Birdline Victoria Weekly Update

Birdline Victoria

Published sightings for the week ending 8 May 2011.

Sun 8 May	Azure Kingfisher Pound Bend, Warrandyte State Park Single bird, plumage in beautiful condition & colour, fishing along right bank about 0.5 km upstream along riverside track from picnic area - 9.30 AM. Peter Bennet
	Swift Parrots Muckleford Great morning at least 40 if not more swifties this morning Debbie Worland
Sat 7 May	Intermediate Egret Western Treatment Plant, Werribee 1 near Western Lagoon ; also 1 Buff-banded Rail, ca 50 Australasian Grebes, only 3 Red-necked Stints, several Striated Fieldwrens and 7 Blue-winged Parrots. Maxime Zucca
	Fan-tailed Cuckoo Plenty Gorge Park (Yellow Gum Park) Fan-tailed Cuckoo (2) Two birds seen together. Female call heard as well as downward trill. Richard & Margaret Alcorn
	Barn Owl Old Geelong Rd, Hoppers Crossing A single bird roosting in my brother-in-laws "Brakes Plus" workshop (mention this report for absolutely no discount on your next brake check!!!) Paul Randall (wingsonwire.com)
	Buff-banded Rail Chesterfield Farm, Scoresby Early am. south-east corner, near Eastlink, east side of cycle-path bridge, venturing out from a clump of Lomandra longifolia (Mat-rush). Peter Booth
Fri 6 May	Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos Strathdale, Bendigo About 40 just few over our house. I heard them long before I saw them. Largest single group I have seen since they hit town about 2 years ago. Murray Chambers
	Brown Quail Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Lake Borrie near pond 24 At 11am this morning I was surprised to see a pair of Brown Quail wandering along the track with about 6 Crested Pigeons just near pond 24. It is the first time I have seen them inside the treatment plant. The Sea Eagles are still around the outlet to Lake Borrie. Quite a flock of Tree Martins near the Borrow Pit. Hedley Earl
	Swift Parrots, Alexandrine Parakeet Ballam Park Reserve, Frankston Apparently Single female Alexandrine Parrot with Rainbow Lorikeets. Hopefully only an escapee not a release or local. Also 28 Swift Parrots Gavin Masters & Mal Chicksen
	Cattle Egret, Great Crested Grebe, Flame Robin Winton Wetlands 34 Cattle Egret were seen feeding with cattle along the Lake Mokoan Road, quite a good number. I assume they feed out in the paddocks during the day and roost in the wetlands at night. They are scarce autumn/winter migrants in the north-east. Two Great Crested Grebes also seen and 3 beautiful male Flame Robins in the late afternoon light, were observed near the old boat ramp. Michael Ramsey
Thu 5 May	Swift Parrot Royal Park, Parkville 6 species of Psittaculidae in the park, along the tram line, on the golf : Swifts Parrots, numerous Rainbow and Musk Lorikeets, 6-7 Little Lorikeets, 10-12 Red-rumped Parrot, 4 Eastern rosella ! Maxime Zucca
	Pied Currawongs Harold Holt Pool Glen iris Minimum of 28 very vocal birds converged on one tree on High Street just over an hour ago and still in area. Are they migrating? I live a few hundred metres away and have only ever seen a few around at the one time. Can still here them and it is almost dark. The resident Little Ravens are beside themselves. Fiona Parkin
	Little Corella MacLeay Park, North Balwyn Little Corrella flock in recent weeks have become a daily occurrence in the park behind and are there now as I write this. No observation to date of actual estimate of numbers. Colin James O'Brien
	Northern Giant-Petrel Lakes Entrance Golf course Northern Giant Petrel on the ground reported to DSE staff. Juvenile bird taken to vets but died yesterday. Cause of death starvation, due to blockage caused by piece of plastic lodged in stomach. Sad loss. Faye Bedford
	Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo South-east Bendigo suburbs Just now a flock of about 8 to 10 have flown overhead. Just this morning a friend told me she had sighted this species near her property near the Greater Bendigo National Park (One Tree Hill) They were not there when I went out just before noon. Kerryn Ryan
	swift parrot Truganina swamp,Altona 2 Swift Parrots flew in to briefly join mixed feeding flock of Rainbow,Musk and Little Lorikeets in flowering eucalypts near Bell Avenue entrance,then flew off in direction of Kooringal Golf course.14:00hrs David Richardson
Wed 4 May	Cape Barren Goose Castlemaine Sewerage Pond One individual sited today in the vicinity of the pondage. Image taken by Geoff Park yesterday (5 May). Ian Higgins per Adrian Martins
	Barking Owl Violet Town 1 perched on power-line in main street of Violet Town at 9pm Doug Robinson
	Spotted Pardalote Boort 10' Cell Hendersons Rd on flowering mallee (1). First for this cell - many seen further south recently. Malcolm Cousland
	Peregrine Falcon Melbourne seen flying in southerly direction while traveling on Westgate FWY passing Docklands area.14:53hrs David Richardson
	Barking Owl Mahon Lane, Osbornes Flat (Yackandandah) An unidentified Ninox owl sitting on the swing support when I returned home last night, confirmed as a Barking Owl as it barked its way through the night. It has been around for a few days now. Matt Weeks
	Little Eagle Coldstream Driving through private property in Coldstream this morning I flushed a pale morph Little Eagle from the ground beneath one of the cypress trees that line the roadway. Mobbed by a couple of magpies and mudlarks as it took flight. Great close-up views of a species I've seen quite rarely in the Yarra Valley over the years. Steven Creber
