Birdline Victoria Weekly Update

Birdline Victoria

Published sightings for the week ending 12 Jun 2011.

Sun 12 Jun	Buff-banded Rail, Lewin's Rail, Australian Spotted Crake, Spotless Crake Western Treatment Plant, Werribee Two Buff-banded Rail on banks of Little River near the ford. Australian Spotted Crake heard calling at length and seen briefly near hide. Lewin's Rail and Spotless Crake were both heard near hide. Paul Dodd, Ruth Woodrow, Vanessa Wiggenraad & Alex Schipperen
	Brown Quail Point Cook Coastal Park 12+ seen: 6+ behind the bird hide, under bushes but plenty of time in the open, then 6 more past the very last carpark, 2 flushed then 4 strolling on the track. None of my field guides mentioned how adorable they are! Jackson Airey
	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Eastern Treatment Plant At least 4 birds amonst the she-oaks along the northern boundary of the property alongside the Carrum Watersports centre. Glenn Boyd
Sat 11 Jun	White-backed Swallow, Great Crested Grebe, Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo, Little Eagle Winton Wetlands A beautiful winter morning at the wetlands with many species seen. At the duck pond, a single White-backed Swallow was seen, great to be here again. One Great Crested Grebe was observed with the scope out from the old boat ramp. An overwintering Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo also seen nearby. A lovely looking dark morph Little Eagle was also observed soaring over grasslands with a snow-capped Mt Buller in the background. Michael Ramsey
	Regent Honeyeater Lurg Hills Following up the sightings of Regent Honeyeaters in the Lurg Hills earlier in the week, I managed to find one bird this morning. It was seen well for nearly 1/2 an hour and came quite close, singing well and at times mimicking a Red Wattlebird. At other times it was feeding in nearby Mugga Ironbark blossom (as in the attached photo). Hopefully it stays around for a while. Michael Ramsey
	Buff-banded Rail Chesterfield Farm, Scoresby Buff-banded Rail (1) 7.45am. edge of bike path east of driveway, not disturbed when I rode right past it, but when I stopped further along, to look back, it skulked off into the Nutgrass (Cyperus rotunda) Peter Booth
Fri 10 Jun	Blue-billed Duck, Spotless Crake Troups Creek Wetland Went looking for the Australasian Bitterns reported yesterday with no luck. Found 4 Blue-billed Ducks instead, 3 Males and 1 Female. Also a single Spotless Crake foraging around the outskirts of the eastern-most pond. Dan Weller
	Little Corella In and around Matlock St Canterbury Victoria A huge flock (200+) of Little Corella all but took over Matlock street, stripping seed husks from Liquidambar trees. The street is now coated with a carpet of green and ripe ripped-open seed husks. Another visitor (now regular) to the area consisted of a small number of Pied Currawongs (10 -20) and Little Ravens (10+) were keeping a respectful distance. Resident Magpies and Wattlebirds appeared to be totally bemused. A large flock of Silvereye (30-50) flew over head towards Box Hill. All in all an entertaining morning in suburbia. Ivan Traverso
Thu 9 Jun	Australasian Bittern Troups Creek Wetland (38°01'24.5"S/145°17'01.9"E) Two Australian Bitterns flushed from reed beds at ~9:30am today. Good views of both birds flying and when they landed. Neil Shelley, Max Burrows
	Regent Honeyeater Lurg Hills 2 further Regent Honeyeater sightings in the Lurg Hills, one near the Quarries and the other a few km south of Greta West.The copious Ironbark blossom this year has attracted hordes of honeyeaters. An earlier Regent sighting was during Easter near Kelly Gap, where it stayed for a week on the Ironbark blossom once again. [Ed note: a very big tick (in both sense of the term) to the community based Regent Honeyeater Habitat Restoration Project in the Lurg Hills, near Benalla. TD], Per Ray Thomas
Wed 8 Jun	Black-faced Cormorant Flinders Pier Black-faced Cormorant (11) 3 Seen Fishing , 8 Roosting on Boat 5 at rear of boat and 3 very windblown birds on the front . Colin Mulvogue
	Brown Skua, Shy Albatross, Black-browed Albatross Pint Lonsdale lighthouse A large skua with uniformly brown head, body and tail flying into very strong SW wind, low to water, with purposeful deep wingbeats. Distinctly barrel-chested and solidly built with broad slightly back swept pointed wings with pale flash. Proportionately short tail. Lost from sight in swell after ~1 min. Also 25 Shy Albatross, one Black-browed. Also one Black-faced Cormorant, 30+ Australasian Gannets. And just to alert other observers, very brief glimpses of two separate Prion-like birds with light wingbeats, pale grey above and white below, then lost in swell within seconds. Also ~20 Fluttering(?) Shearwaters along way out, dark above and pale below. Craig Morley
