Birdline NSW Weekly Update

Birdline NSW

Published sightings for the week ending 7 Nov 2010.

Sat 6 Nov	Topknot Pigeon Cabbage Tree Rd, Bayveiw / Mona Vale, Sydney 2 birds today flying through surrounding trees. 3rd sighting here. How many sightings in what time span are needed until they are considered regular here? (Moderator's Note: If this pair of birds are feeding at the one Cabbage Tree Palm or other food tree you could considere the record as one record, with the birds staying there until all the fruit is gone and then they will move away! AKM) Henry Coleman
	Beach Stone-curlew Deeban Spit, Maianbar (off Royal National Park) At high tide, in company of a pair of Pied Oystercatchers. Also roosting on the spit were 20 eastern curlew, 11 bar-tailed godwit and 1 whimbrel. Bruce Roubin
	Square-tailed Kite Dolly Ave Springfield NSW Harassed by Magpies cruising above the canopy of Rumbalara Reserve, east of Gosford, at 1015 Paul Shelley
Fri 5 Nov	Topknot Pigeon Mona Vale One bird flying over Cabbage Tree Rd today, most probably flying from nearby Warriewood Wetlands/Irrawong Res. This is my second sighting of this species here in recent months. Henry Coleman
Thu 4 Nov	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater St Albans A lone Spiney-cheeked Honeyeater seen around midday 1.5 km north of St Albans. First one in thirty years. ( Moderators Note: A Rare bird for the Sydney Region and others have been seen in the Lower Hunter Valley in recent times AKM) Bas Hensen
	Red-billed Tropicbird (update) Lord Howe Island Hank suggested that the best place to see the bird is along the Northern Hills Track. One needs to hang around for some time. He spent 3 hours the other day and only had 20 mins of action. It was first observed at Lord Howe Island on 6/10/10 . The team work amongst seabirds daily so know when they see or hear something different. It was originally thought to be a White-tailed Tropicbird. The bird was found sitting tight under a LHI teatree on the 29/10/10 and would periodically fly out amongst the Red tailed Tropicbirds giving a shrill chattering call (quite different to the Red tailed Tropics). I inspected the site on 31/10/10 and the bird was again regularly seen throughout yesterday as the bush regeneration team continued their sweep of the seacliffs for weeds. The location where the bird is sitting is off the track and access is not open to the public without a guide as it is prone to erosion/degradation and supports nesting seabirds. However the bird can be viewed from the main track across the northern hills when it is in flight. Other interesting records for the island in the past few weeks include Dollarbird, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Shining Bronze Cuckoo, Pectoral Sandpiper, Cooks/Pycrofts Petrel and Lesser Sand Plover. The Lord Howe Island Board maintain a database of rare/vagrant and threatened species and welcome any reputable records, which should include date, name of recorder, MGA coordinates or detailed location descriptions. For more information you can contact me during business hours at the folowing contact details. Hank Bower, Manager Environment/World Heritage, Lord Howe Is Board, ph: 02 6563 2066, email: Hank Bower per Tim Doby
Wed 3 Nov	White-throated Nightjar Domestic Terminal, Sydney Airport A fit and feisty White-throated Nightjar, but somewhat stressed by the flying kangaroos, possibly hit a window at the airport and came into WIRES care. It was released the following day. Joan Dawes
	Short-tailed & Sooty Shearwaters Birdie Beach , Munmorah State Conservation Area In 1.2 kms of Birdie Beach near the Carpark, there were 151 freshly dead Short-tailed Shearwater carcases s along with one dead Sooty Shearwater. The beach is over 10kms long and there appeared to dead carcases all away along! There have been similar large scale deaths in the past but not for the past few years. Alan Morris
	Diamond Firetail Flags Niangala Road, Walcha Pair of Diamond Firetails on the side of the road near the Thunderbolts Way intersection and a Dusky woodswallow collecting nesting material. Tim Morris
