Hi all,
See below Part 4 of the VicTwitch 2009, a summary of all the bird species I've
seen in Victoria during 2009 (currently 320 species). The report starts on the
Bellarine Peninsular, then I head inland to the central highland around Buxton,
up the to the Box-Ironbark forest near Chiltern and then back home via the
Warby Ranges and Heathcote-Graytown NP. For a full report with photographs and
for my 2009 Vic birdlist (so far) see my trip report webpage at
http://tim-dolby.blogspot.com/. There are quite a few (very bad) photographs,
so it may take a little time to load. Let me know if you have any thoughts,
critiques or questions. Cheers, Tim Dolby
July 2009
Bellarine Peninsula
After an extremely quiet month (birdwise) during June, July has started to pick
up pace. After having a pelagic boat trip of Portland cancelled (twice) I
decided to chase a couple of bird species reported recently on the Bellarine
Peninsula - Banded Stilt and Sanderling. There'd been a report of Banded Stilt
at Point Henry near Geelong. This was a species that had virtually disappeared
from Victoria during the first six months of 2009. Banded Stilt have a habit of
migrating into inland Australia periodically to breed. However it is very
unusual for no birds to be present in Victoria. I'd previously gone a Banded
Stint that was seen at the T-section of the WTP last month, but dipped. So when
some birds turned up at Moolap Salt Farm on Point Henry I decided to try and
see them. Looking in from a car park near the end of Point Henry (next to a
small man made hill), there was a large flock of Black-winged Stilt,, and a few
Banded Stilt could be seen with them.
Moolap is usually a good place to see Banded Stilt, often seen in large
numbers. For example during the 2006 Twitchathon my Twitchathon team (Myself,
Greg Oakley and Fiona Parkin) saw a flock of several thousand birds from
Geelong-Port Arlington Rd. We'd actually reco'ed the birds prior to the race,
so we twitched them from the car as we drove past at 70km an hour.
After finding the Banded Stilt I headed to Thirteenth Beach near Barwon Heads
to search for a Sanderling that had been hanging around the beach with
Red-necked Stint for the last week or so. I accessed the beach via a small path
just before you reach the inter-section of Thirteenth Beach Rd and Blackrock Rd
(just prior to the large wind turbine). It actually took me sometime to see the
bird, walking up and down the beach several times. Sanderling are distinctive
(as opposed to Little Stint ;), identified by their relative large size (when
compared to Red-neck Stint) and white (in non-breeding plumage) head. Despite
being cold, wet and windy there were quite a few people on the beach.
Most of the people on the beach were walking dogs, but there was also "land
windsurfers" - a sport which is similar to windsurfing but performed on the
beach using boards with wheels and a mast and sail. Not the sort of thing you
wan to see on a beach when you want to see waders. Some of the other birds
about were Australasian Gannet, Great Cormorant, large numbers of Double-banded
Plover (some in full breeding plumage), plenty of Red-capped Plover, 3 Hooded
Plover, good numbers of Red-necked Stint, the odd Pacific Gull and Crested
Tern, and in the sand dunes area Singing Honeyeater, Superb Fairy-wren,
Striated Fieldwren and White-fronted Chat. Way out at sea there were large
numbers of Fluttering Shearwater, and the odd Shy and White-browed Albatross.
Thirteenth Beach or more particularly the nearby Black Rocks is historically
quite a famous birding spot. It was once a sewage outlet and as a result large
number sea birds would gather around outlet (doing what seabird do). The most
famous visitors to the outlet were Southern Giant-Petrel and Northern
Giant-Petrel, at a ratio of about ten to one. Prior to the pelagic boat trips
organised of Port Fairy and Portland, the Black Rocks WAS the place in
Australia to see these two large pelagic species. Sanderling has also been
recorded here a few times previously, and aside from the people, it is a
perfect beach for them, being protected from the wind by high sand dunes, and
the beach also has offshore reefs.
Central Highlands (Buxton, Alexandra and Lake Mountain)
After birding around the Bellarine Peninsular I headed inland to the central
highlands staying in a house at Buxton near Alexandra. I was there mainly to go
to the snow with my son and friends, but also to do some birding in the open
woodland ridges. Birds were in good numbers and I managed to see several
Spotted Quail-thrush in an area I'd seen them a few years earlier.
The main impression I got from the area was obviously the large areas of burnt
forest and bush, and the complete destruction of townships such as Marysville.
Most of the areas burnt by the recent fires were totally devastated. However
despite this bush had a distinct beauty, with black burnt trees, marked by the
green of the tree ferns and new sprouts in the gums. It had a silent beauty.
