Birdline Victoria Weekly Update

Birdline Victoria

Published sightings for the week ending 20 Feb 2011.

Sun 20 Feb	Spotted Quail-thrush Stanley State Forest, Yackandandah A random roadside stop in Stanley State Forest turned up an excellent mix of species, including a large group of sitella (20+), 2 jostling male scarlet robins and a group of buff-rumped thornbill ground foraging with a family of grey shrike-thrush and a pair of spotted quail-thrush (male and female). They were very trusting and fed just off the road, not concerned by the bloke with his binoculars just a few metres away. Other good birds included rufous fantail, white-throated gerygone, and fan-tailed cuckoo. Matt Weeks
	Diamond Dove Private bushland north of Deep Lead Nature Conservation Reserve, Stawell. A single bird was observed for over 5 minutes in a low Box eucalypt over dense heathy vegetation. It then flew further afield to a dead tree and commenced calling, possibly indicating that it is not alone at the site (?). Peaceful Dove was commonly observed and heard. Apparently it is uncommon to find Diamond Dove as far south and in the Stawell area. Chris Lindorff
	Azure Kingfisher. Brownhill. Ballarat Male Azure Kingfisher taking Damsel Flies near small creek in Hillscrest Road at 1700 hours. Also in immeadiate area 1 Eastern Spinebill and one Yellow-faced Honeyeater. Warren Palmer.
	Plumed Whistling-Duck & Gull-billed Tern Western Treatment Plant, Werribee 32 Plumed Whistling-Ducks (10 in 85 W Pond C9 and 22 in southern half of Summer Pond on Austin Road) and a single Gull-billed Tern seen feeding over a number of ponds from Lake Borrie in the morning to the Beach Road gate in the afternoon, were the highlights for the day. John barkla, Fred Smith & Alison Street
Sat 19 Feb	Plumed Whistling-duck Newmerella A group of 20 Plumed Whistling-ducks were observed during a waterfowl count near Newmerella today. Tony Mitchell per Len Axen
	Black Falcon Serendip Sanctuary, Lara Single Black Falcon seen in the morning over the Kangaroo and Emu enclosure. This is the first Black Falcon we've seen at Serendip for at least seven months. Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow
	Grey Goshawk (White Morph) Springbank Road, Springbank Stunning White Morph Grey Goshawk on roadside fence about halfway between Springbank and Pootilla on Springbank Road. Colin Clark
	Powerful Owl Borthwick Park, Belgrave Powerful Owl - complete with Ringtail Possum snack- sat in a tree fairly low down over the path through Borthwick Park about 1230. The local Currowongs were not impressed.... Mike Honeyman
	Red-chested and Little Button-quail, Brown and Stubble Quail, Budgerigar Wilby Hit the quail jackpot today. A Red-chested Button-quail finally seen on Martin Street, just down from the Yarrawonga Rd. A female bird was flushed from the weedy edge of a canola crop that was too wet to harvest, rufous chest and sides of tail seen, another heard a few hundreds metres nearby as well. A male Little Button-quail also nearby in wheat stubble, white sides of the tail seen on this bird. Many Stubble Quail flushed as well and also 2 Brown Quail on Martin Street as well. Another surprise sighting was a small flock of 7 Budgies over Stewart Street heading south to the bushland reserve. Spotted Harrier and Nankeen Night Heron also some good birds on a cracking day. Michael Ramsey
Fri 18 Feb	Swamp Harrier Near Swan Bay on Swan Bay Rd Observed Swamp Harrier swooping Purple Swamphen on nest, after several unsuccesful attempts to remove Swamphen flew off in direction of Mannerim. Alan Palmer
	Plumed Whistling-Duck, Stilt Sandpiper Western Treatment Plant, Werribee 27 Plumed Whistling-Duck at Paradise Rd lagoons around 1pm, very flighty. Stilt Sandpiper with 3 Common Greenshankat T-section Pond 7 (Note: sorry Frank, should've got your number!). Steve Davidson - The Melbourne Birder
	Brown Songlark Beveridge Camerons Lane 250mts East of YVW property , driveway. One bird seen on fence post , other bird , same site after calling flew to ground , Have been present here since Late December (2). Colin Mulvogue
Thu 17 Feb	Blue-billed Duck Lignum Swamp, north of Campbelltown on the Moolort Plains Pair of Blue-billed Ducks - first I have seen on the plains since the swamps filled in late winter. Geoff Park
	Stubble and Brown Quail, Red-chested and Little Button-quail. Rupanyup North area Quail all flushed yesterday while harvesting wheat crop. Black Kite (3) Black Falcon (2) Whistling Kite (1) all hunting over crop and adjacent swamp on same day. All the above quail have been regularly flushed by the header during this harvest. Numbers have been considerably higher than in previous years Ian Morgan
Wed 16 Feb	Gull-billed Tern, Arctic Jaeger and Brown Quail Western Treatment Plant, Werribee An immature Gull-billed Tern was on the coast just east of Beach Road with a selection of other species for comparison (Crested, Common, Fairy, Little and White-winged Black). The Arctic Jaeger (reported to me last Sunday by Michael Seyfort) was harassing Silver Gulls offshore. The Brown Quail were in the middle of the road between Paradise Road and the Little River ford. John Barkla, Mike & Judy Healy from Canada
