Hello fellow birders, I was lucky enough to have a trip with Klaus to Iron Range in early December. In November I was on a Birdlife Australia day trip to Anglesea Heath and surrounds led by excellent birder, Tim Bawden and on the trip was long time Melbourne birder, John Young. John mentioned that he’d recently come back from an extended trip with friends that included Iron Range and that he’d missed 2 birds, the Northern Scrub-robin and the Yellow-legged Flycatcher / Flyrobin and the Yellow-billed Kingfisher?
Well the reason that you missed the Northern Scrub-robin was simple and that was because the bird that used to hang around Cooks Campground toilet block and that John had visited several times to stake out has moved. We got onto the Northern Scrub-robin on our second day. We could hear the bird calling in the early morning and then Klaus took us into the bush after we couldn’t get a view and then all got a good view except for one person. A few days later we went back to same spot (so that the person who missed could get a look) in the afternoon and it was very quiet but with a lot of playback the bird emerged. Klaus said it was the same bird that used to frequent Cooks Campground.
As for the Yellow-legged Flycatcher / Flyrobin, we dipped on that too. Iron Range was incredibly dry. I had been there in August 2009 and was surprised by how dry it was in early December. I had imagined that the heat would be unbearable and that the bush would be steaming and lush. The heat was quite bearable, in fact quite pleasant. The dryness made it very hard to get onto the birds and they were pretty quiet. Klaus said that with rain the forest becomes alive with bird calls. In one year Klaus got onto all in the birds in a day and a half.
We did have a spectacular view of the Yellow-billed Kingfisher though. After hearing YBK call for what seemed like hours and walking along the road hoping to see one fly into a tree, we got up on our third morning and right next to our accommodation (high up on the hill above Portland Roads with a great view out to the endless blue of Weymouth Bay). Klaus got onto the bird that lucky for us was down low in a bush near our parked vehicle and the male Yellow-billed Kingfisher stayed for around half an hour without being bothered by us wondering around the bush for a better look and lots of photos.
We had no luck with Spotted Whistling Ducks and on last day having a last look at the Lockhart River sewage hoping they might be there ponds we saw a Swinhoe’s Snipe. Ya. And very lucky for us, we did see a Red-belied Pitta too.
Best wishes and happy birding, Patrick Scully ===============================
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