Hi everyone,
Below is my July wrap-up for the Hunter Big Year. No awful puns like last month
(did anyone get it?), just a bad quote at the end.
Enjoy.
Mick
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Entering the month of July was quite exciting, though no longer could I
reassure
myself with regards to my missing birds that “oh well, I’m not even at the
half-way mark yet”. So after sucking on a few oranges that I supplied myself in
a small bucket, I stepped into the crucial second half. Not wanting to emulate
the Hunter’s NRL team who are notorious for coming out strong but positively
choking in the second half, I resolved to be as pro-active as I could be in the
lead-up to spring.
I couldn’t exactly be a whole lot more pro-active though, especially in winter
when many of the birds I still need are up north (or maybe inland in the case
of
one or two). Other birds simply aren’t around and it seems a little, well,
pointless to be chasing birds that aren’t there. One feature of this year has
been the paucity of Swift Parrot records due mainly to the failure of Spotted
Gums to flower around Cessnock etc. I have chased up every (i.e. all 3!) local
records of Swifties but to no avail. I’m hoping some of the Forest Red Gums go
off early and entice some Tassie-bound birds as re-fueling stops before the
journey back south.
I had been doing some seawatching at Nobby’s on most days, hoping to catch a
glimpse of a White-fronted Tern or even better, a Giant Petrel straying close
to
shore. I really missed by opportunity big-time in early June, when a dead Sperm
Whale washed up on Bar Beach. Apparently the carcass had a number of surfers
riding atop, of the GP kind, as it washed into shore. I have actually seen 2
GPs
during my seawatches, but both have been way too far to get even an inkling of
what species they could be. It really shouldn’t matter with 2 winter pelagics
planned, but hey, you know what they say about a bird in the hand…even if it is
a cranky Giant Petrel!
As it turned out I had added no new species for the month by the day before the
pelagic on the 11th. A good mate, Farmboy, had made the journey back from Dubbo
to be on the pelagic and he had enquired about trying for Southern Emu-wren at
Awabakal Nature Reserve on the Saturday afternoon before. I figured it was a
good idea because I still needed Tawny-crowned Honeyeater for my year list.
Armed with good oil from fellow Hunter Big Yearer, Dan Williams, we set-off.
Unfortunately for Farmboy we dipped on the Emu-wren but got stonking views of
at
least 2 Tawny-crowns in the heath.
With strong northerlies hitting the coast the next morning, the pelagic was
touch-and-go but the skipper was satisfied with the conditions so we departed
Nelson Bay at 0700. It was not long before I had my first year bird for the
trip
– I was very relieved to see an immaculately plumaged White-fronted Tern
bobbing
in the wake.
Another birding mate, Al Richardson, was sitting on 499 for his Aussie list and
349 for his Hunter list on the day and was determined to bring up both
milestones with the same species. As he had not done any winter pelagics off
the
Hunter coastline he was missing quite a few common winter birds on his Hunter
list. It was very amusing to watch him trying not to see the Fairy Prions that
surrounded the boat (he had seen these off Eden previously) but eventually he
conceded to the inevitable and feasted hi eyes on the numerous we had feeding
behind the boat.
It was also a huge relief for me to add 2 more species to my year list, being
two birds that I had expected to see on the June trip but had not – Shy and
Wandering Albatross. And after nearly 2 hours tea-bagging on the shelf the
first
of several Cape Petrels flew in (incidentally this was Al’s 500th Aussie bird).
The highlight of the day though came when the cry of “Fregetta Stormie!!” went
out, as a very nice Black-bellied Storm-petrel bounced around the ocean on both
sides of the boat. It was particularly satisfying to see this species as it was
the 5th species of Stormie we’d seen off Port Stephens this year. With 5 new
birds for the year I was very pleased, though still with some concern about
there not being a single Giant Petrel again - the milky bars will really be on
the August and September trips for these birds.
Admittedly though, I had never actually thought 333 was going to be an
achievable target, but with 318 species notched up and 5 months remaining the
maths are pretty simple. All I need do is add one species on each of the four
remaining pelagics and supplement those with a couple of land-lubbers each
month. I still have some easy birds up my sleeve, such as Pallid Cuckoo,
White-winged Triller, Southern Boobook and of course my “blinkers-on” bird,
Spotted Pardalote which I have come perilously close to eye-balling a couple of
times!
"As a rule, birders on Big Years worry more about what they can't see than
about
what they can."
Julius Brewer
July 2010
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