'bad air' (though some local wit has amended
this to warn about entering due to 'bad fairies')! I
didn't see any of those, but I did find a 'fragrant
gift' to take home to Jan (and it wasn't even our
anniversary). It was the remains of a well-barred
raptor. Unfortunately it had met a grisly end and was
in quite a few pieces! I carefully loaded a few of
these 'spare parts' into a stout plastic bag for later
ID realising, as I did that the 'bad air' wasn't just
in the drain!
I'll start to work the Royal Botanic Gardens and
Albert Park (now that the Grand Prix circus has moved
on) which I've neglected so far. These have both been
recommended by quite a few Birding-aussers. I'm also
hopeful I might be lucky enough to see Swift Parrots
(or other migrants) moving through the 'Puny twitching
ground' soon. In the mean time I'll keep peddling,
wondering what bird 95 will be.
Oh yes, I almost forgot! Jan identified the 'bits in
the bag' as Brown Goshawk.
Cheers,
Alan Flack.
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Victoria, we headed first for Swan Island,
hoping for some shorebirds. Now, T & T do say that you will need
"permission" to enter Swan Island, but Bransbury says to ask the guard and
explain the reason for your visit (birdwatching) and there "should be no
problem". Well. The guard at the gate was very nice, but she did seem a
little exasperated that here was yet another group of birdwatchers who had
not gotten their permit in advance and who were expecting to just waltz into
a restricted area because the "book" said so. She was very nice--but, the
books should make it clear--you can only go birdwatching on Swan Island if
you contact someone well in advance and get the proper permit well in
advance. But, the books were written quite a while ago, and times have most
likely changed.
So, we turned around and enjoyed retracing our new-found knowledge of
Queenscliff geography back out toward Geelong. Our next destination was the
You Yangs, an outcrop of hills, and a park, north of Geelong. We were
travelling along, just past Lara, when Don Parlee quietly asked from the back
seat, "What would a large gray bird be?" It would be something to
investigate! we decided, thinking of cranes, so we turned around and drove
back to the wet patch of green grass in the midst of a brown dry paddock,
where stood our first pair of CAPE BARREN GEESE. Really terrific to see
these birds, a species I didn't think we would see at all. They are very
interesting looking animals, with their yellow beak base covering and steely
gray plumage.
We went to the nature center at You Yangs, and we were almost the only
ones there, other than one other couple out walking, and the ranger. We
walked around a little, but it was very dry and almost birdless. We were
hoping for Diamond Firetails, which we had missed with Phil and which we
thought might be possible here, but first we'd have to find some water. But,
after talking with the ranger for a bit, we decided to head back southward a
short distance and go to Serendip Sanctuary, since that would be closing
sooner than You Yangs. It was a good decision. Serendip, like everywhere
else, was extremely dry, but it also held a good selection of waterfowl, both
captive and wild. We weren't sure which was which at first, but then we got
to meet and talk to the manager of the place, and he set us straight. Very
nice to hear the the MAGPIE-GEESE we had seen were actually wild birds.
Unfortunately the cranes were not. Serendip was a nice place. After closing
time there, we raced back to You Yangs, getting in before their gate closed.
But, though we drove all around the "loop" here, no sign of any finches, and
very few birds of any kind. It was just incredibly dry.
Back to the Tullamarine, where, after admiring the Purple-crowned
Lorikeets again for a while, we ate and went to bed. Tomorrow--Tasmania!
21 Jan 03
Today we were leaving mainland Australia for Tasmania for the next part
of our adventure. However, first a little drama of my own.
The other guys walked around the motel grounds together in the morning
and got good looks at SONG THRUSH, a bird I ended up missing completely,
though a dip I can live with, having seen this Australian exotic in its
native habitat in Yorkshire. We left after breakfast, turned in the dusty
Suburban Assault Vehicle at the airport, and made our way through checkpoints
etc. and boarded the plane, due to leave at 10:50am. At 10:45am, I
remembered, with a jolt of something we'll call gut-wrenching panic, that I
didn't have my laptop, which I was using on a daily basis to download my
digital cam pics. Nowadays, laptops have to go through security separately,
but never having flown with one before, picking it up at the other end of the
security conveyor belt apparently wasn't second nature to me yet. As Don
McClintock has it recorded in his notes: "At 10:45 Bill realized he doesn't
have his laptop--forgot to pick it up after xray--flight to leave at
10:50--more later..."