	Swift Parrot Royal Park, Parkville At least 8 Swift Parrots seen feeding in flowering Spotted Gum along tramlines, between Park St and Royal Park Station at around 8am this morning. Nicole Spillane & Paul Jacobson
Tue 3 May	Little Corrella Camberwell Junction, Camberwell 5pm a flock of between 100-150 Little Corella just flew North over Camberwell Junction making a considerable ruckus. Jackson Airey
	Black-faced Cormorant, Arctic Jaeger, Flame Robin, Common Tern Point Gellibrand Coastal Heritage Park, Williamstown Lots of birds about around midday, with a Black-faced Cormorant perched on rocky point near Shelley Beach with Pied Corms, a light phase Arctic Jaeger seen offshore harassing Crested Terns, a late Common Tern in alternate plumage, and 3 Flame Robin - male and 2 brown birds, foraging and flying around foreshore & playground area; one brown singing consistently. Also 2 Sooty Oystercatchers on rocks and a Nankeen Kestrel over the footy oval. Pays to have the nocs in the car even on playground visits... Steve & Wren Davidson
Mon 2 May	Buff-banded Rail Vacant land, Galvin St, Altona Seen wandering in the marshy area that formed after rain earlier this year. Despite the lack of cover, it continued to feed in the open just 20m from the footpath as I watched at about 7.30am. Peter Shute
	Peregrine Falcon, Collared Sparrowhawk Westgate Park While conducting our regular monthly bird survey we saw a Peregrine Falcon and immature Collared Sparrowhawk, both in the process of consuming the last remains of recently caught prey. Thanks go to the local White-plumed Honeyeaters for drawing our attention to the sparrowhawk which is the same bird reported on 27/4. Also of interest were three Flame Robins, an estimated 9-10 Spotted Pardalotes and at least 20 Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters. Andrew McCutcheon, Euan Moore & Rob Youl
	Brown Quail, Scarlet Robin, Powerful Owl Blackburn Lake Scarlet Robin (M & F) have been present southern end of Appletree Track for past week, with mixed flock. Powerful Owl was perched on half a Brushtail Possum yesterday, May 1, just to east of northern end of Bursaria Track; only pellets today. Brown Quail (M?) at very southern end of Appletree Track. Trevor Kerr
	Blue-winged Parrot Eastern Treatment Plant A single Blue-winged Parrot was seen at the Eastern Treatment Plant. Also seen was Little Eagle (1) and Red-kneed Dotterel (19) Mike Carter & David Stabb per Tim Dolby
Sun 1 May	Turquoise Parrot Earlston, 13 km north of Violet Town 1 in regrowth box-ironbark forest on private land. Second record here in past 16 years Doug Robinson
	Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo karkarook park Four Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos landed on a tree on the east boundary of Karkarook Park. First time I have seen them there. David Fleming
	Flame Robin Latrobe University Wildlife Reserve A beautiful male bird beside the Central Wetland in the eastern part of the Reserve. A common winter migrant back in the 1970s, now much less so. Anthea Fleming
	Lewin's Rail Western Treatment Plant, Little River At least 4 Lewins Rails calling in shrubby glasswort vegetation along the river edge next to the bird hide track. Site is around 520 m from intersection with Lake Borrie track and the track to the bird hide, past the trees at the bend in the road, but before the vegetation changes to mostly saltbush towards the hide. Birds were adjacent to track on both the river side and in the reeds on the pond side. Erika Anderson & Mel Mitchell
	Little Corella Ivanhoe About 5 pm a very large flock of Little Corellas flew over our house (by Darebin Creek, downstream of Heidelberg Rd), travelling eastwards. Hundreds of birds all calling and screeching. Anthea Fleming
	Great Shearwater, Sooty Albatross, Brown Skua South of Portland One of each on the trip with great views of the former. In the end, we had good species diversity but a general lack of bird numbers. We also had a late Blue Whale and a Southern Right Whale quite close to Lawrence Rocks. Chris Lester, Rob Farnes and the BA-Vic Pelagic Group
Sat 30 Apr	Caspian Tern North Arm, Gippsland Lakes A single tern seen fishing along the North Arm Anthea Stubbs
	Darter, Little Black Cormorant, Great Cormorant Elsternwick Park The two cormorants joined the Darter, which has been seen here for a couple of weeks. Sitting on a slider turtle trap. Also a White-faced Heron here for a couple of hours. Resident swan pair not seen for a week. Debbie Lustig
	White-winged Fairy-wren, Australian Spotted Crake, Plumed Whistling-Duck The Meadows, Terrick Terrick National Park White-winged Fairy-wren: Group of 5-6 birds that had 3 males in full plumage. Australian Spotted Crake: Allowed quiet approach to within about 6m across water, feeding. (1). Plumed Whistling-Duck: Adults and younger birds, number is minimum seen, likely more (20). Is this Victoria's best kept secret site? Or am I just catching up with the late news? Jackson Airey
Thu 28 Apr	Noisy Friarbird Huntly 1 on power line just out of main township . Not a species commonly seen around the Bendigo National Park areas Kerryn Ryan
Tue 26 Apr	Gang-gang Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo Heathmont Gang-gang Cockatoo: Around the area most of the day (8). Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo: Feeding in nearby pines (11). William Paul

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