Hi everyone,
April 1 and I'm feeling like the fool. At the risk of sounding like a broken
bird-call record, it is still the inland rain that is giving me the only reason
for think this way - everything else has been quite productive. I do however
remain positive ("they'll return in spring...they'll return in spring"). After
all, 295 species at the end of the first 3 months - I only needed another 38
species to achieve what I thought would be impossible at the start.
Another month in, and I'm starting to convince myself that I was right from the
start.
My main mission in April was to reach 300. I was quietly confident of settling
this, as there was a pelagic planned for the 18th...until the skipper called to
postpone the trip anyway. This hurt. With water temps still hovering around 26
degrees at the shelf and the fall-out still barely settling on the Storm-petrel
storms, a mid-April venture to the shelf was looking very promising indeed.
Alas, circumstances for the skipper put pay to this and to add insult to injury
the weather on the 18th was perfecto.
I had to look elsewhere for the 5 new birds to tip me over the triple-century.
I estimate that I have spent more time looking for Black Kite and Common
Sandpiper than I have for all other species added together - mainly because I
keep dipping on them. Not that missing what could be a single individual Kite,
or one of only 2 or 3 Common Sands in the Hunter should be regarded as true
"dips". It sure feels like it though.
On one of my ventures to Stockton in search of Common Sands I did pick up on a
group of 4 nicely-coloured Red Knots on the 15th April. Never had I gone any
more than 6 days without adding a bird to my year list - but this time it was
18 days - something I feel I am going to have to get used to as the year
progresses. I had actually tried a few days earlier to add Mallard (aka
"Geoff") to my year list but one of my last bastions for a "True Geoff" (Dora
Creek) had failed to produce anything but some very special specimens of just
what is possible when you mix domestic ducks with Mallards and Black Ducks and
Godzilla Ducks. I am now considering the proposition of having to let Geoff go
- the species may not actually exist in the Hunter any longer (happy to be
proven wrong however and there was one Geoffrey that did look a bit more
promising but was too far away to see properly).
So anyway, with 296 on the board and one plastic looking dodgier than its own
offspring, I decided I could only appease the situation by targeting the other
plastic. This was Red-whiskered Bulbul and it didn't really take much effort to
find, with the usual haunt at Swansea producing the goods. A thorough search
for Brush Bronzewing at Belmont on the way home was completely fruitless,
although I did hear a Lewin's Rail which seem pretty reliable at Belmont.
The next day Dan and I were at a site on the western extremity of Newcastle in
search of a Sooty Owl. We weren'y overly confident as the habitat didn't seem
right, but we had good oil on it, so went through with the attempt. As dusk
fell a Pow Owl started to call - not a bad start. Literally as I went to
produce a falling bomb, a near echo came from the creekline and within a minute
we were staring in awe at a Sooty Owl. We were both flabbergasted - so much so
that we had to drown our flabbergastatedness with an ale at a nearby
establishment.
A few days later news came through from Al Richardson who had found Singing
Honeyeaters out at Durridgere Rd, on the far western edge of the Hunter Valley.
But not only had he found birds, he'd found them feeding dependant young. This
is a crippling bird in the Hunter and I'm really not too sure of how many
breeding records exist in areas east of the divide in NSW, but the temptation
was just too much for me. After a 3:30am departure I was stricken with a
dilemma - should I sacrifice my up-the-sleeve bird (Spotted Pardalote) and make
the Singing #300 or not? I left it to chance and with no sign of Spotteds (or
anything else a bit more interesting that would have been new) seen at the site
I gladly added the Singing HE as #299.
As it turned out, a very worthy replacement was notched as the triple-tonner
when I ventured into Yengo NP to camp the night before doing Regent HE surveys
in Howes Valley. I decided to chase up some records from 2005 of Barking Owls
in the area and despite being denied access to the known sites, I was
successful in attracting a male Barker to my camp. A very fitting 300th species
and another new bird for the Hunter Region for me.
The following day, en-route to a site where I'd located some Regents I added
#301 in somewhat unfortunate circumstances. I was travelling along the Putty Rd
when I noticed a small bird walking slowly off the pavement, staggering from
what was obviously a near-miss from a travelling vehicle. As it turned out, it
was a female Painted Button-quail that escaped the road as it flew off into the
surrounding bush, leaving behind her mate that was minced on the tarmac. I am
nervous about the fact that the Regent Honeyeaters have chosen trees along the
Putty Road to feed in - it is a high risk piece of track!
A third of the year has gone and I've seen 90% of my target. Pity the maths are
irrelevant!
Autumn / winter is likely to be a quiet period, with the vast majority of
potential new birds lurking somewhere out on the deep blue. If May is a good
month it May be a Big Year.
Mick
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
=============================
|