Did I calmly inform the flight crew of my oversight? NO, I ran to the
front of the plane, where they tried to get me to go back and get my boarding
pass (what am I, stupid? If I do that then they'll leave without me), dashed
out the door and ran like hell back to the other end of the terminal wing and
up the stairs, breathlessly got the chief of the security folks there to
retrieve my laptop from its locked drawer, and sprinted (actually, jogged
then slowed to a fast walk, completely winded), and staggered back on to the
plane, where most people avoided looking at me with a combination of mild
annoyance and mostly relief--it was only 10:55, and we arrived in Hobart
right on time (though in a full gale, but that's the next story...) My
ragged breathing started to slow down somewhere out over the Bass Strait.
(cont'd)
Bill Benner
Old Brookville, NY
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20 Jan 03<BR>
Today we had the day to ourselves--no guides, just the
four of us and a map, with a couple of leads. We had originally planned
to spend this day at Werribee Sewage Treatment facility, and we had previously
contacted Birding-Aus member Shirley Cameron, who had generously offered to
take us there. However, after we discussed our plans and our itinerary
with Phil, towards the end of our week with him, he suggested that we might
think about going a little further afield to try for a couple of other
specialty birds, since we had probably already seen many if not most of the
species we would get at Werribee. We decided on this revised plan, hoping
that we weren't missing too many things by doing this (and we still don't
know--maybe we did miss a lot--but we had a good day anyway). We called
Shirley the evening of the 19th and told her of the change in plans, and she
was very nice and wished us luck.<BR>
Taking Phil's advice, we headed west toward Point
Addis, our first goal. We stopped for coffee and breakfast items in
Torquay, a seemingly quiet and pleasant touristy village. We had two
specific species in mind for Point Addis, and we were a bit worried for both of
them that they would either be very skulking or simply not appear at all.
We were very excited, then, when our first target, RUFOUS BRISTLEBIRD, was
right at the edge of the thick tangled bush next to the car park, hopping in
and out of the thickets but giving us very good looks. We quickly parked
the oil-burner and tried to jump out quickly but somewhat quietly, so we could
get better looks before the bird flushed.<BR>
Well, we needn't have worried. As soon as we
were out of the truck, we realized that there were not one but two
Bristlebirds, and the plumage and actions of the second bird showed that it was
a young one following its parent around. As soon as the adult spotted us,
it flew right at us! and landed a short distance away on the pavement, clearly
waiting for a handout and teaching its closely-following offspring the fine art
of begging from tourists. So, of course we fed them some of our
breakfast. So much for the first skulker.<BR>
Within five or ten minutes, Ron spotted our next lifer
far out on a rock ledge up the coast a bit--a PACIFIC GULL. Even at scope
distance, that enormous bill was very obvious, an excellent field mark.
We then wandered along the boardwalk trail heading west along the point,
checking all of the small groups of birds we saw, and we were soon rewarded
with distant but identifiable views of BLUE-WINGED PARROTS, our other target
bird here. They flew in over the heath habitat and perched in a loose
group on some distant barbed wire fencing, and stayed there for quite a while,
allowing for good scope looks. AUSTRALIAN GANNETS also came by on the
water far out below us.<BR>
Back at the parking lot, we were rewarded with one of
those gee-its-a-small-birding-world coincidences when we ran into a couple of
bicyclists, one of whom, Murray Grant, turned out to be a buddy of Phil
Maher's! and a birder himself. He very helpfully suggested a couple
of other nearby spots that we could try for some other potential new
birds. We took his advice by heading slightly further west along the
Great Ocean Road to a small road on the left at the bottom of the hill just
before Anglesea, where we parked and walked in to a trail going off to the
right. This led us to a very low coastal heath habitat right along the
ocean, but shielded from the wind, behind the cliff. It was a calm day,
relatively, and we walked along the path, pishing and squeaking as we
went. Although I never would have believed it possible, all on our own
and with nothing more than kissing the backs of our hands to make helpful
squeaks, we attracted a tiny bird which flitted into a bush right next to us on
the trail, then a moment later popped up in full view--a male SOUTHERN
EMU-WREN! We were blown away, never really expecting we would actually
find this bird. While we were looking at it, behind it came in another
lifer, a beautiful TAWNY-CROWNED HONEYEATER, a very handsome honeyeater.
