Birdline Victoria Weekly Update

Birdline Victoria

Published sightings for the week ending 8 Sep 2013.

Sun 8 Sep	White-winged Black Tern Western Treatment Plant A lone White-winged Black Tern was seen foraging over Pond 15, 145W Lagoon this afternoon; an early return from breeding grounds still with black flecking on underwing coverts. Steve Davidson - The Melbourne Birder
Sun 8 Sep	Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Winton Wetlands Two Sharp-tailed Sandpipers in a borrow pit by the dam wall, only the second record here. Michael Ramsey - Bronzewing Birding Services
	Swift Parrot You Yangs Regional Park 6+ Swift Parrots, Black-chinned Honeyeater and Painted Button-quail all within 100m of Visitor Centre. 7 Diamond Firetails, Black Falcon on eastern boundary fenceline. Numerous Tasmanian subspecies striated pardalote scattered throughout southern area of park. John Newman
	Eastern Barn Owl Residential, Corio Victoria. Spotted in a wattle tree, out front of my house, about 9:30am. Peter Marin
Sat 7 Sep	Grey Goshawk, Blue-winged Parrot Barwon Downs 10' Cell Mid morning visit to the area to look for the grey goshawk. Thanks to helpful tips from Tim Bawden our search was successful! Area search included Barwon Downs, Forrest and the Western Barwon Reservoir Grey Goshawk (1) single bird located in a dead tree about 1 kilometre from Forrest. As soon as the bird saw us looking at it it flew off into a very high circuit over nearby timbered areas Blue-winged Parrot (8) loose flock feeding along Middle Muroon road Hedley Earl & Irena Earl
Sat 7 Sep	Gull-billed Tern Western Treatment Plant A single adult-plumaged Gull-billed Tern was cruising along the Spit lagoon around midday, otherwise things pretty quiet at the farm apart from increasing numbers of waders including over 500 on Summer Pond 2, and around 300 along The Spit. Freckled Duck seemed to have all left as well as Banded Stilt and possibly Spotted Harrier. Steven Davidson - The Melbourne Birder
Sat 7 Sep	Swift Parrot, Scarlet Honeyeater, Painted Honeyeater Warby-Ovens National Park (Killawarra Forest) An excellent morning visit to the forest checking out the the area at the start of spring and doing some reconnaissance for an opcoming tour. Spring migrants have returned in force with a few winter migrants still around. Swift Parrot (2) surprised to still find here, in some patchy flowering ironbark near the camp. Scarlet Honeyeater (1) heard at the end of Mattamia Lane, first record since August 2011 here. Painted Honeyeater (5) spring returns, great to see back, two seen well, some heard calling distantly around the camp area as well. Michael Ramsey
Fri 6 Sep	Rainbow Bee-eater, Painted Honeyeater, Gilbert's Whistler Violet Town 10' Cell An afternoon spent on private land and roadsides in the Upotipotpon region including Sloans Road and Dunsters Lane. Great diversity of species and some nice migrants returning. Rainbow Bee-eater (2) Some early returns Painted Honeyeater (3) Very active and calling strongly Gilbert's Whistler (2) Pair seen and calling from thick Golden Wattle plantations Daniel Pendavingh
	Red-browed Treecreeper Olinda One bird quietly working its way up a Eucalyptus on private property on Fordyce Rd. Greg Cobern
	Painted Honeyeater, Black-eared Cuckoo Vaughan Springs Two Painted Honeyeaters observed, one calling briefly and infrequently. In Yellow Gum and Red Ironbark with heavy mistletoe load. Numerous Mistletoebirds too. Prodigious number of cuckoos in the c.5ha I walked through - 10-12 very vocal Fan-tailed Cuckoos, 6-8 Shining Bronze-Cuckoos, 1 Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo and 1 Black-eared Cuckoo. Lawrie Conole
Wed 4 Sep	Shining Bronze-cuckoo Western Escarpment, Arthurs Seat State Park, Mornington Peninsula Is the first I've seen this spring. Mark Lethlean
	White-fronted Honeyeater St, Andrews Beach,Rye Seen perched at top of sand dune while monitoring Hooded Plovers. Was identified from photograph which was taken from about 50m. Sorry but not a great shot (Moderator's note: an extraordinary record of a usually inland species). Mark Lethlean
	Rose Robin Newport Lakes Park Male Rose Robin seen in wattles and casuarinas at Newport Lakes during Birdlife Melbourne weekday outing. Gina Hopkins on behalf Birdlife Melbourne
