This, and all the other weekly Birdline summaries, went to the old list. I’m forwarding them manually this week. Peter Shute Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: From: “notifications@eremaea.comnotifications@eremaea.com>” <notifications@eremaea.comnotifications@eremaea.com>> Date: 30 December 2013 4:02:55 am AEDT To: “birding-aus@vicnet.net.aubirding-aus@vicnet.net.au>” <birding-aus@vicnet.net.aubirding-aus@vicnet.net.au>> Subject: Birdline Victoria Weekly Update Birdline Victoria Published sightings for the week ending 29 Dec 2013. Sun 29 Dec Spotted Quail-thrush Brisbane Ranges National Park Spotted Quail-thrush (1) Male seen near intersection of McLean Highway and Thompson’s Road at 1pm Tim Mintern Sun 29 Dec Long-toed Stint, Pectoral Sandpiper Western Treatment Plant, Werribee 2 Long-toed Stints in the northern(eastern) most pond of the Western Lagoons standing on slime at the edge. 1 Pectoral Sandpiper in the T-section calling incessantly. Tim Bawden Flame Robin Tylden Township, Macedon Ranges Brown birds moving out of the forest already. Seen on farm fences. Heard some singing too. Lawrie Conole Sat 28 Dec Pilotbird, Olive Whistler Mount Buffalo National Park (Lake Catani) Both the Pilotbird and Olive Whistler are in good numbers at Mt Buffalo this season along with the usual Flame Robins and White-eared Honeyeaters. Note the blue feathers on the flanks of the Pilotbird, not seen in our bird books. Sadly Superb Lyrebirds have not been seen here this year and only one seen last year, thirty five sighting a day were once normal. Clyde O’Donnell Fri 27 Dec Grey-tailed Tattler Reef Island Saw 2 Grey-tailed Tattlers on the northern shore of Reef Island. Both birds hung around together and where very flighty, tough to get close to them. There where plenty of waders on the island today including around a dozen Eastern Curlews and Turnstones, a Whimbrel and over 20 Pacific Golden Plovers. Tim Nickholds Fri 27 Dec Great Crested Grebe, Black-faced Cormorant, Red Knot, Arctic Jaeger Western Treatment Plant, Werribee Fantastic day at Werribee, there are HUGE amounts of birds everywhere – many thousands of ducks, waders and other waterbirds. Highlights were: large numbers of Great Crested Grebe (up to six individuals in one group), Black-faced Cormorant seen amongst the other four cormorant species at main outfall, about ten Red Knot on sand bar in ponds near Borrie outflow and two Arctic Jaeger on coast nearby, one pursuing Silver Gull. Also many Sharpies, Red-necked Stints, Marsh Sandpipers, Bar-tailed Godwits, Greenshanks and Curlew Sandpipers. Rohan Long Fri 27 Dec Dollarbird Greater Bendigo National Park (Kamarooka) One bird seen flying south over Burnside Track. Seems to be out of expected range and habitat here. Michael Ramsey Superb Parrot Strathmerton 10′ Cell six seen on a roadside north of the town, at least one male – first time I’ve seen them in this area Matthew Vinicombe Thu 26 Dec Brown Quail & Latham’s Snipe Mulgrave Reserve, Dandenong Creek Valley Stephan Megroz Arctic Jaeger Pt Henry : Geelong Arctic Jaeger [dark morp] x4 seen aggressivly hassarring returning evening [8pm] Crested Terns and Silver Gulls from bay. Intially single Jaeger seen chasing Silver Gull close to shoreline, later joined by another 3 others [north side of Alcoa Pier]. Similar behaviour observed as per Herdley Earl’s report [25th Dec ] Jaeger’s hovering and attempting to land on Gulls and force downwards. David Tytherleigh Peregrine Falcon Tylden Township, Macedon Ranges Our local pair (I assume breeders from the neighbouring Tylden Quarry) have been very noisy the last week or so. Today my daughter and I looked on, impressed and smiling, as the noise drew our attention to a pair overhead. The mail dropped the wattlebird-sized prey it was carrying and the female rolled over to receive it upside down. This looked like courtship behaviour, but it’s a little late in the year. Attempting a second clutch, or celebrating an empty nest?? Lawrie Conole Wed 25 Dec Square-tailed Kite Wheatsheaf (about 8 km north-east of Daylesford) One bird seen briefly, patrolling along a row of tress at canopy height (about 10-15 metres). Heading away when first seen, but binoculars showed clearly white windows near base of fingered primaries and longish dark-tipped tail with pointed corners. Great excitement from Yellow-faced and White-eared Honeyeaters. Jack Krohn Arctic Jaeger Inner Corio Bay, Geelong (3) Dark morph Arctic Jaegers combined to bring down a gull just off the Grammar School today. It is the first time we have seen multiple dark morph birds. Close examination showed they had