The past few days (27-29th December), David Mitford and I enjoyed some good birding in the
NSW Hunter Region. For most of the time we experienced mainly very unfavourable
biding conditions but despite this we saw at least one of our target species
(as you will see below).
The 27th December was our best day out of the 3 days as the
conditions from late evening on that day till the end of this short trip was cold
(very unusual for this time of year) and too windy to bush bird.
Our first stop on our way up the coast was Ash Island near Newcastle (approx. 150km north of Sydney CBD)
where we had crippling views of the pair of Painted Snipe. We observed both
birds feeding well out in the open (not just birds hiding a few weeks ago) and we
saw both male and female birds give threatening displays (with wings
outstretched) towards a passing Black-winged Stilt. This may be because the pair
of Painted Snipe was nesting. The Black-winged Stilt also had young chick to
feed. After this brilliant start of our trip, we headed further up the coast,
and as we drove between Newcastle and Karuah (while getting stuck in a bit
of traffic) good numbers of White-throated Needletails were seen in loose
flocks.
At Coopernook State Forest, I was expecting to see the
Square-tailed Kites I saw nesting last month with well grown chicks but this
nest was empty and the birds appeared to have gone. However, we saw that the
Kites previous year’s nest was now occupied by a Brown Goshawk chick with
one of the adults making a number of trips to and from the nest while we were
there. We also had in the State Forest a Black-faced Monarch, Pheasant Coucal,
Olive-backed Oriole and a single Comb-crested Jacana in a small dam on the edge
of the forest. A Pacific Baza was also seen at Coopernook flying over the Pacific HWY.
After an early dinner, we decided to head out in the swampy/heathland
areas in Crowdy Bay NP (approx. 350km north of Sydney CBD) before dusk. With a
beautiful sunset in the background, we observed a Pheasant Coucal dust bathing
on the track with many other coucals also heard as well as Tawny-crowned and
White-cheeked Honeyeaters, Tawny Grassbirds and
both King and Brown Quail. After dusk, we were thrilled to see our
target species, an EASTERN GRASS OWL as it flew over our head fairly high and
then a little later low over the heath in front of us as it went hunting. At
last after a number of attempts at Crowdy Bay and in a few locations in northern and
southern QLD, I have now seen my last nocturnal bird for the Australian
mainland! However, all but two of my previous attempts to find this Owl at
Crowdy Bay NP have been in unfavourable conditions. It is best to search for
this Owl on calm (and not wet) evenings. We also heard in this patch of swampy
heath that night a Nankeen Night Heron, an Australian Bittern (heard in
distance frequently making its far-carrying booming calls) and a White-throated
Nightjar. We also heard some Rocket (Litoria nasuta), Wallum (Crinia tinnula)
and Striped Marsh Frogs (Limnodynastres peronii) close to where were. We were VERY
lucky to see the Grass Owl as soon after our sighting the calm and humid
conditions turned to gale force southerlies as the cold front came on us before
we could blink and almost blew us away!
To be continued……
Edwin Vella
