Thinking About Birds

September 2024

9 September

I did my monthly surveys of the Warrah Trig section of Brisbane Water National Park. As I drove in, a group of five Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos were flushing from the roadside trees - there were another five or more of them just a bit further along. The first 2ha site had good numbers of New Holland Honeyeaters and New Holland Honeyeaters, but not much else. The second site also was quiet but then at the third site I had a family group of three Glossy Black-Cockatoos. It was almost exactly where I had a group of three of them in December last year. The highlight at the fourth site was a flock of four Red Wattlebirds, travelling together. Afterwards I went to Patonga, where there were 30-40 Greater Crested Terns roosting on some of the moored boats and an adult male Satin Bowerbird in the scrub near the playground. As I drove out, there was a Whistling Kite too.

8 September

I bussed into Woy Woy and then walked home via the Brisbane Water path. There was a group of three Caspian Terns on one of the sand islands, with several Great Pied Cormorants and a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers. I saw another pair of those later, on the island wih all the Australian Pelicans. There was one large assemblage of Pacific Black Ducks - 38 of them together. I also had a few more of those, and two pairs of Grey Teal. There were a few groups of Little Corellas, and within one of those groups there were two Long-billed Corellas.

6 September

I went to a couple more of my sites in Brisbane Water NP, which were queit although I did see two more Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos. plus there were some Waratahs in full flower. Then I went back to Pearl Beach, and walked through the Arboretum. I saw a total of four Australian Brush-turkeys plus I had very nice views of a pair of Variegated Fairy-wrens. Afterwards I went back to where I had seen the Rockwarbler the previous day, armed this time with my camera. Alas though, the bird did not appear.

5 September

I went to Pearl Beach early morning and walked up to the caves area. One highlight was a White-throated Treecreeper - I don’t find them often locally. But the absolute highlight was a Rockwarbler, which was carrying a feather (that looked to be a breast feather from a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo). Clearly the bird was nest-building but it absolutely did not want to go to its final destination whilstever I was watching. I tried shifting position a couple of times but it wasn’t fooled and eventually I left it to its own devices. Afterwards I went to the Coora Swamp area of Brisbane Water NP. Things had quietened down a lot since my previous visit; in particular there was hardly any honeyeater activity. However, I did see briefly a group of four Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos and heard a Pheasant Coucal. Also, there were several Rufous Whistlers, all newly returned.

August 2024

27 August

I bussed into Woy Woy and then walked home via the Brisbane Water path. Interestingly, some Black Swans were back - there only were three birds but there hadn't been any at all for several months. I could only find four Australian Pied Oystercatchers (with three of those being a fly-through group). Overall I had a reasonable list (33 species) but the numbers of almost everything were low. The main exception was Australian Pelican - there were easily 200+ of them, mostly at the roost site. Mid afternoon I went to Wyong, ultimately to attend the evening meeting of the Central Coast bird group. The Pioneer Wetlands were closed (for road repairs) so I tried some other spots - there wasnothing out of the ordinary at most of them but at the South Wyong wastewater treatment plant I could see a Musk Duck in the distance and several Fairy Martins were collecting mud.

24 August

Ross and I did the monthly Ash Island survey. I arrived early and got onto a Mangrove Gerygone near the carpark. We didn't find any returned migratory shorebirds, but there were returned Fairy Martins (already collecting mud for nests) and White-breasted Woodswallows. We had ten Red-capped Plovers, some of which probably were nesting or attempting to nest, on the main tracks. They haven't a hope! There was a group of ten Australian Shovelers on Swan Pond, but not much else was there.

Prior to the survey, I met with the new placement student from the university and talked with her about the types of analyses she could do with the data (which are from the club's Walka Waterworks and Wetlands Centre surveys, respectively). And after the survey, Ross and I met Ann at the Wetlands Centre for lunch and a general chat. There were ~20 Magpie Geese out on the pond in from of us, and a couple of Plumed Egrets.

23 August

I went to Coora Swamp area and visited a couple of my sites there - things were really quiet. Afterwards I went to the Patonga caravan park area - that also was very quiet.

19-21 August

I joined the HBOC team to do the quaraterly Martindale Valley surveys (a month late - the scheduled July surveys were postponed because of rain). We had plenty of birds - 104 was the species total and I had 86 of those for my personal list. I saw a male Hooded Robin at one site (and someone else had a pair elsewhere). I had great views of a foraging Superb Lyrebird (the southern sub-species) and we saw a Peregrine Falcon, also Brown Falcon, Nankeen Kestrel and Wedge-tailed Eagle. My highlight was a heard-only - a Spotless Crake deep within a reed bed.

16 August

I did my monthly surveys of the Warrah Trig section of Brisbane Water National Park. I had nice encounters with Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens at two of my sites - in both cases there were at least two birds, plenty of singing and I was able to get brief views of a couple of birds. There were Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos about, and a flock of four of them landed briefly right by me. There was lots of honeyeater activity (and plenty of the heath is in blossom). The Superb Lyrebird nest is still there, although it is looking a bit battered (presumably because of all the comings and goings by the parent). I didn't see any bird but there was one at Patonga when I stopped there later. Mid-afternoon I went to Tuggerah to check out the salt marsh area - it was full of (fresh) water and had almost no birds. On my way home I stopped at the Ourimbah RTA Reserve. I saw a Brown Cuckoo-dove and some Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, and many of the other expected species but it was fairly quiet overall.