pale barred tail coverts. Many photos taken of the aerial attack before the gull hit the water and even then one jaeger tried to land on it. Hedley and Irena Earl Eastern Koel Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne As recently reported,Koel heard calling briefly in the gardens at about 12pm. Ben Sinclair Tue 24 Dec White-throated Needletail Anglesea Heath Coalmine Rd. V light wind about 16 C White-throated Needletail (100) one flock. A few very low, ‘swoosh’! Angus Hartshorn Tue 24 Dec Ground Parrot Wilsons Promontory National Park One bird seen and another heard in wet heath near the upper reaches of Darby Swamp. Heath seems to have been burnt in last five years and is in great condition with plenty of other heath specialists to be seen. Tim Bawden Rufous Fantail Wilson Reserve, Ivanhoe Rufous Fantail (1) Good views, near the Powerful Owls, at one stage the juvenile was watching it. Vincent Knowles Freckled Duck The Sanctuary, Lake Colac At least 14 Freckled ducks were still present at the Sanctuary section, Lake Colac. Ian and Jean Davies Mon 23 Dec Tawny Frogmouth (5). Large suburban garden in Hoppers Crossing 3029. At 1830 hours, my son and I observed two young Tawny Frogmouths (fledged in October) perched presumably with their female parent in an Ironbark tree in my rear yard. Another adult bird was nearby in the same tree and the male parent of the two fledgings was sitting on eggs at the regular nest site in a nearby Yellow Gum. This second clutch of eggs laid in early December should be hatching in the next week or so. If successfully reared, this will probably be eight Frogmouths fledged from the same nest site in the last three years presumably by the same parent birds. It is pleasing to have them breeding successfully in the area. Peter Gibbons & Kristian Gibbons. Freckled Duck, Black-tailed Native-hen, Latham’s Snipe Spavin Drive Lake with Joan Rosenthal, Sydney birder. Freckled Duck (1) 2nd seen here Black-tailed Native-hen (1) 1st seen for some time Latham’s Snipe (1) flew while checking Freckled Duck Roger McGlashan Sun 22 Dec Long-toed Stint Western Treatment Plant, Werribee 3 birds seen together at first pond through the Beach Road gate. In the photo two are shown to the right of the Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. Photo taken by Mike Comber. Link to additional photo showing the three stints together. Paul Hackett, Mike and Martina Comber Satin Bowerbird Clark Rd, Ivanhoe At about 6.30 pm (DST) Brian and I saw a medium-large passerine bird land on a neighbour’s roof. It was a dull greenish colour.. My first thought was a Green-backed Oriole. When it turned to face me, I noticed the absence of white breast – dull green all over, no markings. I walked towards the house for a closer look and noted a rather blunt bill with feathers at the base and comparatively short legs and I decided it was a young Satin Bowerbird. It flew off over the house towards Darebin Creek, which runs parallel to the road, so I could observe the bronze tones of the wing feathers. Brian believes he may have seen it in our nearby back garden, near our mulberry tree (currently full of fruit and birds) on the previous morning. Unfortunately he does not wear his glasses when gardening. I presume that a dispersing young bird could have followed the Yarra River to Ivanhoe. The Darebin confluence is about half a kilometre away. There are many fruit trees in local gardens. Anthea Fleming White-throated Needletail Greater Bendigo National Park In humid & unsettled weather yesterday afternoon large numbers of WTNT were present, with approximate numbers being 20 over Hartland Rd, 140 over Campbell Rd, 90 over Burnside Rd and finally 260 over Millwood Rd at south end of park. Birds were mostly milling about in thermals but general trend was birds moving from north-west to south-east, so there may have been some overlap in numbers. Steve Davidson – The Melbourne Birder Powerful Owl 61 Unwin Street Templestowe Powerful Owl heard calling in lemon scented gum 12:30 am. Only one bird call heard. Have recording if needed to verify. Judith Wakeman & Tony Hampton Tue 17 Dec Cicadabird Gembrook Tonimbuk Rd First time to see Cicadabird on this property. Seen and heard again three times. Always heard first them seen high in Mountain Grey Gums. Responds to playback (once), flies high with long undulations. Very difficult to see clearly. Could not distinguish sex of birds. Val Curtis Birdline Victoria is sponsored by BirdLife Victoria and hosted by Eremaea Birds. _______________________________________________ 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
