February 2025
5 February
I visited the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland, having shunned the place in January becasue of very high cicada activity. They weren't too bad this time. There weren't many birds but I found a pair of White-browed Scrubwrens and a female Variegated Fairy-wren - both were new species for my list for the site.
4 February
I surveyed three of my sites in Brisbane Water NP - two of them in the Coora Swamp area and one at Pearl Beach. Although it was fairly quiet bird-wise, at least the cicadas weren't too bad and some honeyeaters have returned (at last). The highlights were a group of three Brown-headed Honeyeaters. and a small group of Variegated Fairy-wrens .
January 2025
24-26 January
Margaret and I attended three days of the HBOC ‘camp’ at the UNSW Field Station on Smiths Lake. Most people stayed in the bunkhouses or in their vans - there were only two tents. It was rather windy on the Friday but conditions were great for birding on the following two days. The creek beside our tent had Azure Kingfishers plus several smaller species - Brown Gerygones, Large-billed Scrubwrens, Red-browed Finches, etc. Further afield I saw a pair of Southern Emu-wrens and a pair of Forest Ravens, and I heard a couple of Lewin’s Rails. There were many honeyeaters - dominated by White-cheeked but I also saw Scarlet, Brown, New Holland and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, plus there were plenty of Noisy Friarbirds and Little Wattlebirds. There was a problem with male Variegated Fairy-wrens (three of them) constantly attacking their reflections in one of the bunkhouse windows - Keith and I solved that eventually by breaking off the vegetation from which they were launching themselves.
23 January
I did my walk along Brisbane Water in the morning. There was a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers on the roof of the fish co-op and further along, a Striated Heron was fishing from a perch on a post. I also saw a Far Eastern Curlew in with the pelicans on the sand bank. There were two large groups of Mallards, each with 40-45 birds, but I did also find a group of four Pacific Black Ducks. The only raptor around was an adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle.
22 January
I surveyed two more of my Brisbane Water National Park sites - they were quiet for birds but at least had no cicadas. Then I went to the Pearl Beach Arboretum - which was full of cicadas (and almost no bird activity). The day’s highlight came early - a Glossy Black-Cockatoo on my drive up (and probably three others but I only had poor views of those ones).
21 January
I did my surveys of the Warrah Trig area of Brisbane Water National Park. It was very quiet, punctuated by four highlights - a Brush Bronzewing which flushed as I arrived, a perched pair of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, a fly-through by a Grey Goshawk, and a pair of Rockwarblers foraging near the Warrah Lookout (I've had them there a few times now). I finished with a quickvisit to Patonga, where I saw an Australasian Figbird as the highlight.
16-17 January
The previous night’s storm eventually brought a welcome cool change, but then we had to wait out some seriously heavy rain on Thursday morning - our start was delayed by a couple of hours until that rain was over. There were trees and branches down everywhere we went on Thursday morning. Highlights from the two days included a group of three Wedge-tailed Eagles, a few Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, plus Weebills, Dusky Woodswallows, Fairy Martins and and Tree Martins. I had nice and long views of Scarlet Honeyeaters and a White-throated Gerygone. At an otherwise not very exciting site, there were two Australian Hobbys hunting together, and we saw a couple of other single Hobbys that day. On our way to another site, the two farm dams that we passed had some Australian Shovelers and Plumed Whistling-ducks, also a Hardhead and several Little Black Cormorants.
The rain came back and we couldn’t survey at two sites. I left before lunch, driving home in rather heavy rain but it eased off long enough for me to stop at Doughboy Hollow where I eventually found about two hundred Plumed Whistling-ducks.
14-15 January
These were very hot days, culminating at 45C when I arrived at Muswellbrook late on Wednesday afternoon. We got all of our Martindale surveys done, starting at 6:00 each day but it was really hot by late mornings when we finished. Highlights from the two days included 20+ White-browed Woodswallows, with two very young birds amongst them, White-winged Trillers (female feeding a youngster), a Speckled Warbler, Varied Sittellas, Grey-crowned Babblers, a Peregrine Falcon, some Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters and a Horsfield’s Bushlark. To my surprise we found White-eared Honeyeaters at several sites - all our previous records of them in the Martindale Valley were autumn or winter ones. There was constant helicopter activity, mainly to do with filling up from a local dam for fire-fighting in Wollemi National Park. Wednesday night at McCullys Gap initially was quite pleasant (still hot though) but it culminated in a massive storm coming in from the west, which also brought very strong winds and hail. I was set up to sleep in the car but that couldn’t happen until the storm subsided - it was too tumultuous for sleeping. Thank heavens I had decided not to bring my stretcher tent - that would have resulted in absolute misery.
13 January
On my way to join the HBOC quarterly surveys at Martindale, I stopped at the Ourimbah Rest Area briefly and then at Newcastle Baths (for a bit longer, but still fairly briefly). At Ourimbah I found a Red-whiskered Bulbul and heard a Black-faced Monarch. At the baths, I soon found my target - a Brown Noddy for which there had been reports about for a couple of days. There were 250+ Greater Crested Terns too, and a single Sooty Oystercatcher. I arrived into the Martindale Valley late afternoon. On my way to the campsite I saw flocks of Double-barred Finches and White-winged Choughs, and three Black-shouldered Kites (a single and a pair). There was a fierce storm shortly after my arrival, after a very hot day - after the storm (which lasted qiute a while), it became a pleasant evening. A White-throated Nightjar began calling just after dark, and continued intermittently thereafter (it was active on both nights).
11 January
Ross, Cyrus and I had a great morning on Ash Island, finding 50 species as we moved around the various sites. Highlights included a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater taking fruit from a shrub near Phoenix Flats - the same shrub where we had one in December and I’d lay odds that it was the also same bird. We also had a Brown Songlark on the Wader Pond salt marsh - with occasional views of it flying and singing. On Swan Pond there were about 350 Pied Stilts, and a good mix of migratory shorebirds - 20 or so each of Black-tailed Godwits and Bar-tailed Godwits, three Red Knots, 15-20 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and an amazing total count (for Ash Island)of 21 Far Eastern Curlews.
10 January
I went to the Pearl Caves area of Brisbane Water National Park, and then to two other of my regular survey sites higher up in the national park. The cicada activity in the Pearl Caves area was high, which made birding rather difficult. Things were much better at the other two sites (in the Coora Swamp area). I flushed a Brush Bronzewing from the roadside as I pulled up, and then I had wonderful views of a second bird on the track not far in from the road - it was easily my best views of one of them on the east coast (the Cheynes Beach area in WA remains the tops for this species, for me). Pheasant Coucals were calling constantly - I reckon there were at least six individuals. At one site I could hear four birds calling simultaneously. Towards the end of my visit, I saw a pair of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, and also there were a couple of Rufous Whistlers.
9 January
For my first serious birding activity of the year, I did the Woy Woy to Blackwall walk alongside Brisbane Water. It had rained for the preceding three days so the walk involved plenty of puddles. There was a Brown Honeyeater near Woy Woy, a Striated Heron a bit later, and a group of three Australian Pied Oystercatchers (a pair and a youngster). I also picked out some young Australian Pelicans amongst the largish group of adult birds on the sand island.