	Marsh Sandpiper Truganina Swamp,Altona A single Marsh Sandpiper feeding in the shallow lagoon area overlooked from hide.First of this species I've seen at this site this season. David Richardson
	Yellow-collared Lovebird Taylors Lakes (Melbourne Suburb) Andre rRasquinha
	White-throated Needletail Newport, Melbourne Single WT Needletail seen high overhead amidst unsettled conditions this morning. Swifts have been decidedly more scarce on the west side of town this summer compared to other years. Anyway it was a new one for my backyard list which I'm sure everyone will be happy about... Steve Davidson - The Melbourne Birder
	Little Lorikeet, Musk Lorikeet, Rainbow Lorikeet Heatherdale Railway Station, Heatherdale All three Lorikeet species have been around the station on a morning over the last two weeks. I counted 8 Little Lorikeets this morning as they departed in a flock at around 7:30am. Jackson Airey
Tue 15 Feb	Nankeen Night-Heron Lot 1 Amy Johnson Highway, Rainbow Juvenile. Clumsily landed in Yellow Gum above campsite just after dark. Able to distinguish from Australasian Bittern (spotted pattern on wings), however, the legs were clearly olive-green and not yellow. The individual was 3-4 kilometres from a waterbody (Lake Hindmarsh). (1). Chris Lindorff
	Hooded Plover Point Roadknight About an hour around 9am. Mid-tide. 9 including 3 immature. 2 adults with orange leg band/marker: PP and KM. Also 25 Crested Tern, 1 with silver leg band. Malcolm Cousland
	Rainbow Bee-eater Kamarooka State Forest Large flock of Rainbow Bee Eaters flocking around the Mulga Dam, on Camp Road. This is the same area that hundreds of Woodswallows flocked last March prior to migrating north. Murray Chambers
	Collared Sparrowhawk, Large-billed Scrubwren Cabbage Tree Palms Reserve Interesting observations from this morning's survey included a very vocal Collared Sparrowhawk repeatedly calling from the canopy of E Botryoides within the picnic ground and a pair of Large-billed Scrubwrens actively feeding near the end of the pathway. Black-faced Monarchs and Rufous Fantails are still present while Scarlet Honeyeaters are still the most numerous honeyeater to be found within the reserve. Len and Jacquie Axen
	White- fronted Honeyeater Deep Lead, Vic. (12 km from Stawell) Observed for 2nd time coming to drink at bird bath in our garden. First viewing was on 29/1/11. We believe it is at the outer edge of its usual range. Ruth and Ross Hatton
Mon 14 Feb	Gang-gang Cockatoo Wattle Park, Surrey Hills A pair of Gang-gangs was calling and flying about trees near the oval in Wattle Park in the late afternoon. Merrilyn Serong
	Long-billed Corella Batesford Road near Warrigal Road 120+ Long-billed Corellas in a tree just within Holmesglen TAFE, near blue sculpture opposite Mobil, 9 pm. Debbie Lustig
	Brush Bronzewing Lake Bunga (E of Lakes Entrance) Two calling in ti-tree and banksia scrub in dunes behind ocean beach. Also 2 Peregrine Falcons, 2 Musk Duck on Lakes Entrance sewerage treatment ponds, 1 immature Pallid Cuckoo. Two broods of well-grown Eurasian Coot (one of 3, one of 4). EGBOC group (per Chris Healey)
Sun 13 Feb	Barbary Dove Maddox Road, Williamstown (nr Kororoit Crk mouth) 1 bird seen on powerlines. George Appleby
	Brolga Queenscliff narrows, Bellarine Peninsula Flying west. Also flock of 22 Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos heading NE. Hugo Phillipps
	Soft-plumaged Petrel, Long-tailed Jaeger, Blue Whale South of Portland 1 SPP with excellent views and 2 LTJ at the shelf break. At least 4 Blue Whales near Lawrence Rocks and to the east. BA-Vic Portland Pelagic per Chris Lester
	Buff-banded Rail Mt Duneed Sighted adult Buff-banded Rail attempting to cross very busy road, that leads to Torquay, with 2 small chicks at 1900 hrs. Warren Palmer.
Sat 12 Feb	Large Billed Scrubwren Mt Burnett , nr. Cockatoo,Dandenongs A female caught and banded in the evening. Normally very hard to see . Graham Beal
Fri 11 Feb	Osprey, Hooded Plover Apollo Bay Osprey: Flew quite low overhead, by the mouth of the Barham River, north towards the golf course. Hooded Plover: 2 spotted behind roped area, southern side of Barham River Chris Lunardi
Tue 1 Feb	Pacific Golden Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Hooded Plover and unusual Pacific Gull shoreline and rocks east of Black Rock On consecutive days over the weekend during low tide we were able to sight and photograph the following birds: Ruddy Turnstones(group of 6 as previously reported) Pacific Golden Plovers (flock of about 25) 3 Hooded Plovers (2 adults and healthy chick) Pacific Gull, immature with a white tipped bill(haven't seen this in any of our many bird books!) single Bar Tailed Godwit All of these sightings were within 100 metres of the rocky ledge east of the Black Rock point. hedley and Irena Earl

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