While working out in the Great Victoria Desert a few years back, my Aboriginal coworker suddenly yelled ‘Turkey!’, stopped the ute in a hail of dust and stones and reached into the back for his gun. The Turkey turned out to be an Australian Bustard and after a fair few misses Richard brought it down. My remonstrances about shooting protected birds were met with a disdainful remark about this not applying to indigenous people (I expect this is true but I wasn’t going to argue, it was his country). Anyway, that night the Webber was set to work and we had BBQ Bustard. Dry and a bit tasteless, very like Turkey if anyone needs that info for their records. Cheers Pat — Pat O’Malley, Faculty of Law University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia 0404273392 (Mobile) pat.omalley@sydney.edu.au Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Month: January 2014
Franklin’s Gull still at Lake Barambah
The vagrant Franklin’s Gull has been at Lake Barambah in south-east Queensland now for two weeks. I saw it this morning and on each of the four days I was in the area, which has a nice selection of other birds and mammals on offer. Pictures and more info here: http://tinyurl.com/kdb6mw4 Greg Roberts _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
swifts and swallows
Is anyone seeing mixed flocks of White-throated Needletails and woodswallows? This morning I saw 30+ WTNT over my place at Nethercote, Far South Coast, NSW, circling and generally heading south with something else intermingled. They were VERY high and only when I got the binocs on them could I see there were 40+ others apart from WTNT. I could distinguish a white tail tip and as they flew there was a distinct dark and light as they wheeled, (body or wings?) making me suspect white-browed, masked or ? I suspected they were TOO high for Duskys. Maybe I’m wrong. Which woodswallows would be more likely to be flying with the WTNTs? Barbara Jones _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Oriental Plover at Altona, Victoria – any update???
Hi Peter, There is no fee to walk past the homestead to the beach where one could walk around Point Cook to the north and on up to the mouth of the creek. I think there is a fee if you want to see inside the homestead. The gate to the Point Cook area and Cheetham lookout closes at 1700. The bridge and many other tracks and boardwalks were for when the saltworks were in operation and allowed workers access to the ponds. Access to the Cheetham Saltworks is not permitted without asking at the Point Cook Reserve office at the entrance to the coastal reserve on Point Cook Rd. I have found them to be very friendly and helpful. I think one of the reasons they want to know who is in the area is because the entry gate is locked at 1700 and if anyone was walking in the Cheetham area without the knowledge of the rangers they could end up having there car locked in for the night. Someone was looking for the OP yesterday morning but I don’t know if they found it. I looked for the strange (AGP?) plover on Wed and yesterday but it was not at the entry track roost or on the rocks on the rising tide. cheers Jenny http://jenniferspryausbirding.blogspot.com.au/ On 31 January 2014 14:39, Peter Shute <pshute@nuw.org.au> wrote: > I’m pretty sure there’s no entry fee for the Homestead. > > I vaguely remember a ranger telling someone off for crossing that little > bridge, so the channel it crosses might be the limit for where we’re > allowed. Which makes you wonder why there’s a little bridge. > > Peter Shute > > > _______________________________________________ > Birding-Aus mailing list > Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org > To change settings or unsubscribe visit: > http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org > _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Red-throated Pipit
The Red-throated Pipit at Lake McLarty WA, was seen this evening by myself and Ian, a photographer from Perth (who got a decent shot of it). It was on the south eastern edge of the lake not far from the water, but was flighty and moved to the thicker grassed area to the east. We also saw and photographed a Broad-billed Sandpiper feeding in the shallow water on the southern edge of the lake. Cheers, John Kooistra — This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Franklin’s Gull: Lake Barambah (Bjelke-Petersen Dam) QLD
