One spinoff from searching for nocturnal birds is that you often see other
fauna especially mammals. The only drawback is that you can’t add them to the
tally. We had great views of a Long-nosed Potoroo at the base of the Gibraltar
Range and two Rufous Bettongs between the Range and Grafton. A young Parma
Wallaby in the Washpool and a third Rufous Bettong on the way to the coast were
others seen. Dodging large alpha male Eastern Grey Kangaroos on the road was
also an entertaining pastime which kept us on our guard. It was still dark
when we left the house on the coast north-west of Grafton the next morning. As
we climbed into the Land Cruiser we heard a Brush Cuckoo, our first bird of the
day. Off to the coastal heath where it was still very dark due to heavy cloud
cover. It wasn’t long though until we heard a Ground Parrot and also ticked
off White-cheeked and Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. Then to the estuary where we
were welcomed by a vociferous Leaden Flycatcher as we were trying to identify a
flock of small terns that weren’t right to be Little or Common Terns. It
turned out that they were Whiskered Terns, more common in freshwater wetlands
than estuaries in our area. A grey morp Eastern Reef Egret, a Striated Heron
and a diversity of shorebirds were added to the list. Two small plump
shorebirds took some time to identify as the overcast weather made them look
darker than normal. They were Sanderlings, a species not usually found in this
estuary. As we left the estuary an Eastern Osprey flew over the road and
brought the total to 141 at 6.17 am. At a small lake nearby a Swamp Harrier
was observed and a pair of Pied Oystercatchers was at their nest and at a rock
platform two Sharp-tailed Sandpipers were the first seen by us for the season.
A large raft of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were foraging off the rocks but the
Australasian Gannet was nowhere to be seen. Four Coastal Emus were in a cane
paddock on the trip back to the Pacific Highway. As we disembarked from the
vehicle at the Iluka Nature Reserve we heard a monarch. Someone called out
Spectacled Monarch and we all agreed at first but then I the realised that it
was a White-eared Monarch and not a Spectacled Monarch. We did add Spectacled
Monarch as well as Regent Bowerbird and Large-billed Scrubwren before leaving
the rainforest for the estuary. At an inlet we heard Mangrove Honeyeater and
then on to Woody Head. The extremely high tide meant that all of the
shorebirds and terns were clustered together on rocks, making it relatively
easy to check them off. There were Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers and Little
and Common Terns, making 180 species at 9.39 am. To be continued.
Greg Clancy
Head Stalker
Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon team.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
