Birdline Victoria Weekly Update

Birdline Victoria

Published sightings for the week ending 12 Dec 2010.

Sun 12 Dec	Lewin's Honeyeater Glenfern Valley Bushland One seen and one heard in riparian vegetation along creek. My first sighting here in 25 years birding the location. Steven Davidson - The Melbourne Birder
	Common Koel Wray Street, Anglesea Has been heard in the area for the past week. Obtained a visual of it today. Have not heard it in this area before. Emma Danby
Sat 11 Dec	Nankeen Night Heron Albert Park Lake flying in south-western part of Lake, disappeared into reeds just near a Boat Shed Joanne Dargan (reported to Janine Duffy)
	Cockatiel, Intermediate, Great and Cattle Egrets, Nankeen Night-Heron Dowdle Swamp One male Cockatiel observed. Been quite scarce around here this year. Good numbers of egrets at the presently flooded swamp. Two Intermediate with bright red bills, 4 Great and 1 Cattle Egret. Nankeen Night Herons around too, most likely breeding here. Michael Ramsey
	Ruff, Great Knot (2), White-fronted Terns & White-winged Terns Western Treatment Plant Werribee Single Ruff in emergent grass in new lagoon near T section. 2 Great Knot roosting north of beach road and at least a dozen White-fronted Terns diving in settlement pond off Beach Road with smaller numbers of White-winged Terns. Mark Stanley
	Leaden Flycatcher, Little Corella King Parrot Creek, west of Yea. Male Leaden Flycatcher seen very well and another heard at King Parrot Creek, also 2 Little Corella over. Steven Davidson - The Melbourne Birder
Fri 10 Dec	White-browed Babbler Crusoe Reservoir, Kangaroo Flat (near Bendigo) A small group of 4 babblers in box-ironbark scrub along the Crusoe Loop Track. First time sighting for me in this area. David Hewett
Thu 9 Dec	Wedge-tailed Eagle Buftons Rd, Balliang time: 11.03. First we saw one eagle circling over, then surprised three others on the ground in a paddock beside a carcasse (probably a sheep). One flew off immediately as we stopped, but two young birds stayed on the ground for some minutes as we watched and photographed. Both of these birds had a lot of golden-brown feathers, and some white on underside. Eventually they both flew off as well, but all four birds stayed in the area. Wonderful to see them, obviously breeding well! Janine Duffy, Roger Smith
	Common Koel Clark Street Port Melbourne Male Common Koel calling from a Plane Tree at the intersection of Peckville and Clark Street Port Melbourne at 22:10 hrs. Call was the distinctive "Koo-eel" call. Daniel Gilmore
	Common Koel Upper Ferntree Gully Identified by call at almost midnight. Probably single male. Both my wife and I heard it and are very familiar with the bird from living both in Brisbane and Chennai, India. We had difficulty in believing what we heard until a web search this morning when we found others have reported the same. Mark A Ridgway
	White -eared Honeyeater Junortoun, just outside Bendigo This bird has been hanging around our garden for several days and we were clearly able to identify it today. We had an unconfirmed sighting nearby in April 2009. Tim & Jodie Stirling
	Tawny Frogmouth Little Lake Boort Adult on nest. This is the same nest where 2 young were hatched and fledged in September & October 2010, and 3 young in November 2009. Malcolm Cousland
	Dusky Woodswallow, Rufous Fantail, Satin Flycatcher(female) Newport Lakes Park Little purple-patch here this morning with the above species all in one spot in scrub along northern edge of North Lake, as well as a Rufous Whistler heard. Steve Davidson
Wed 8 Dec	Common Koel East Ringwood Early hours of the morning in East Ringwood. Also early evening the night before. Very surprised to hear this bird around here but it most definitely was this bird and have checked sound of Koel on Birds in Backyards. Presume it was a single male. Why would it be this far down? The floods? Linda Hibbs
Tue 7 Dec	White-bellied Sea-Eagle Eildon Pondage Pair of adult sea-eagles soaring above pondage around midday. One swooped ducks with brood, could not tell if it took one or not but flew off low followed by the other one. Ian Sutherland
	Satin Flycatcher Kensington One female Satin Flycatcher sighted outside my house in Kensington at dusk Anne Palamountain
	Ruff, Australasian Bittern, Buff-banded Rail Western Treatment Plant , Werribee. Ruff observed with three Greenshank on the southerm side of the central spit in the Paradise Road Ponds at 1740hrs. Bittern observed flying north from Lake Borrie (Pond 9) over Little River at 1545hrs. Two Buff-banded Rail beside track to Kirk Point just south west of Beach Road, another Rail beside 15 East outlet drain. Other observations of note, two adult and two juvenile Brolga in T Section Swamp/Grassland, Common, Little, Whiskered and Fairy Terns east from Kirk Point. Thousands of Australian Shelduck present, Red -necked Stint quite plentiful, no Sandpipers sighted. Peter Gibbons, Dave Torr, Christine Shelley and Tim De Boer, visiting from the Netherlands.