15 August

It rained all morning so I stil couldn't do any birding. Mid-morning, at home, I was in a telecon meeting of the Rufous Scrub-bird Recovery Project Team. That's a newly-formed group - there is much more interest now in Rufous Scrub-birds because of their parlous situation, and there's even some funding available for various activities to do with them.

14 August

I went up to Newcastle for the HBOC meeting. The guest speaker was a sound recordist and gave an interesting talk (probably more so for the majority of the audience who would have been unfamiliar with spectrograms). Unfortunately it rained all day and I wasn't able to get any birding in.

13 August

I surveyed the southern side of Brisbane Water, from Woy Woy to Blackwall. Almost immediately I saw an adult Striated Heron, so I was off to a good start, and I had 35 species overall so that was quite an above-par return (for this time of the year). The highlight was a flock of ten Bar-tailed Godwits, which flew in from somewhare and landed on a sandbank that normally isn't exposed (the tide was very low today). I also saw four pairs of Australian Pied Oystercatchers and three Caspian Terns, and there was a Whistling Kite perched on a sign on the pelican sandbank (which as usual had about 150 birds. I also saw two White-bellied Sea-Eagles, one was doing a courtship display and then it flew down and mated with the other bird (in what may prove to be a nest tree).

11 August

I ducked in at Booker Bay and found an Osprey again, in the same tree as the other day and I think there's now a rudimentary nest there. Later in the day I finally finished drafting my paper about Whistling Kites in Port Stephens. I found it tricky to write - because although I can show that their population has crashed I can't explain why (just some speculation).

9 August

No specific birding today but my morning walk was quite birdy, including I saw some uncommon ones. There was a group of Tree Martins hunting with Welcome Swallows over the beach at east Ettalong. A bit further along there were two Ospreys in a tree (a Norfolk Pine, which seems to be their preferred nest tree type) and a Whistling Kite nearby. Near home, a flock of six Topknot Pigeons landed in a tree right in front of me.

6-8 August

Over these days I did my monthly surveys at Pearl Beach and some parts of Brisbane Water National Park. Highlights included a Superb Lyrebird out in the open on the track at Pearl Caves, and a very vocal Rose Robin was there too. I saw an Australian Brush-turkey at Crommelin Arboretum, some Variegated Fairy-wrens on the Van Dahls Track and heard a wonderful singing Chestnut-rumped Heathwren at Coora Swamp. There was heaps of honeyeater activity at the sites within the National Park

2 August

I did another Brisbane Water walk, from Woy Woy to Blackwall. I saw two pairs of Australian Pied Oystercatchers, which is a big decrease on the totals for them from the summer counts. There were a couple of Caspian Terns on the sandbank, and alongside them were eight Bar-tailed Godwits. That was the first time in more than eight months I’d seen them locally.

July 2024

27 July

We went to Kings Park for a while in the morning, mainly for a wander through the gardens with my sister. I did see some birds though, culminating with a few perched Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos. There were dozens of Red Wattlebirds around including a young bird that wasn’t at all fazed by having people close by. I also saw New Holland, White-cheeked and Singing Honeyeaters. After lunch I took off by myself for a while, going firstly to Herdsman Lake. I saw a Great Crested Grebe there, and had a brief view of two Buff-banded Rails together, but there weren’t many other waterbirds visible and I didn’t stay for long. From there I went to Lake Monger, which had far more waterbirds - including a total of 62 Blue-billed Ducks out on the water. There also were a few each of Musk Ducks and Hoary-headed Grebes.

26 July

We drove to Williams where we spent some time at a park alongside the river. There were Tree Martins and a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, plus several New Holland Honeyeaters etc. I also saw a pair of Western Rosellas just as we entered into town. Heading north later on the Albany Highway, we passed many feeding roadside flocks of Australian Ringnecks and/or Grey Currawongs and there was an occasional Red-capped Parrot on the ground too. We stopped for a Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo but it took off immediately that we stopped. Then we visited Thomsons Lake Nature Reserve, which was quiet but there were Australian Shelducks on the water plus some Australian Pelicans and Black Swans. After lunch we went to Alfred Cove Nature Reserve - council workers were spraying weeds and so I couldn’t cover all that I’d been hoping for, but there was a pair of Ospreys at their nest, and a pair of Australian Shelducks, and out on the open water there were 33 Musk Ducks plus some Pacific Black Ducks and Little Pied Cormorants.

