I only update the gallery photos occasionally. Sorry about that, too busy. See my Sri Lanka gallery though and also the latest additions to my UK and Denmark galleries.
January 2025
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.
December 2024
23 December
I walked home from Woy Woy via the Brisbane Water esplanade. The highlights included a group of three Long-billed Corellas, three pairs of Australian Pied Oystercatchers and a small flock of Musk Lorikeets - I havdn't seen the latter locally for many months.
16 December
I did my surveys of the Warrah Trig area of Brisbane Water National Park. My highlight was to see a Glossy Black-Cockatoo - I could hear what was probably two birds, way off from the track, and eventually managed a distant view of one of them. I heard a Brush Bronzewing, and there were several Pheasant Coucals calling. I finished my morning at Patonga, counting the gulls and cormorants (not that there were many).
14 December
Ross and I did the monthly survey of Ash Island. We got away to a great start - by seeing two Buff-banded Rails out in the open at the almost dry Northern Swale area, and then there was an Osprey at the nearby nest site. We found four Far Eastern Curlews at Milhams Pond but the highlight for migratory species was on Swan Pond where we had ten or so each of the two common local godwits (Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwit) and about 70 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. There were 600 or so Pied Stilts, but no avocets (last month we had about 20 of them). At Phoenix Flats, there was a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater - my first ever coastal sighting of one. We also saw a pair of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins, near the Bellfrog Wetland, and several groups of Fairy Martins and Tree Martins.
11-12 December
Wednesday morning I went to two more of my Brisbane Water National Park sites, plus the Pearl Beach Arboretum. The cicadas were a problem and I didn't find many birds - the hightlight was to hear a Brush Bronzewing. In the afternoon I went to Karigi Point at The Entrance, to check out the Little Tern breeding colony. There were at least a couple of hundred of them, many sitting (on eggs?) and many othersflying around noisily. I saw a Bar-tailed Godwit there and a Red-capped Plover. It's a tough location for ether of those species to be hanging around! On Wednesday night I attended the HBOC Christmas meeting - everyone was in a happy mood and it was a great night. On my way home on Thursday I stopped in at the Pioneer Dairy Wetlands in Wyong, where I saw a Wood Sandpiper for the first time there. Many people have told me about it - apparentlyit's been an annual visitor there, which at last I have caught up with.
10 December
I surveyed my sites at Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodlands. The cicada activity level was high, making it quite difficult to hear birds. But, there probably weren’t many present in any case (I certainly didn’t find many). My highlight was a male Australian Brush-turkey attending its mound. I spent the late morning doing follow-up paperwork in relation to the Broughton Island trip.
9 December
I did three sites in Brisbane Water National Park from my monthly survey regime. They were quiet for birds plus there was a fair bit of cicada activity in the woodland areas. My highlight was to have two Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens, almost together - with one bird seen briefly a couple of times. They were either a pair or an adult plus an offspring.
5-8 December
On Thursday morning I was in a Teams meeting for the Rufous Scrub-bird Recovery Project. I expressed my concerns that some people may be mis-identifying calls of other species, which will create a wrong impression about their numbers. I spent the night at Nelson Bay, ready for a 3-day trip to Broughton Island starting early the next morning. There were seven of us from HBOC doing the usual mix of surveys and banding. Unusually there were Tree Martins around - about 20 birds and present all weekend. We visited the Gould’s Petrel nest boxes, finding four birds and three eggs. On our way there, a flock of White-throated Needletails flew through and we had Peregrine Falcons wheeling above us at the top, along with a fledged youngster. The Sooty Oystercatchers were paired off and at least one pair had a nest with eggs. There were at least three Eastern Reef Egrets, and six Little Penguins came ashore on Saturday night. The Osprey pair had two youngsters, which seemingly fledged on the day of our arrival. Raptors were in short supply but we reached six species with late sightings of Brown Goshawk and Black-shouldered Kite.
On my way home I stopped at Stockton Sandspit, where it was high tide and there were roosting Far Eastern Curlews, Pacific Golden Plovers, Curlew Sandpipers and Red-necked Avocets, and Grey-tailed Tattlers around the corner.