	Grey Goshawk (White Morph) Geelong Rd. Mt Clear Further to Tanya Loos report of 21 Nov this bird appears to be establishing in this area. This morning (7.30am) observed a Grey Goshawk being harrassed by 6 - 8 Galah near my home at 1028. Eventually the Goshawk flew into tall trees (Eucalypts) on a vacant block opposite my home. Colin Johnson
Mon 6 Dec	Blue-winged Parrot Belgrave South A pair of Blue-winged Parrots flew over as we were picking up a Christmas tree from a field on the downward slopes of Belgrave Hallam Road. There are anecdotal reports of these birds breeding on nearby properties. Simon Mustoe
	Grey-tailed Tattler Western Treatment Plant (WTP) Werribee One Grey-tailed Tattler seen at Kirk Point. This is only my second record for the WTP. My first one was on the 3.11.1988. I also saw one Grey Plover at the Spit. It's good to see the two Brolga chicks are looking like healthy immatures. Maarten Hulzebosch
	Common Koel Newtown, Geelong In suburban garden, Newtown. Present this morning also. Glen White
	Koel Edwards Park, Port Melbourne Koel heard calling at 3am. Calls were faint at first, separated by long silences, and slowly became louder - sounded like the bird was moving between calls. Eventually calls faded into the distance. Roger Smith
	Common Koel Syndal (near corner Orchard & Cherry Sts) Heard calling around 7:15am. Another family member who slept badly heard what were probably Koel calls in the small hours as well. Jack Krohn
Sun 5 Dec	White-throated Nightjar Bunyip State Park A pair was observed near Link Track in an area to be prescribed burnt next autumn called Rankins David Lockwood
	Turquoise Parrot Bunyip State Park Sighted in an area burnt on Black Saturday. David Lockwood
	Rufous Fantail, King Parrot & Peregrine Falcon Mornington Peninsula Historically low count of ninety species for the day for the Mornington Peninsula area for Challenge Bird Count last Sunday. Highlights were the 1 x Rufous Fantail and 3 x King Parrots at Baldrys Crossing as well as the 3 x Peregrine Falcons at a mist filled Mooraduc Quarry. Noticeable increases - parrots, especially YTBC, Rosella's - Crimson and Eastern. Noticeable absences - migratory waders and ducks of most kind (unusual hybrid Teal pairings occurring on Portsea Lagoon). Bell Miners appear to have gone from Mooraduc Quarry - eaten themselves out of house and home. So stuffed trying to crack the100 it has take until now for the author (Eve) to be able reach her computer to record results ! Tania Ireton, Eve Flain, Mathew Roach
	Lewin's Rail, Common Sandpiper, Wedge-tailed Eagle. Eastern Treatment Plant Highlights of the ETP count included Lewin's Rail, Common Sandpiper, Wedge-tailed Eagle and Eastern Rosella. Notable by their total absence were Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and several duck species. Several species were nesting and it looks as if a pair of Yellow-billed Spoonbills are utilising the now vacated White-faced Herons nest. Mike Carter, Dawn Neylan, David Stabb, Andrew Wood & Andrew McCutcheon.
	Plumed Whistling-Duck Boomahnoomoonah SE of Yarrawonga 5 on a bank in flooded paddock with 2 Australian Shelduck. South of the junction of Keenans Road and Inchbold Road. Many local roads under water. Bill Morecraft.
	Plumed Whistling-Duck Wilby A pair over the backyard in the late afternoon before landing in a neighbours dam. Finding them in many places this year. Michael Ramsey
	Plumed Whistling-Duck Wilby A pair over the backyard in the late afternoon before landing in a neighbours dam. Finding them in many places this year. Michael Ramsey
	Grey-crowned Babbler, Plumed Whistling-Duck Strathmerton Cell One lone GCB seen in roadside veg north of Strathmerton also 2 PWD in a farm dam Matthew Vinicombe
	Brown Treecreeper Strathtulloh Woodland Three Brown Treecreepers in Strathtulloh at Exford. One seen & two others heard. Odd habitat, old Grey Box trees but no shrubby understory or woody debris; tall grassy understory only. Also a Brown Falcon seen feeding two young birds on unidentifiable bird remains, in a dead tree beside Toolern Creek. 15 species seen: Brown Treecreepers, Brown Goshawk, Brown Falcon, Willy Wagtail, Grey Fantail, Red Wattlebirds, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Golden Whistler, Yellow-tailed Thornbill, Little Thornbill, Red-rumped Parrot, Eastern Rosella, Magpie, Little Raven, Mudlark Daryl Akers
Sat 4 Dec	Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Chesterfield Farm, Scoresby early am (1). Peter Booth

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