Bird still present up until today 30 January. Bird roosts across dam to left of Caravan Park Boat Ramp (first turn to left as you enter). Bird can be seen roosting with other gulls and pelicans etc. with a good scope from the Boat Ramp and elsewhere. Bird visits boat ramp occasionally when fish cleaned by fishers returning (Pelicans and Gulls come in from around the lake). Good shots obtained today from about 8 metres on the ramp from the car.Also visits shoreline in dam park day area (toilets and BBQ’s etc.) – seen twice in this area over 3 days, once in afternoon Tuesday about 3.30pm and today at 10.0am, so not all that regular in its movements. Occasionally flies around last boat ramp at end of dam road past caravan park and has obviously been seen here too. Seen flying at this location today at 7.00am. Only seen at roost on Wednesday and flying towards last boat ramp via Spotting scope during 6 hours plus of attendance so patience is a virtue … This info is gleaned from 3 observers – Good birding!Rob BurgoynePS: Barambah Caravan Park, 5 km away towards Murgon is cheaper than the caravan park at the dam itself – basic cabins are $47 less!__________________________________________________Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 07:45:44 +1000From: Stephen Murray <sjmurray3@bigpond.com> To: <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Franklin’s Gull: Lake Barambah (QLD) Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP74FEB90908EBFE1D14359EE6A50@phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii” Hello all. In case anyone is interested I have uploaded some images of the Lake Barambah Franklin’s Gull at http://www.pbase.com/sjmurray/franklins_gull The gull was reported on eremaea by Doug Armstrong and has been seen regularly since then. Lake Barambah is 3 hours North West of Brisbane. Steve Murray _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
White-throated Needletail
Around ten WTN were seen hawking over head at Parma Creek Nature Reserve at Nowra on Tuesday, this was my first visit to this reserve, also seen were Rock warbler, Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, Scarlet and White-naped, Dusky Woodswallows, Beautiful Firetails. regards Terrill _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Grey Phalarope
Hi all. Allan Benson and I managed to see the bird at the usual place at Leanyer sewage plant. Darwin. The weather has been very wet here and there are mosquito. Hopefully the bird will remain for some time. Happy birding. — John Reidy Sydney Phone: 02 9871 4836 Fax: 02 9871 2616 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
RFI re: Fiji
> I also bought a copy of ‘Birds of Fiji and Western Polynesia’ by Dick > Watling, directly from Dick through his website: > http://www.pacificbirds.com/publications.html Highly recommended. There’s also a cute little pocket guide called “Birds of the Fiji Bush” that really does fit in your pocket. Some years back we stayed at Octopus Resort which may be where you’re going or at least close to it. At the time, the snorkeling was first-rate. They had set up a reserve area in cooperation with the local owners/village which was helping the coral and fish stocks – and gave money directly to the village. The night snorkeling was memorable. These are small islands and the variety of birds you should expect is fairly small…but a Peregrine did pass through. If you get over to the Suva side of Viti Levu, the best birding we found in Fiji was in and near Colo-I-Suva park. We stayed at the Rainforest Lodge and while nice, you’ve got no protection from noise. You can get right into the park on your own and the grounds of the hotel had a good mix of birds. In the area we saw birds including Musk Parrot, various fantails/flycatchers, Giant Forest Honeyeater, and the transplendent Golden Dove. If you’ve birding the tropical Pacific before, Fiji should impress you. If you’ve birded mostly in continental areas, it might not. The birds of Fiji are closely related to the families here (although they’ve got genera we don’t) so you should feel quite at home with identifications. I recommend Colo-I-Suva or any forest track that you can get guided to. I haven’t been to any but it sounds like the recommendations you’ve ready gotten are well worth pursuing. The smaller the island you’re on, the fewer bird species you should expect. The more developed the area, the fewer birds too, of course. With that said, the common birds are pretty first rate. Parrot-finches! Lorries! Can’t complain. Have a fantastic trip! _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
RFI re: Fiji
Dear Tom and Peter Thanks very much for your info – have passed it on to my friends – he is an irrigation expert who has worked a lot in PNG and visited Fiji before but not birding. Roger McGovern also mentioned the need to have a 4WD when venturing into forest parks – hiring a guide seems to be the way to go. Happy birding – Penny > Just to confirm Peter’s reply, Vili is a great birder and good > company, highly recommended. > > Tom > > On 30/01/2014 8:18 AM, “Peter Waanders” <waanders.peter@gmail.com >