On the way back to Melbourne I stopped in at Badgier Weir, walking up the
wonderful walking track to the weir. Part of Yarra Ranges National Park, it is
10 km south east of Healesville on Don Road. A delightful walk through tall wet
eucalypt forests (and close to Melbourne), there were Superb Lyrebird calling
either of the track and Eastern Yellow Robin entertained through their usual
curiousity. At night this area is a great place for nocturnal birds and mammal,
including Sooty Owl (a bird I've yet to see in 2009, so I'll be back) and
Powerful Owl. Not coincidently the larger gliders such as Yellow Bellied Glider
and Greater Glider are also common. Also of interest at the weir there are half
a dozen very old and very impressive giant Californian Redwood. Really nice.
Into Box Ironbark Country: Chiltern - Mount Pilot National Park
>From Friday July 10 to Sunday July 12 I spent three days at the Chiltern - Mt
>Pilot National Park area, with trips on the way back to the Warby Ranges
>(known locally as the Warbies), Bailieston (Rushworth State Park), and then to
>Mount Ida Lookout (the far west side of Heathcote-Graytown National Park).
>During the trip I saw 6 new species for the year; however I dipped on one,
>Regent Honeyeater, which may in the end may be a year's dip. It seems unlikely
>that the Box-Ironbark forests of northern Victoria will not flower this year,
>so the likelihood of seeing Regent Honeyeater also seems unlikely. Hopefully
>I'm wrong. The park consists predominantly of open eucalyptus forest of Red
>Stringybark, Blakeley's Red Gum, Grey Box and Mugga Ironbark. The whole area
>was green, with some really good rain in the area recently. There was flowing
>small bushy grevillea and the ground was covered with Green Rock Ferns.
My main aim for heading up to Chiltern was to see the park specialist species
particularly Regent Honeyeater, endangered in Victoria but a regular winter and
spring visitor to the area. So when I arrived early Friday afternoon I headed
straight for some sites in the northern section of the park that I had
regularly seen Regents. Disappointingly as soon as I arrived I knew things
weren't good, with the forest a virtual stand still. Aside from the odd
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater there was very little birdlife. I quickly checked a
few other sites, and nothing. The reason it was quiet was the general lack of
flowering gum. Indeed it looked as though it was unlikely to flower at all this
year. So the chances of seeing Regent Honeyeater this year seem slim - which
would mean that I'm potentially one species down this year. Oh well.
Fortunately there was a number of other target species, several which are hard
work. It was getting late, so the next species I targeted was nocturnal -
Barking Owl. Fortunately I'd a good site for this near the Mount Pilot Range,
so after dinner I spent a couple of hours spotlighting, eventually finding a
single bird next to some roadside bush over looking a valley.
The next day I targeted some resident bush birds. The first was Painted
Button-quail. I'd seen this at a number of sites at Chiltern, but by far the
best was an area of bush between the White Box Walking Track and Ballarat Rd /
Cyanide Rd. After walking around for what seemed like hours, and coming across
a number of areas with resent platelets, I flush a single Button-Quail. Out of
interest this was at least the sixth time I'd targeted this species this year
(at other sites in Victoria), dipping every other time - so I was extremely
glad to get it under my belt.
I'd normally seen Turquoise Parrot in this area also but they weren't about. So
I concentrated in an area of bush between the Honeyeater Dam and Lancaster Gap
Rd / All Nations Rd. Eventually two birds flew past, making their
characteristic neophema call. This was the only time I saw Turquoise Parrot for
the entire trip - in the past I've seen them with some regularity. Also seen in
this section was White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike. Blue-faced Honeyeater was common
near the almost dry Lake Anderson in central Chiltern. The lake is also a good
place to see Little Friarbird, a year tick.
Although it was extremely quiet throughout the box-ironbark forests I did come
across a few hot spots. These are areas where you get a range of species,
normally small to mid-sized passerines', which form communal flocks. One such
area was on along Cyanide Road just north of the entrance to the entrance to
the White Box Walk. The road passes closely to a creek line and here I saw a
nice collection of flocking species including seeing Golden Whistler,
Red-capped Robin, Yellow Robin and Restless Flycatcher in one tree. According
to my records also seen at this site were Black-chinned, Fuscous and
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Yellow Thornbill, Weebill, Little Raven, and Brown
Treecreeper.