25 July

From Narrogin I drove to Dryandra Woodland National Park where I spent the whole morning and a bit beyond. The area around Old Mill Dam was very birdy especially early on. Right by the carpark I found Rufous Treecreepers, Western Thornbills, Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters, Varied Sittellas and a male Scarlet Robin. Several pairs of Australian Shelducks flew through (it was a regular event). Other nice birds seen during the morning included Western Yellow Robin, Western Spinebill, Purple-crowned Lorikeet (several pairs), White-browed Babbler and Dusky Woodswallow. On my way back to Narrogin I stopped for a while at Fourteen Mile Brook Nature Reserve. It was quiet but all of a sudden I had some Regent Parrots - first, two birds and then a flock of eight. To top it off, a male Red-capped Parrot came in. Later I saw a pair of the latter at the Narrogin wastewater treatment plant, which also had Grey Teals and Pacific Black Ducks.

24 July

We picked up a rental car in the morning, then drove southwards - eventually to Narrogin. There were drizzly conditions often, but from mid-afternoon it became rather pleasant. There were many Australian Ravens foraging by the edges of the highways, and also many Australian Ringnecks, and from about North Bannister I started seeing lots of Grey Currawongs too. There were Australasian Shelducks at many small wetlands that we passed by. We stopped briefly at Wandering cemetery - where I heard a Red-capped Robin, a Western Gerygone and a Rufous Whistler. At Narrogin we went to the Foxes Lair Nature Reserve. Brown Honeyeaters were the dominant species but I also saw New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters well, and briefly saw a couple of Brown-headed Honeyeaters. I had good looks at several Red-capped Parrots, and of the WA version of the Silvereye. Towards the end of the visit I got onto a small flock of Western Thornbills and I also found a male Western Whistler.

23 July

We flew to Perth this day, starting from Ettalong - so there was not much opportunity for birding, for most of the day. Late afternoon in Osborne Park I did a short walk - I saw Laughing Doves, New Holland Honeyeaters, Singing Honeyeaters, Red Wattlebirds plus a handful of other species.

22 July

After lunch I bussed into Woy Woy and then walked home via the Brisbane Water path. My highlight was seeing a solitary Buff-banded Rail, in the mangroves at almost the end of the walk. There were three Royal Spoonbills in that same general area. I also found a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers on a jetty - I found no others anywhere. Notable absences were Black Swans and Caspian Terns, and the total species count was considerably down on normal.

19-20 July

On Friday afternoon I headed to Newcastle, with a stopover on the way at the Central Coast Wetlands near Wyong. There weren’t heaps of birds - there was too much water and thus not enough muddy margins. There was a solitary Fairy Martin - in company with some Welcome Swallows - and an adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle flew through. Next morning Ross and I did the monthly Ash Island survey, in very windy conditions. We found a handful of Red-capped Plovers at Fish Fry Flats, and also several Australian Gull-billed Terns (at various scattered locations). On Swan Pond there was a flotilla of 38 Australian Shovelers, constantly manoeuvring so as to face into the very strong wind. We found 28 Purple Swamphens at the Bellfrog Wetland - they were secretive until flushed, which makes me think that we will have under-counted them.

17-18 July

Over these two mornings I did the remainder of my monthly surveys at Pearl Beach and Brisbane Water National Park. There wasn’t much out of the ordinary at any site although I did have close-up views of four Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos that landed, briefly, right in front of me. There was considerable honeyeater activity in the NP.

15 July

I did my surveys of the Warrah Trig section of Brisbane Water National Park. The heath is coming nicely into flower and there were plenty of honeyeaters, especially at my first 2 ha site. I had a couple of Brown-headed Honeyeaters there, too. There was a pair of Red Wattlebirds again at my second 2 ha site - they were in the same tree as they were last month, and so perhaps they have moved in. The White-eared Honeyeaters were quite vocal and I had nice views of several of them. Also, I found an active Superb Lyrebird nest (it was close to the track and hard not to notice!). Then I went around to Patonga, where a pair of Masked Lapwings had a chick - just a few days old. That's so early!

10-12 July

I went up to Newcastle for the HBOC meeting, where Mick Roderick gave a good talk about the seabirds recorded during the Port Stephens pelagics. Next morning I explored the Nobbys Beach area for a while (the scant highlights: a Black-shouldered Kite carrying a snake or a large thin reptile, and 100+ Greater Crested Terns which were roosting at the ocean baths). My trip to Broughton Island was cancelled at late notice, but Margaret and I went up to Nelson Bay regardless (as I had already paid for the accommodation). We went to Fingal Bay and did some of the Tomaree Coastal Walk - saw a whale at sea and a handful of bush birds. Next morning we stopped at Kariong Parklands - where I dipped on the Red-backed Kingfisher! But there were some good birds at the Mt Penang Gardens (nothing in standout though).

5 July

I walked to Woy Woy alongside Brisbane Water. It had rained a lot for several days, and the path was under water in many places. It also was rather windy! There was a Buff-banded Rail at a small wetland near Woy Woy - I've scarely seen anything other than Silver Gulls at that wetland before. There were six Caspian Terns (and so, it must be winter), some of them were roosting together on a jetty, and five Australian Pied Oystercatchers, as 2 pairs and a single on jetties. Once again, there were no Black Swans.