Month: February 2011

G’day all

I have had the pleasure of spending this past weekend at Bladensburg National Park, just south of Winton. With the continued wet weather in Cairns setting in even more last week, I took the opportunity to drive 10 hours SW to this fabulous area which I hadn’t visited for almost 10 years. The park is teeming with birds at the moment after much rain & to my surprise, I was the only visitor in the whole park from 2:30pm Friday ’til departing at 11am on Sunday.

There were many highlights, but the most exciting find was at least 40-odd Pictorella Mannikins with many juvenile birds amongst them. I saw this species at 4 locations in the park, so I am very sure that there were many more spread about in other parts of the immediate area. Anyone visiting western Qld south of where they normally are recorded (ie anywhere south of Georgetown, Richmond or Mt Isa) should keep their eyes & ears open – they seem to be far more nomadic than we previously thought & surely do visit areas well to the south of where we expect to see them. Last year some were recorded near Bladensburg by other observers at the Lark Quarry site approx 60km to the SW of Bladensburg. I know that Andrew Ley has had some quite a few years back at Diamantina NP further again to the SW. I was lucky enough to have 50-60 birds at Cuttaburra Crossing of Eyre Ck (midway between Bedourie & Birdsville in the very far SW of Qld) in June 2007. So it is pretty obvious that this spec ies ranges far & wide, quite possibly not just in very good seasons, as 2007 wasn’t anything special climate-wise. This bird is quite obvious in flight with it’s unique ‘pic-pic’ calls & high direct (but undulating) flight pattern. This call is very useful in the field when learnt as these birds don’t sound like anything else. Also, they are obviously bigger than the myriad Zebra Finches in these semi-arid & arid parts, so can be picked up fairly easily by an alert observer. Let’s hope that more records turn up of this species of such subtle beauty.

Other highlights at Bladensburg NP were Striated Grasswrens & Rufous-crowned Emu-wrens, many Ground Cuckoo-shrikes, plenty of Spinifexbirds, & a slightly lost Striped Honeyeater, not to mention the 1000’s of Spinifex Pigeons abundant in this gereat park. Plus so much more…

I have put a few sight records onto Eremaea’s Birdline Australia with a few further details. If anyone is interested in any further info or images from this trip, please just give me an email or phone call.

Cheers Martin Cachard Cairns 0428 782 808

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This came to me today. Those wanting to have a say about conservation of the Cassowary may like to look.

Philip _____

From: threatenedspecies-bounces@ris.environment.gov.au [mailto:threatenedspecies-bounces@ris.environment.gov.au] On Behalf Of Species Information and EPBC Act Policy Email Distribution List Sent: Monday, 28 February 2011 12:01 PM To: Threatenedspecies@erin.gov.au Subject: EPBC Newsletter March [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

An email update on recent news, policies and information products on EPBC Act listed species and ecological communities.

In this edition:

* Listed species

* EPBC policy and guidelines

* Strategic Assessments

Listed Species

Final Policy Statements Released

http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/publications/casuarius-casuarius-joh nsonii.html> Significant impact guidelines for the endangered southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) Wet Tropics population.

This policy provides information for people proposing to undertake an action that may affect the cassowary or its habitat.

To subscribe or unsubscribe please go to http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/subscribe.html http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/subscribe.html.

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Hi all,

We tried for the Eye-browed Thrush near Malanda on the Atherton Tablelands on both Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th Feb with no luck. The last known sighting was on Sunday 20th Feb.

Cheers, Pete Kyne and Micha Jackson

Peter Kyne (PhD) Research Associate – Aquatic Ecology Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0810, Australia

Ph: +61 8 8946 7616 Fax: +61 8 8946 7455 Email: peter.kyne@cdu.edu.au www.track.gov.au  

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I have just received my copy of The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia.

For years I’ve been trying to get “that shot” of a rainbow bee eater. I’ve got lots of nice shots, but never one that I knew I nailed.

I’m going to give up now. David Stowe’s photo on the front cover is an absolute cracker.

Alistair ===============================

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Dear All

Stuart Warren and I just had a long weekend on Lord Howe Island. We arrived Thursday afternoon from Brisbane and returned on Sunday afternoon (home for lunch!). The weather and in particular the wind was very kind to us as the rest of the week was rough and boats were not going offshore.

