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Chiltern - Mt Polit National Park

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Subject: Chiltern - Mt Polit National Park
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Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 19:21:52 +1100
Chiltern ? Mount Pilot National Park: 29-31 November 2003 -  Short Trip 
Report

Hi All, 

I recently spent 3 days birding with Euan Fothergill atChiltern ? Mount 
Pilot National Park in Victoria?s North. Here's some observations on 
irds seen. 

Turquoise Parrot: quite common at Bartley?s Paddock. Park near the gate 
mark Bartley?s Paddock (approx 3 km from the centre of town) and search 
the area to the right (near the ruins of the old 19th century brewery). 
A point of interest about Turquoise Parrot - there were a number of 
immature birds all of which lacked the distinctive blue marking around 
the face and red wing patch. In essence there were fairly ?non-
descript? Neophema. None of the standard field guides ?draw? reference 
to this, and consequently they could easily be mistaken for Blue-winged 
Parrot. 

White-throated Gerygone: also quite common at Chiltern at present. All 
were calling loading, with birds seen at Bartley?s Paddock and on the 
edge of the golf course on Main Road

Black-chinned Honeyeater: common at Bartley?s Block and Honeyeater 
Picnic Ground. 

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike: 2 birds seen at Frog?s Hollow.

Grey-crowned Babbler: a happy family of 8 birds at Fishers Lane.

Other birds seen included: Dollarbird (Fishers Lane), Blue-faced 
Honeyeater (Chiltern Lake), Gang-gang Cockatoo (2 birds seen at the 
Honeyeater Picnic Ground), Little Friarbird (Chiltern Lake), Restless 
Flycacther, Yellow-faced and Brown Headed Honeyeater, White-browed and 
Ducky Woodswallow. There are also large numbers of the following birds: 
White-winged Chough, White-winged Triller, Rufous and Brown Songlark, 
and both Olive-backed Oriole and Sacred Kingfisher were more common 
than I?ve recorded before. The current bird of the district is 
undoubtedly the Rufous Whistler, which was calling incessantly at every 
point that we stopped. The most common honeyeater were Yellow-tufted 
and Fuscous Honeyeater, although the numbers of White-plumed and White-
naped Honeyeater were low. Numbers of cuckoo, thornbill, finch and 
robin were also all well down.

We search for Chestnut-rumped Hylacola at the Skeleton Hill Track and 
on Tower Hill Track with no luck. Due to the drought there was VERY 
little low heath cover, and I wonder how these birds have faired. It is 
interesting to note Steve Clark?s comment of seeing a Chestnut-rumped 
Hylacola (Edenhope) in a dead banksia and not in the heath. I wonder if 
the Chiltern birds could cope with the same situation?  
 
Finally, a spot worth investigating is around at the base of Mount 
Pilot. This forest here is regenerating from the recent bush fires, and 
the bird life was very active ? i.e. nesting Fuscous Honeyeater, large 
numbers of Rufous Whistler, Yellow Robin and White-winged Chough etc. I 
also recommend a look is the section of the park between Woolshed and 
Eldorado. This section contains large sections of Black Cypress-pine 
(and has a feel/look similar to Terrick Terrick, which has White 
Cypress-pine) - it rained while we were here,  but looked really 
interesting. 

Tim 


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