Warby Ranges National Park and Thoona
The Warby Ranges were quiet. A quick stop at Pine Gully Picnic Area, an area of
granitic hills characterised by a mosaic of open forests and woodlands of
Blakely's Redgum, Red Stringybark, Box species, Austral Grass-tree and and the
hardy Spurwinged Wattle, produced a nice mixed flock of Eastern Yellow Robin,
Varied Sittella, Little Thornbill, White-throated and Brown Treecreeper but
little else. This contasted with my last stop here, albeit in spring where I
recorded Western Gerygone (which I haven't seen so far this year), Turquoise
Parrot, Painted Honeyeater (seen in Mugga Ironbark at "The Camp" camping
ground, and another bird I haven't seen in 2009), and Speckled Warbler. Of
interest Eurasian Tree Sparrow were common in downtown Wangaratta.
One of the most significant aspects of my trip to north-central Victoria has
been the lack of flowing trees. There were literally no flowering gums anywhere
in any of the national parks visited or anywhere in between. I did however find
one town which had significant flowering trees, including on eucalypts that was
flowering more that any other tree I think I've seen! This was in Thoona, a
small town just west of the Warby Ranges (known locally as the "Warbies"). Here
there was several flowering Grey Box as well as a few profusely flowering
Spotted Gum. In Victoria the Spotted Gum is a street tree. It naturally occurs
on the east-coast of Australia down to the Mimosa Rocks National Park near Bega.
In the trees at Thoona there were large numbers of Little Lorikeet, as well as
White-plumed Honeyeater and Noisy Minor. (I've since noticed that there is a
Thoona Bushland Reserve on the Thoona Devenish Road which may be worth checking
out.) Interestingly perhaps not coincedently Spotted Gum is also flowering
profusely on the south east coast of NSW at the moment (around Mimosa Rock NP),
with unprecedented numbers of Swift Parrot.
Heathcote-Graytown National Park and Rushworth State Park
Again another quick stop at Rushworth State Forest, entering near Bailieston,
looking for some sign of flowering box-ironbark. Unfortunately nothing, with
the only species present being Noisy Friarbird and Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and
very little else. Like everywhere else there was very few pardalote, with the
solitary call of a Spotted Pardalote. I headed to Bailieston crossing the
Kirwin Bridge (via the Kirwin Bridge-Longwood Rd and then Bailieston Road East
) - a very impressive single lane bridge with several pull points along the
birdge - the wetland area on the west side were really interesting, a perfect
place to see crake and rails.
Following up on a tip from a mate on a site for Chestnut-rumped Hylacola
(Heathwren) I headed to Mount Ida Lookout, in the western part of
Heathcote-Graytown National Park. Proclaimed a national park with the passing
of the Box-Ironbark Bill in 2002, the park is located just east of Heathcote.
The area I was heading, Mount Ida, accessed via the Northern Hwy approximately
8 kilometres north of Heathcote. Turn in Mount Ida Road and head up to the
lookout. I instantly recognised the habitat as being perfect for Hylacola,
being a mixture of a healthy understorey, mainly Daisy Bush, and trees such as
Red Ironbark, Grey Box and Yellow Box. I found Chestnut-rumped Hylacola at
several spots along the lookout road about half way up to the lookout. From the
lookout, despite the rain I was able to see Victoria?s remaining Box-Ironbark
forests disappear into the hazy horizon in all directions.
Chestnut-rumped Hylacola is such a shy species. From my experience it is much
shier and more timorous than the Shy Heathwren and really the two Heathwrens
should switch their common names. (I also think the Shy Heathwren has a far
more prominent chestnut-rump.) In some ways the Chestnut-rumped Heathwren is
one of Victoria's hardest to see species. For instance, one thing I haven't
written much about in this account of the VicTwitch is the number of times I've
dipped on seeing species. With regards to the Chestnut-rumped Heathwren I've
actually looked for them on at least 6 previous occasions including
Croajingolong, southern Bendigo (3 times), the Grampians near Mount Zero, Black
Ranges (west side of the Grampians), Anglesea, and Chiltern. (I did have a
back-up site at Jilpanger.)
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren was my 320th species of bird in Victoria in 2009;
only 15 species to go! That being said my rate of progress has dropped
significantly, with only a dosen new species seen in the last month. By going
to Chiltern and the box-ironbark areas of Victoria I had used up my last
remaining significant birding area in which I was likely to see a "bunch" of
new species. From now on I would be chasing single and isolated species. If you
remember I was planning to head to Portland (instead of heading to Chiltern),
and aside from onshore pelagic birds I was going to follow up on a few leads on
Victorian Karak (Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo). This however would have to wait
until another time.
Tim Dolby
http://tim-dolby.blogspot.com/
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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