	Australian Shelduck Napoleon Rd, Ferntree Gully A pair on recently mowed paddock adjacent to the creek near Glenfern Rd. Greg Cobern
Tue 7 Jun	Little Eagles Lara, near Geelong I headed down to Lara, near Geelong in search of the species following useful info on this website that the area is one of the best spots to see them. I was fortunate to see a pair flying overhead - both colour morphs. They flew into a gully, then disappeared out of view. I headed over the paddocks and obviously caught them by suprise - they were feeding on a rabbit. Great experience! Also got to see an Australian Hobby next to a Galah. Contact me if interested. Andrew Martin. (0401 303 Andrew Martin
Mon 6 Jun	Blue-billed Duck Seaford Wetlands A pair of Blue-billed ducks, 3 Hardheads also seen and a Australian Hobby. Anthea Stubbs
	Black-faced Cormorant, Pacific Gull Williamstown A single Black-faced Cormorant on the rocks just at the end of the path across the park from the station. Several Pacific Gulls in the same area. Tony Keene
	Swift Parrot, Little Lorikeet Royal Park Golf course, Melbourne. A flock of 22 Swift Parrots feeding in a large gum around 3.00 pm. East of the tram lines, and half-way down the line of trees that bisects that part of the park between the tram lines and Poplar Road. A group of about a dozen Little Lorikeets were in the tallest gum alongside the railway line near the station. Musk and Rainbow Lorikeets were everywhere and a single Scaly-breasted Lorikeet. Tony Keene
	Little Corella Box Hill Around dusk on 17 May, about 300 roosted in eucalypts near the busy Whitehorse Rd- Nelson Rd intersection. Antics on arrival included 360 degree spins on electric service wire and appearing to case out the Dept of Social Security building by looking in through the tinted windows. Knud Hansen
	Scarlet Honeyeater, Collared Sparrowhawk, Red-browed Treecreeper, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike Lake Tyers Coastal Park (Lonely Bay) Notable sightings from today's EGBOC outing included 5 Scarlet Honeyeaters and single sightings of a Collared Sparrowhawk, Rose Robin and Crested Shrike-tit from the Fern Loop walk. Adjacent to the picnic area at the end of the signposted road, 2 White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes (dark morph) and a Red-browed Treecreeper were noted. Ironbarks are in full bloom at the moment attracting large numbers of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and Red Wattlebirds as well. 15 EGBOC members per Len Axen
	Spotless Crake Western Treatment Plant Have noticed fewer rails and crakes the past couple of weeks, but getting an opportunity to both view and photo a Spotless Crake is right up there in terms of satisfying birding. Hedley Earl
	Swift Parrot Newport Lakes Park 6 Swift Parrot hurtling overhead in a northerly direction. Also around was a beautifully marked female Flame Robin, an Eastern Spinebill is still kicking about and Song Thrush have started singing in the last week or so. Steve Davidson
	Buff-banded Rail Deep Lead, Vic. (12 km from Stawell) Have observed it last 3 days on our property, in the garden around our house. First sighting here. Ruth and Ross Hatton
Sun 5 Jun	Buff-banded Rail North Circular Road, Gladstone Park A roadkill found at a very busy Rylandes Drive roundabout adjacent to a sports reserve with some planted strips of dense shrubbery; will be deposited at the Museum in due course. Charles Silveira
Wed 1 Jun	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Piont Nepean Spotted early morning at Point Nepean. Only got a chance for one picture but heard another one in the distance. David Kelly
	Orange Bellied Parot WTP Borrow pit Mid morning I sighted a pair of parrots which I believe were orange bellied on the far side of the borrow pits. Initially the birds were sitting on top of a 2 metre high bush then after about 10 minutes they flew down to feed on the edge of one of the centre islands. After a further 5 minutes or so they then flew into denser low glasswort where they were well hidden from view. Hedley Earl
Sat 28 May	Orange-bellied Parrot Western Treatment Plant 5 Neophemas flying overhead at Borrow Pit 8am this morning. Appeared dark green with bright orange belly markings on at least 2 birds. Not calling so identification difficult but considered most likely O.B.P's. Another 2 birds were seen around 9 am in the same area in similar circumstances with Peter Lansley. Scott Baker
Wed 25 May	Tern sp (formally reported as White-tailed Tropicbird) Brighton The White-tailed Tropicbird reported from Brighton Pier was corrected as a mis-identified tern sp. Per Martin O'Brien

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