A few highlights from a recent family holiday included
Bawley Point north
of Bateman’s Bay: 8-8.2.05: Two beachwashed
Fluttering Shearwaters, one with a balloon string still wrapped around its wing-almost certainly the cause of death. No Hooded
Plovers seen here but three Sooty Oystercatchers.
Bega River mouth near
Tathra: 11.2.05 Single Fairy Tern adult moulting to basic with 22 Little Terns
including 7 juv. Also single Eastern Curlew, one juv Double-banded Plover and 3 Red-necked Stints. In a
nearby forest reserve at Kianinny there were 20
White-headed Pigeons.
Eden Wharf 11.2.05:
Two Black-faced Cormorants on floating pontoon 100 metres beyond main trawler
wharf.
Thredbo: Gang Gang Cockatoo and
(2) Flame Robins. There was a road-killed male Yellow-bellied Glider on the
highway near Power Station turn off No. 1, Khancoban.
Mount Hotham:
13-14.2.05: Best highlight of the trip was spotlighting a Mountain Pygmy Possum
on two occasions but could only notch up 13 bird species here in a day and a half.
Mount Baw Baw:
15.2.05: Olive Whistler (1), Flame Robin (10)-the most encountered on the
entire trip.
Yellingbo Nature Reserve: 16-17.2.05: Bassian
Thrush (1), Rufous Fantail (2) and Red-browed Treecreeper (2)
Marysville: 17-18.2.05: While spotlighting unsuccessfully
for Leadbeater’s Possum over two nights had a
close encounter with a pair of Masked Owls on the evening of 18.2.05. Also
present in the forests were Gang Gangs, Red-browed Treecreeper and a Brush Bronzewing.
Chiltern National
Park: 19.2.05: Turquoise Parrot (4),
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike (adult and juv.), juv. Horsfield’s
Bronze-Cuckoo, Rufous Songlark (1) and several
Black-chinned Honeyeaters and a Koala. No luck with Grey-crowned Babblers or
Hooded Robins.
It was a very enjoyable holiday with good wildflowers,
butterflies and quite an excellent diversity of reptiles and native mammals and
very few people to share it with.
Happy birding
Dion