Tue 3 Sep	Freckled Duck, Black-tailed Native-hen Mill Park Lakes Freckled Duck (2) Black-tailed Native-hen (3) Andrew Corrick
Tue 3 Sep	Painted Honeyeater, Olive-backed Oriole You Yangs Regional Park Painted Honeyeater (1) male bird seen at 10.00 at top of almost-dead Yellow Gum in a big fruiting mistletoe clump. Stayed in the tree for some time, sharing it with White-naped and Black-chinned Honeyeaters. I can't remember hearing the call. Olive-backed Oriole (1) heard Red Gum Gully, east of Information Centre carpark. First one I've heard for the season warm day with misty morning with a touch of dew on the grass. Mammals seen: Koala (3), Eastern Grey Kangaroo (10), Swamp Wallaby (1). Reptiles: Shingleback Skink (1) being mobbed by Eastern Yellow Robin and White-naped Honeyeater. Janine Duffy
Tue 3 Sep	Olive-backed Oriole Devils Bend Reservoir, Tuerong, Mornington Peninsula Sighted 3 birds perched on dead tree. Mark Lethlean
	Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Campbellfield Heard the gurgling call, had good views of it in a lightwood wattle outside a factory in the middle of the industrial estate. Ian Sutherland
	Scarlet Honeyeater Cardinia Reservoir 7 Scarlet Honeyeater observed during BirdLife survey of MW restricted area of Cardinia Reservoir. Other highlights were 7 Brown Goshawk, 2 Collared Sparrowhawk, 3 Fan-tailed Cuckoo, 4 Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, 2 Rose Robin and a raft of 26 Pink-eared Duck. 65 species for the day. Photo by Ian Wilson. Arthur Carew, Jill & Ian Wilson, Robert Wright.
	Bush Stone-curlew Horsham One bird in Parkland on Wimmera River on edge of town. John Eichler and Val Stajsic
	Spotted Harrier, Blue-winged Parrots Pt Wilson RD, Western Treatment Plant Spotted Harrier seen at close range sitting on fence post along Pt Wison Rd. Blue-winged Parrots seen near Barrow Pit perched in dead trees along track. Michael and Gwen Bird
	Australasian Bittern Braeside Park Australasian Bittern (1) On the Woodlands side of lake in a swampy area just off the mowed track. When the Bittern saw me it flew off, did a semi circle and landed some 60 yards back from where I'd just come, still very close to the track. David Fleming
	Square-tailed Kite 1 km S of Dean township Single bird cruising between tree patches at about 25 metres above ground level. Last seen in this vicinity January 2013 Dale Tonkinson
Mon 2 Sep	(Possible) Regent Honeyeater (needs confirmation) Coburg, Melbourne My husband and I spotted a pair of Regent Honeyeaters fossicking around in our grevilleas, in our front garden. They also landed on our flowering apricot tree. They are very distinctive and we checked them in our bird book to identify them. We are near the Merri Creek. We were very busy trying to identify, and did not take pictures. It was dusk. If they come back and we see them we will get pictures and post them. (MOD NOTE: this report requires confirmation before it can be accepted. Although the Birdline moderator realise that this is a long shot, given the critically endangered status of Regent Honeyeater in Victoria, we thought it was worth publishing so that others can be on the lookout.) Julieanne Beckham
	Grey Goshawk - White morph SW Victoria, Portland - Nelson Road about 5 km west of Gorae West Very flighty. Harassed by Magpies etc when in flight John Eichler & Val Stajsic
Sat 31 Aug	Blue-faced Honeyeater Royal Melbourne Zoo, Parkville Previously reported wild bird seen feeding with wattlebirds and lorikeets from the nectar trays in the garden near the entrance gate. Anthea Stubbs
	Dusky Woodswallow, Rufous Whistler, Western Gerygone, Fan-tailed Cuckoo Earlston First records for season for each of these species Doug Robinson
Mon 19 Aug	Mallee Emu-wren Murray-Sunset National Park (Pink Lakes) 2 Emu-wrens sighted along Pioneer Road along with Chestnut-backed Quail-thrush, Blue bonnets, Mulga and Ring-necked Parrots. Excellent birding in this region at the moment. Also a flock of Pink Cockatoos seen on the road out of the park in the paddocks. Tim Mckellar and Tom Fletcher

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