We saw all the ‘normal’ land birds with Woodhens seen around the built up areas as well as more authentically or naturally in the rain forest environment on the lower slopes of Mt Ligbird. We even saw birds in the forest without their leg irons! We made no attempt to see the introduced Masked Owls.

We did 2 afternoon trips (Friday 25th Feb and Saturday 26th Feb ) with Jack Shick and Ian Hutton down to Balls Pyramid. We saw 18 species of seabird on the island 17 of which were from these trips – all 14 breeding species plus 1 White-necked Petrel (although Vanuatu Petrel was not specifically ruled out), 1 Great-winged Petrel (gouldii) and 1 light phase Pomerine Jaeger. A few Great Cormorants were seen around the coast. Providence Petrels were present in small numbers (the first of the season on the 25th) and we had 1 Little Shearwater alongside the boat on the 26th, which was a very early bird. We had good nos. – 20+ White-bellied Storm Petrels but all were light phase birds – we did not see the hoped for dark phase of this species. Kermadec Petrels were present in good nos. – 30+ (including all phases) as were Black-winged Petrels.

We spent quite a bit of time in the middle of the day and afternoon on a couple of days checking the Red-tailed Tropicbirds for the Red-billed. It is a species I am very familiar with and it was not present during our time at Kim’s Lookout and adjacent areas. According to Ian it hasn’t been seen since before Christmas when it was disturbed a number of times at its ‘nest’ area by visiting birders and a big storm came through. It may not have left for those reasons though and it will be interesting to see if it comes back next year as some seabirds have a tendency to do.

We saw the usual waders plus a couple of Wandering Tattlers and the only other vaguely unusual thing we saw was an Australia Ibis at the airport marsh yesterday. I am not sure how many records of Pomerine Jaeger there have been from Lord Howe – it is not listed in any of the literature I have.

Cheers Rob Morris

Brisbane, Australia

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Hi all,

Just wondering about the range for wild Little Corellas in NSW – some of the guides have them as occurring in an unbroken population including the Sydney area (even though those have been ‘introduced’ or are descended from free-flying escapees), so I was wondering if the birds I saw yesterday at Albion Park are wild or feral. I’m one of those awkward types that doesn’t put introduced or feral birds in my life list (much to the amusement of some of my friends…), so it would be nice to know if I can include them in my life list. Cheers,

Tony

Photos, paintings and drawings of Australian, NZ, Swiss and British Birds www.tonykeenebirds.co.uk

Karen

Do you have a photo?

I have a small doubt about its identity too. A wild bird would not normally react so freely towards people.

They occur naturally at Shark Bay which is not that far away from Geraldton in the right weather conditions. Was the temperature extremely hot? i.e. well over 40C?

I have been on 80 Mile Beach in the Kimberley in 45C++ temperature and Singing Bushlarks have come very close under the shelter we have constructed and under cars. But they move if you approach them. This has also happened for Crimson Chat, Rainbow Bee-eater and Australasian Pipit and maybe others I have forgotten.

_________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au

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People can now access the Facebook Page without joining Facebook: http://facebook.com/savetheobp

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Hello Mike,

Travelled to Port Gregory on the WA coast, between Geraldton and Kalbarri on Friday 25 February. On arrival at the Caravan Park at about 2:00 Pm a flock of 50 – 100 Fork-tailed Swifts were overhead, from 20 metres above us to very high above us. The flock stayed around all afternoon. On the morning of 26th I first saw 4 birds at 6:30 AM and then by 9:00 AM the whole flock was back around the park. Drove to Kalbarri early in the afternoon, leaving the swifts very much in evidence at the park. Visited 3 of the coastal cliff lookouts just south of Kalbarri around 3:00 PM and saw swifts at each stop – between 5 and 15 at each location. Got back to Port Gregory at about 4:30 PM and there was not a swift to be found.

Regards, Clive. ===============================

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Hello Denise On the 17th of this month I received a response from the office of the Honourable Kate Jones MP (the Minister of Climate Change & Sustainability) on this matter. Her office informed me that Officers of Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service had received a copy of the footage and are investigating the matter. I was told that I would be advised of the outcome of this investigation. Michael

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