Birdline Victoria Weekly Update

Birdline Victoria

Published sightings for the week ending 19 Feb 2012.

Sat 18 Feb	Spotted Harrier Bacchus Marsh At 14:10Hrs today I observed a single immature female Spotted Harrier circling above Clifton Drive in central Bacchus Marsh. David Whelan
	White-throated Needletail Pound Road Warrandyte About 50+ White-throated Neeedletails circling over our property before moving north across the Yarra and Pound Bend Reserve. John Young
	Swift Parrot Egans Lane, Newham At least four flew into eucalypt adjoining house, calling, then settled as if preparing to roost for the night, 7.30 pm. Laurie O'Connor per Tom Fletcher
	Yellow-tufted Honeyeater feeds Pallid Cuckoo! Koala Track, Durdidwarrah Rd, Brisbane Ranges After flushing a Spotted Quail-Thrush up the track we returned to our car at the entrance when a fascinating event unfolded. An immature Pallid Cuckoo was sitting on a branch under fairly dense cover and was repeatedly fed by a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater. We have read about how cuckoos place eggs in honeyeaters nests and then turf out the host eggs but to see it unfold was a fascinating experience. Over a period of about 30 minutes the honeyeater flew in to feed the cuckoo which was more than twice the honeyeater size. Earlier in the day we saw some good birds at Bannockburn reserve including an Australian Hobby and a Wedge tailed eagle. Previously we have visited this site and seen Brown Goshawks protecting their nest hedley and irena earl
	Brown Quail Cheetham Wetlands As I walked through the grass from the wetlands to Laverton Ck about 7.15am, I flushed a dozen or so Brown Quail, the biggest group I've seen here for a while. Click the link for a recording. Peter Shute
	Australian Little Bittern Karkarook Park Australian Little Bittern (1) Juvenile bird first seen at 6:30am flying across one of the southern ponds on Warrigal Rd, then seen perching in reeds in open before it dropped down. Came back up again but further back in the reeds with its neck extended, very difficult to see, then flew off. Seen again at 7:30am when flushed at the NW pond and good views of its black back. Bruce Wedderburn
Fri 17 Feb	Baillon's Crake, Nankeen Night Heron, Latham's Snipe Growling Frog Golf Course Rare sighting to have Baillon's Crake and Latham's snipe at this site. Could be first sighting. Located at back dam of golf course. Baillon's Crake was well observed by several bird watchers along the edges near track. aleks arsoski
	Lyrebird Upper Beaconsfield 3808 I awoke at around 7am to a loud repeated whistle followed by a harsh warble. When I checked outside there was a Lyrebird about three metres from our back door standing on a step. By the time I got my camera it had moved further into the garden and then headed off into the shrubs. It was soon back making a lot of noise and drinking from our fish pond. It then returned close to the house to scratch around in the mulch in the garden beds. It was cautious staying behind shrubs most of the time but peeping out to look at me as I looked at it. First time I have seen one in this area but I did see two together on the roadside near Tanjil Bren on Saturday 11th as I returned from Mt Baw Baw Gary Hill
Thu 16 Feb	Azure Kingfisher Egans Lane, Newham Two Azure Kingfisher seen at small dam and one Sacred Kingfisher in adjoining paddock. This is the first record of the Azure at this location. Ian Miller & Laurie O'Connor per Tom Fletcher
	Buff-banded Rail Eagle Point, Gippsland Lakes Buff-banded Rail (1) 1 bird at dusk on our 600 square metre block (in dense planted shrubs). It appears that this bird has been evicted from a small area of melaleuca swamp due to a subdivision development nearby. Trevor Caldwell & Nancy McMurray
Wed 15 Feb	Rufous Fantail Camberwell 1 immature seen in garden over several days, always foraging with Brown Thornbills. 1st record for local area in several decades. George Appleby
	Crescent Honeyeater etc. Anglesea Heath. Anglesea. Today at noon we observed Crescent, White-eared,Brown-headed,White-naped,Yellow-faced, New Holland Honeyeaters along with a single Eastern Yellow Robin drinking from a smallish pool of water in the table drain along Coalmine road all at the one time. Wonderful sight affording great photo opportunities. Warren&Cheryl Palmer
	Black Falcon Bellarine Highway, in paddock in Wallington, Geelong, Vic Dead rabbit in paddock, walking towards horse and out of pine tree area. A Black Falcon, circled and flew off, obviously waiting for myself to leave, first of two birds of prey in one day!! Alison Dubens
	Wedge-tailed Eagle Between Swan Bay Road, Banks road along Portarlington Road, Portarlington, Victoria Had to slow down in car as was feeding off road kill, majestic bird definitely an adult, reluctant to move away from prey despite car. Ute behind me also saw it, awe inspiring!! Alison Dubens
Tue 14 Feb	Bell Miner Bacchus Marsh Secondary College Very loud call heard repeatedly, then observed a single bird feeding in a large red gum. A local says he's heard it for several days. Bernie McRitchie
