Month: January 2013

Dear All,

just wanted to say thanks to all who helped me with gen for my trip last week to Kioloa / Murramarang. It was mostly work but I squeezed in some quality birding including 20+ lifers.

Tues evening flew into Canberra and early am I drove to Kaleen where I had three lifer parrots before breakfast:

* Australian King Parrot * Crimson Rosella * Superb Parrot Eastern Rosella

I stopped at the top of the mountain in a layby and walked into the forest for 20min so, seeing:

* Eastern Whipbird * Eastern Yellow Robin * Lewin’s Honeyeater Treecreeper sp.

Then to Kioloa. A walk to the beach before my colleagues arrived at lunchtime yielded:

* Black-faced Monarch * Yellow Thornbill * Leaden Flycatcher * Hooded Plover 100s unidenitified Shearwaters Caspian Tern

Early am before work on Thurs I walked up the trail beyond the ANU campus into the forest:

* Southern Emu-wren * Brown Thornbill * Rufous Fantail * Wonga Pigeon * Superb Lyrebird (my target, and performed beautifully — 2m, 4f, but sadly no photos of a male) * Noisy Friarbird Grey Currawong Rainbow Lorikeet Eastern Spinebill Welcome Swallow Australian Pelican Galah Variegated Fairywren Superb Fairywren White-browed Scrubwren Australian Pipit Nankeen Kestrel Silvereye Red Wattlebird Little Wattlebird

No more birding until Sat am before I had to be back in Canberra. Spent the morning walking the Discovery Trail at North Durras lake, and the nearby “Rainforest Walk” by the beach. New birds for the trip were:

* Satin Bowerbird (5-6, but sadly only females) * Scarlet Honeyeater (2) * Large-billed Scrub-wren * Gang-gang Cockatoo White-bellied Sea-eagle White-faced Heron White-cheeked Honeyeater New Holland Honeyeater Golden Whistler Australian Hobby

Finally made a 30min stop aruond 2pm in Monga NP on my way back to Canberra

Red-browed Finch * Striated Thornbill

[* lifer or Australian tick]

Very quiet at that time of day but looked like a great spot.

Thanks again to all!

Ian

3+ White-throated Needletails at Coutts Crossing today at 0820 hrs. Also had 17+ at 1335 hrs same place on 20/01/13.

Greg Dr Greg. P. Clancy

Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide PO Box 63 Coutts Crossing NSW 2460 0266493153 0429601960 ===============================

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Hi List, At about 11:30 am while driving along Ryde St, Epping, NSW we observed a flock of White-throated Needletails flying quite high in the sky in big swooping circles. Over the next 2 blocks I counted over 60 birds. The birds were quite high so it was difficult to count well, but by the time we lost sight of them [after driving about 2km] there must have been several hundred. The temperature was about 25C, humidity high and about 50% cloud cover. Birds first seen -33.775928,151.068428 & last seen -33.771656,151.088383. From Jenny Stiles ===============================

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Hello Birding Ausers

I would be interested in your opinions of the description below. I spoke to Coral this afternoon to go through details of her sighting. She is catagoric that the birds she saw were not Dollarbirds which was my guess, especially given the call description. With the exception of a thin black border around the wings the colour on the top of the wings was a uniform iridescent green colour similar to the speculum of the black duck in certain lights. She did not observe anything that resembled a ‘dollar’ in the wings of the birds in flight. The bill was approximately an inch long (she was unable to determine the shape as she did not have her binoculars with her) and yellow or light orange. She observed them on Wednesday 23 January, high up in the mangroves/she-oaks at Twin Waters on the north shore of the Maroochy River, near the spit.

The description has me stumped! Any suggestions???

Kind regards

Judith

From: cseaborn@flexinet.com.au To: puffin_54@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Unidentified bird. Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:22:11 +1100

Hello Judith.

Thank you for your reply. Yes I do have a field guide but I couldn’t identify these birds.

Briefly, they were mainly a teal colour with a black boarder around the wings when in flight, making it look like they had a teal window in each wing. The front of the throat (small bib) was a dark grey. Size was a bit bigger than a drongo and they had a shortish tail when sitting. In flight the wings were sharp and pointed with an almost out of proportion wide span. They had a raspy call. The beak was yellow or light orange. They were in an area of thick large mangroves and she oaks.

I had a friend with me and she keeps asking me if I have found out about those beautiful teal birds. It was the bright colour of the birds that I first noticed and I knew of nothing in our Slater that would match it.

That is about as much as I can remember. Is it of any help?

My phone numbers are 07 54453894 and 0458 57 4917 and I am happy for you to call any time.

Many thanks for your help.

Regards, Coral Seaborn.

From: Judith Hoyle Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 9:19 PM To: cseaborn@flexinet.com.au Cc: gwrogers@bigpond.com Subject: RE: Unidentified bird.

Hi Coral,

If you could provide a brief description and a phone number I can give you a ring to discuss. Do you have a field guide??

Kind regards

Judith

Judith Hoyle

Convenor, BirdLife Southern Queensland

From: cseaborn@flexinet.com.au To: southernqld@birdlife.org.au Subject: Unidentified bird. Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:20:26 +1100

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am a member of Birdlife Aust. but with only amateurish fascination with birds. Last Wednesday I saw 3 birds, all the same as each other, at the beach on the Sunshine Coast. The next day as I was ready to set off and hopefully find them again, armed with camera and binoculars, it started to rain. As you know, the rain and wind were furious and have only just stopped today.

Is there someone who I can talk to over the phone who might be able to identify them for me. I’m desperate to know what they are!

Kind regards,

Coral Seaborn. ===============================

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Hi all, 2 Ruff (both Reeves) at Lake McLarty this morning. Decent wader numbers finally, but variety not great and mostly in the middle of the lake (scope needed!). Lake probably has a week left….. Waders today:Black-tailed Godwit (3) Common Greenshank (70+) Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (1,500+) Pectoral Sandpiper (3) Curlew Sandpiper (10+) RUFF (2 female) Red-necked Stint (2,000+) Long-toed Stint (2) Red-capped Plover (300+) Cheers,John ===============================

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Hi All We’re wanting to visit the Flinders Ranges and Kangaroo Island. Problem is my husband is not a birdwatcher but is interested in nature and history. KI is easy as I have already birded there, but we know nothing about Flinders Ranges. Would love some advice about where to go that would interest him and I could sneak in some birding! Is Lake Eyre still an option and where is best place to see? We’re happy to hire a 4 wheel drive and drive ourselves or on the other hand are there any tours that can be recommended? Not much info on Google. We can go late April, May or June. When would be best time?

Please address any replies to my private email and many thanks in advance. Christine

Tom,

Yes maybe, in the case of a doubtful identification but there is a limit to how much we should all be retyping the text of field guides. People do have other things to do. Someone else already provided hints and I could do so too and add some and sometimes I do, but in this case, there are multiple cues available on this series of photos why it is Peregrine Falcon, these are pretty much as described and shown in the various field guides.

Philip

A lot of Forktail Swifts above Clifton Beach this morning – could not spot any needletails amongst them complete change of weather, now very still, after the strong northwesterlies of the last few days Ian Cowan Clifton Beach ===============================

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..and a new species of “Sooty” Corella in the Northern Territory some years ago (foraging in ashes from burn-off).

Shirley Cook

IOC lists *floccosus *as being the coastal race and *sandlandi *as the Snowy Mtn race. The Internet Bird Collection (based on HBW) and Simpson and Day show it the other way round!

Anyone have any definitive answer? ===============================

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