And to top it off, a little way down the path some of us also got a look at a
skulking CHESTNUT-RUMPED HEATHWREN as well. What a morning!<BR>
So, we then headed back east, stopping briefly at
Forest Road on the left, back up at the top of the hill (and finding nothing
there). We continued on to Torquay again, where we stopped for lunch,
this time in a town absolutely swarming with people on this summer
Monday. We ate, and then fled, deciding that, since we had the entire
afternoon and had already seen our target birds, we would try a couple of other
spots.<BR>
We had Thomas and Thomas Complete Guide to finding the
Birds of Australia with us, as well as Bransbury's Where to Find Birds in
Australia. Armed with these, and our map of Victoria, we headed first for
Swan Island, hoping for some shorebirds. Now, T & T do say that you
will need "permission" to enter Swan Island, but Bransbury says to ask the
guard and explain the reason for your visit (birdwatching) and there "should be
no problem". Well. The guard at the gate was very nice, but she did
seem a little exasperated that here was yet another group of birdwatchers who
had not gotten their permit in advance and who were expecting to just waltz
into a restricted area because the "book" said so. She was very
nice--but, the books should make it clear--you can only go birdwatching on Swan
Island if you contact someone well in advance and get the proper permit well in
advance. But, the books were written quite a while ago, and times have
most likely changed.<BR>
So, we turned around and enjoyed retracing our
new-found knowledge of Queenscliff geography back out toward Geelong. Our
next destination was the You Yangs, an outcrop of hills, and a park, north of
Geelong. We were travelling along, just past Lara, when Don Parlee
quietly asked from the back seat, "What would a large gray bird be?" It
would be something to investigate! we decided, thinking of cranes, so we turned
around and drove back to the wet patch of green grass in the midst of a brown
dry paddock, where stood our first pair of CAPE BARREN GEESE. Really
terrific to see these birds, a species I didn't think we would see at
all. They are very interesting looking animals, with their yellow beak
base covering and steely gray plumage.<BR>
We went to the nature center at You Yangs, and we were
almost the only ones there, other than one other couple out walking, and the
ranger. We walked around a little, but it was very dry and almost
birdless. We were hoping for Diamond Firetails, which we had missed with
Phil and which we thought might be possible here, but first we'd have to find
some water. But, after talking with the ranger for a bit, we decided to
head back southward a short distance and go to Serendip Sanctuary, since that
would be closing sooner than You Yangs. It was a good decision.
Serendip, like everywhere else, was extremely dry, but it also held a good
selection of waterfowl, both captive and wild. We weren't sure which was
which at first, but then we got to meet and talk to the manager of the place,
and he set us straight. Very nice to hear the the MAGPIE-GEESE we had
seen were actually wild birds. Unfortunately the cranes were not.
Serendip was a nice place. After closing time there, we raced back to You
Yangs, getting in before their gate closed. But, though we drove all
around the "loop" here, no sign of any finches, and very few birds of any
kind. It was just incredibly dry.<BR>
Back to the Tullamarine, where, after admiring the
Purple-crowned Lorikeets again for a while, we ate and went to bed.
Tomorrow--Tasmania!<BR>
<BR>
21 Jan 03<BR>
Today we were leaving mainland Australia for Tasmania
for the next part of our adventure. However, first a little drama of my
own.<BR>
The other guys walked around the motel grounds
together in the morning and got good looks at SONG THRUSH, a bird I ended up
missing completely, though a dip I can live with, having seen this Australian
exotic in its native habitat in Yorkshire. We left after breakfast,
turned in the dusty Suburban Assault Vehicle at the airport, and made our way
through checkpoints etc. and boarded the plane, due to leave at 10:50am.
At 10:45am, I remembered, with a jolt of something we'll call gut-wrenching
panic, that I didn't have my laptop, which I was using on a daily basis to
download my digital cam pics. Nowadays, laptops have to go through
security separately, but never having flown with one before, picking it up at
the other end of the security conveyor belt apparently wasn't second nature to
me yet. As Don McClintock has it recorded in his notes: "At 10:45
Bill realized he doesn't have his laptop--forgot to pick it up after
xray--flight to leave at 10:50--more later..."<BR>
Did I calmly inform the flight crew of my
oversight? NO, I ran to the front of the plane, where they tried to get
me to go back and get my boarding pass (what am I, stupid? If I do that
then they'll leave without me), dashed out the door and ran like hell back to
the other end of the terminal wing and up the stairs, breathlessly got the
chief of the security folks there to retrieve my laptop from its locked drawer,
and sprinted (actually, jogged then slowed to a fast walk, completely winded),
and staggered back on to the plane, where most people avoided looking at me
with a combination of mild annoyance and mostly relief--it was only 10:55, and
we arrived in Hobart right on time (though in a full gale, but that's the next
story...) My ragged breathing started to slow down somewhere out over the
Bass Strait.<BR>
<BR>
(cont'd)<BR>
Bill Benner<BR>
Old Brookville, NY<BR>
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