	Rufous Bristlebird Point Addis Observed 3 Rufous Bristle Birds at Point Addis at 1700 Hours. 2 adjacent to Point carpark in undergrowth, the other out in the open on the carpark proper. The latter bird was attracted by the rapid noise of my camera shutter and approached very boldly to within 6 meters and stayed put whilst I took many photos of the bird. Warren and Cheryl Palmer.
	Nankeen Night-Heron, Royal Spoonbill, Latham's Snipe Tirhatuan Wetlands Conservation Reserve A busy day on the wetland with lots of fluffy juveniles following their parents and lots of feeding as ephemeral areas are drying out and becoming accessible to most birds. Highlights were 3 Lathams Snipe + 3 Nankeen Night-Herons Phil Rance
Mon 13 Feb	Bell Miner Bacchus Marsh leisure centre (next to Ecolinc) One Bell Miner calling loudly in the Red Gum just outside the door of Bacchus Marsh Leisure Centre gym, beside Ecolinc. Everyone walking by was looking up into the tree, the call was so loud. Defintely a Bell Miner, a greenish bird the size of a Noisy Miner feeding on the Red Gum flowers. It seemed quite at home among the blossoms & the White-plumed honeyeaters. Daryl Akers
	Topknot Pigeon Cabbage Tree Palms Flora Reserve Following on from recent reports at this site, another 26 Topknot Pigeons were observed preening themselves in the canopy of Mahogany Gums near the picnic ground after a short, sharp downpour today. Most of the ripened palm fruit has been eaten but the flock still appears to be using this area as a roosting site. Len and Jacquie Axen
	Regent Parrot Robinvale More than 100 Regent Parrots in several groups of between 6 and 30 birds seen along about 10kms of the Murray Valley Highway from 25 to 35 kms South of Robinvale around 9:00 a.m. This is a big Almond orchard area and now is harvesting season, so I am sure they were doing some harvesting of their own. Likely that many more were in among the orchards. Coming back the same way around 2:00 p.m. next day, none were seen. Bob Cook
	Banded Lapwing Beach Rd, Avalon Pair of Banded Lapwing and three 2-week old chicks in usual paddock on north side of Beach Road between Avalon Airport and WTP. No others present despite group of 21 seen there in late January. Brett Lane, Gabrielle Roy
	Intermediate Egret Freshwater Lake Reserve, Victoria Valley, South Grampians Intermediate Egret (1) a small egret with dark legs and yellow bill, no long 's' bend neck, feet only trailed after tail when inflight, no yellow gap behind eye, did not stand taller then the reeds and water ribbons Samantha Greiner
Sun 12 Feb	Little Eagle Back garden suburban Belmont, Geelong Unmistakable. Not a juvenile - quite brown. Flew away after standing on lawn. Not sure how long it had been there. Have twice seen Little Eagles while further out in the "country" around Geelong, but was very surprised to see this one! Genevieve Ahearne
	Black Falcon Lake Linlithgow One large Black Falcon soaring and perched in trees to the south of the lake during the annual Hamilton Field Nats excursion to the area for waterbird counting. Steve Clark
	Fork-tailed Swift Talgarno Large group about 70 to 100 moving in easterly direction and flying quite high. Peter Wood
Fri 10 Feb	Double-Barred Finch Tooborac Little fellow just appeared on my bird feeder in my garden in Tooborac (just sth of Heathcote). Comes in AM and PM for a feed. There seems to be just the one. (Ed note: interesting report - a possible escapee as they are not an uncommon bird in avairies, although within striking distance of edge of normal range, small numbers can be found around Wodonga with occasional records from Chiltern and the Warby Ranges.) Ivan Rajic
Tue 7 Feb	Brown Treecreeper West Melton Memorial Park Two Brown Treecreepers in old growth Gey Box Grassy Woodland remnant in West Melton Memorial Park (proposed cemetery). Both seen during a couple of visits. About 0.5 km from northern fringe of Melton, on upper reaches of Arnolds Creek & about 0.5 km from Melton Gilgai Woodland in Harkness Road. Daryl Akers
Sun 5 Feb	Little Tern, Australian Magpie Raymond Island Little Tern (1) on jetty timbers with Crested Terns, Silver Gulls and Little Pied Cormorants. Non-breeding plumage. See pic Australian Magpie several seen, including one family with 2 juveniles. One juvenile walked up to us as we were sitting watching an Echidna, then ran toward the Echidna, watched for a while with a fascinated look, then approached and appeared to probe in the ground several times, right next to the Echidna's beak. Echidna seemed completely unconcerned by all this. Magpie did not appear to glean any food, and then trotted off. Janine Duffy
Thu 2 Feb	Buff Banded Rail Mount Eliza (back yard) Early in the morning, heard three to four high pitched calls, every 10 seconds for about 2 minutes. Also at heard calling at night. Saw a pair darting into the native grasses very quickly. Seemed to be shy. Very stunning markings. Kate Butler

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