Continued from Part 1……
We spent most of the 28th December up in Port Macquarie to
see if David could see his first Barred Cuckoo-shrikes. We checked out the
usual spots for them including Sea Acres Nature Reserve. Sea Acres was quite
depressing (probably hard hit with the recent drought like other areas along
the east coast) with only a couple of Brush Turkeys, a single Rose-crowned
Fruit-dove heard, one of both Black-faced and Spectacled Monarchs, a few
Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, 2 Green Catbirds and nothing much more than that.
This was a few years ago (and before the drought) quite a fruitful spot where I
have seen 8 Barred Cuckoo-shrikes together at one time, numerous Fruit-doves
and much more.
We also checked for the Cuckoo-shrike at the Flynns Beach Caravan Park were I have seen a few in the past, and
again we had no luck but we did spot a Tawny Frogmouth and a Koala (the later
in the same tree as my last visit here).
Our last spot for the Cuckoo-shrike was a walk along Kooloonbung Creek in
the middle of Port Macquarie were we saw a White-headed Pigeon, 2 male
Cicadabirds, a Brush Cuckoo, Azure Kingfisher, numerous Dollarbirds (10 perched
together on a powerline), a colony of roosting Grey-headed Flying-foxes and
another Koala.
We also went back to Harrington (next door to Crowdy Bay NP) to look
for the Barred Cuckoo-shrike in the Litoral Rainforest there (I have seen the
Barred Cuckoo-shrike on 3-4 occasions within the last 8 years at Harrington) but again no luck. However
our list of birds here over the few days included 3 Ospreys (all having a drink
of water at the Harrington Waters Golf course) with one being chased by a
Collared Sparrowhawk, Brahminy Kite, at least 5 Varied Trillers, 4 Spectacled
Monarchs, Striped Honeyeaters, 4 Regent Bowerbirds (2 adult males and 2
females). A Sacred Kingfisher was also seen here having a go at a Lace Monitor.
With the strong southerly conditions, David and I put In a hours sea
watch from Crowdy Head (approx. 9 km north of Harrington) on the 28th
December where we saw 200 plus Wedge-tailed and 10 plus Short-tailed
Shearwaters, at least 100 Australasian Gannets, lots of Crested and smaller
numbers of Common Terns and a single (light-phase) Pomarine Jaegar passing by.
We did attempt to spotlight again that night around Harrington and
Crowdy Bay NP and all we had was 3 Latham’s Snipe flying away from us as
we walked through an open grassy area next to the town in the evening.
At Old Bar the next day (29th December), the gale force southerly
winds was again a big hindrance to our birding as many of the shorebirds were
hiding against the wind in the sand dunes. Here we managed to see about 50
Pacific Golden and a few Red-capped Plovers, at least 50 Red-necked Stints, a
Great Knot, about 150 Bar-tailed Godwits, an Eastern Curlew and a Pied
Oystercatcher. About 60 or so Little
Terns and 95 Common Terns were also about with a number of the former still
nesting.
At the Old Bar camping area we saw a pair of Striped Honeyeaters with
an active nest and there were two hollows in two separate trees with begging
Dollarbird chicks waiting for the adults to come quickly and give them a feed.
Before heading back home, we made a brief stop around Lenaghan an
Pambalong were at the later place we saw 3 species of duck with young –
Plumed Whistling (3 ducklings), Black Duck (5 ducklings) and Chestnut Teal (3
ducklings). There were also other Whistling-ducks heard, 4 Channel-billed
Cuckoo around the fig trees, Pheasant Coucal and several White-breasted
Woodswallows about.
Edwin Vella