	Red-billed Tropicbird Lord Howe Island Per Alan McBride via Tony Palliser
	Beach Stone-curlew Dee Why Lagoon Reserve One Beach Stone-curlew seen at about 2:45 in the inlet Dena Paris
	Purple-crowned Lorikeets, Wandering Whistling-ducks Deniliquin district Two notable recordings: In the area now known as Deniliquin Regional Park there are at least two pairs of Purple-crowned Lorikeets with one pair breeding in a River Redgum and seemingly feeding young at present. These birds are feeding on Black Box (Euc. largiflorens) blossom and lerp from the Redgums and the Black Box. This could be a first ever confirmed breeding record for NSW (Moderators Note: There is one breeding recod for NSW in Oct-AKM). These birds were discovered by Stuart Rankin about a month ago. The other interesting recording was that of three Wandering Whistling-ducks at the wetlands around Wanganella; only my second sighting of this species in this district in thirty+ years birding. Philip Maher
Tue 2 Nov	Ostrich Barham cell At least five seen on Moama-Barham Road at 35 38.356S, 144 21.721E, as previously reported. Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow
	Ostrich East of Barham We checked out Jen Spry's Ostrich Site. After an hour of driving up and down the road, we found 4 adult Ostriches at S 35d 37m 46.7s & E144d 20m 54.8s at about 12 noon. This location is about 5 km west of the junction of the Barham/Deniliquin Rd and the Barham/Moama (Motown) Rd, at the School Bus Stop which is at the entrance to the property 'Toroga' and where the twin pole power lines cross the road. It is a little further west than the original site. The birds were 300+ m behind the fence on the north side of the road. Locals advise that they could be anywhere from the junction to about 15 km west. Thanks Jen. ( Moderators Note: Why is this considered to be a wild population, why are they not escapees from some local Ostrich farm?- however I am publishing theis note so that we might find out more info!AKM) Tom Wheller, Shirley & Bill Ramsay
Mon 1 Nov	Short-tailed Shearwater Point Plomer, Limeburners Nature Reserve Major ST Shearwater wreck with hundreds of birds washed up on Point Plomer and Queens Head beaches. Didn't count total numbers but there were dead birds spaced at a minimum 2m intervals and occasionally small piles. Tim Morris
Sun 31 Oct	Pacific Gull Windang The highlight of our Twitchathon was an immature Pacific Gull at Windang. It was on the north side of the Lake Illawarra inlet, just west of the northern breakwater. There were also two Little Terns present nearby. Alison Foley, Dave Bourne, Martin Potter, Penny Potter (The Gong Gang)
	Rufous Fantail Scheyville NP 1 seen in the denser vegatation at the start of the track near Whitmore Rd Joshua Bergmark, Henry Coleman, Nathan Ruser (Knight Parrots)
Sat 30 Oct	Mallee Ringneck Nowlans Rd, Grenfell A pair of Mallee Ringnecks seen on the side of the road near Bimbi State Forest Brendan Sheean
	Magpie Goose, Pulmed Whistling-Duck, Brolga, Glossy Black Cockatoo Macquarie Marshes west of Quombone During a visit to the Macquarie Marhes on 30/10 over 1800 Plumed Whistling Ducks & 600 Magpie Geese were seen in total in the Macquarie Marshes from Sandy Camp Station on the Terrigal Creek St system, across to Willie on the Gibson Way and up to The Mole Station, were amongst the many waterbirds seen. Also seen were 2 Brolga on the eastern side of Monkeygar Ck, and 4+ Glossy Black Cockatoos in Casuarinas on Stanley Homestead in the Marshes. There are many Nankeen Night Herons, Glossy Ibis, Hoary -headed and Great Crested Grebes along with Red-kneed Dotterels and Black-tailed Native-hens as well. Quite a remarkable sight at present and well worth a visit. Alan Morris. Michael Kuhl and Mike Barth

Birdline NSW is sponsored by Birding NSW, Birds Australia - Southern NSW & ACT and Cumberland Bird Observers Club and co-ordinated and hosted by Eremaea Birds.

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