Author: paul

On Christmas morning we headed off bright and early for Sunset Country. A quick stop at Lake Tyrell near Sealake to look for Crimson Chats yielded nothing. Similarly, a run along the road to the north of Hattah to look for Red-backed Kingfishers also came up empty. Not to be discouraged we headed for Murray-Sunset National Park, and our overnight accommodation at Shearers Hut, where we’d been told of a possible Red-backed Kingfisher.

From Red Cliffs, north of Hattsh, we headed along the Millewa Road and eventually met up with North-South Settlement Road. We headed south towards the Shearers Hut and all was going well until we saw some water on the track. We approached the suspect part of the road with caution to see if it was passable, but alas no – there was no way through. I decided to back out, but putting the car in reverse achieved absolutely nothing – we were stuck fast! I tried rocking the car backwards and forwards, but no effect. The mud was so thick and so slippery, all four wheels just span. We tried digging the car out, we collected branches and brush and put them under the wheels – no go. After exhausting ourselves for four hours, I called RACV who said they couldn’t help – but they recommended calling the SES. I gave them a call and they said someone would be in contact. I wasn’t too hopeful because it was now 7:30pm on Christmas night.

We decided we’d be camping by a very bogged car for Christmas… Dinner was from a can, but we figured we shouldn’t have any of our wine in case help came that evening (it didn’t). The following morning we had our coffee and baked beans and settled down to wait. Eventually a couple of Parks Rangers arrived at about 11am and snatched us free! It turned out that one of the Rangers, Danielle, was someone I had spoken to earlier in the year because she had seen Bustards in western Wyperfeld at Easter.

Oh, best bird at the bog site was a Black Falcon, by the way.

We decided to abandon Shearers Hut (for now) and went to Ned’s Corner. We thoroughly explored the area, but if truth be known we were only interested in one species – Inland Dotterel – which we got on Ned’s Corner Road around 9:30pm. We *did* keep a look out for Black-breasted Buzzard, Letter-winged Kite and Grey Falcon, but no luck with those!

The following morning, our confidence somewhat restored, we went to Shearers Hut, where we spent the night. No sign of Red-backed Kingfisher, but we did manage patchy mobile coverage, and I managed to discover that a Red-backed Kingfisher had been seen at Hattah! So we duly headed off, back to Hattah.

We’d been tipped-off that the kingfisher had been seen on the Konardin Track, so we drove (slowly) back and forth along that track until lunchtime, with no success. It’s not possible to have a Hattah birding trip without lunch of a ham and salad roll and a Ginger beer at the General Store. After lunch we met up with our friends Fiona Parkin and Jon Thornton and managed to convince them to help us. We started the track again, and stopped at a “likely looking” spot (there was a nice looking tree hollow and a Rainbow Bee-eater!) As we wandered around, Jon (who refuses to use binoculars) said, “What’s that bird? It looks remarkably like a kingfisher to me…” Sure enough, a Red-backed Kingfisher! Making 386 for VicTwitch 2010.

We left Hattah and headed to Ouyen. Our plan was to drive the Murrayville Track in Big Desert to look for Bustards, but we figured at 4pm it was a bit late in the day. We decided to overnight in Ouyen, but not before spending a few hours searching northern Wyperfeld for Crimson Chats – unfortunately no luck.

Big Desert, Telopea Downs looking for Bustard tomorrow. Probably overnighting at Portland and looking for Masked Owl. A little seabird watching from Cape Nelson before heading back to Lorne to look for Masked Owls. During the last two days of the year we’ll also try looking for another missing species – Baillon’s Crake.

Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow Currently at Ouyen

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We’re back in Melbourne for a night, for a Chrissie drinks catchup with friends, before heading off to the north-west corner of Victoria. So far in these last two weeks we have covered WTP, Terrick Terrick and Pyramid Hill, Corop, Rutherglen, Orbost and Cape Conran, Bemm River, Mallacoota and Gipsy Point.

We’ve added one new bird since my last posting, Black Bittern – taking us to 384 Victorian birds for the year. Also, seeing the Black Bittern at Gipsy Point means that we’ve seen all three “Victorian” bitterns in less than a week – Little Bittern at Reedy Lake near Geelong, Australasian Bittern at a swamp on the Terrick grasslands and now Black Bittern on the Genoa River at Gipsy Point.

Since people are certain to ask for details on the Black Bittern, here they are. The Black Bittern is UPSTREAM from the Gipsy Point Lodge boat ramp. The only way to have any chance of seeing it is by boat, which means that you will likely need to hire one. Most people will not allow you to hire a boat to go upstream from Gipsy Point – the reason is that it is a maze, with three rivers and bunch of creeks ant tributaries. Ian, the owner of Gipsy Point Lodge, WILL hire boats and allow you to gate them upstream. We hired one from him and departed reasonably early on Saturday morning. We were not sure that there were any Black Bitterns present, but this is the time of year that they are mostly seen. We spoke with Capt John who runs the Gipsy Princess a charter tour boat specialising in nature and bird tours up the rivers – he said that he had not seen any Black Bitterns this year, but had seen plenty of Striated Herons (which we saw earlier in the year). When we picked up the boat from Ian, we told him what we were after, and he said that his chef had seen one the previous day. Anyway, we departed and chugged slowly upstream checking the south bank of the river thoroughly – the river is very shallow, and particularly so from the middle to the northern bank – in many places too shallow for a motorised boat.

We headed as far upstream as we could go (basically until we ran the boat aground on a sandbank), then headed back downstream and searched the Maramingo as far upstream as we could get – it eventually becomes impassable due to logs across it, just under the surface. No joy. We passed another boat of birdwatchers who said that they’d seen a bittern on the Genoa River, so we headed back there. We scanned the bank on the south side of the Genoa river from the mouth of the Maramingo Creek for about 500m to the west, with no luck. Then tragedy struck! We saw an Azure Kingfisher and went into shore to take photos. On trying to back the boat out, the engine died! These hire boats are HEAVY and with two of us paddling, with a strongish current and wind, we struggled to control it. We drifted aimlessly downstream, but managed to keep close to the southern shore of the river and continued looking for bitterns. About 500m to the east of the Maramingo mouth, we heard the bittern call! There is no way we would have heard it with the engine running. Anyway, we paddled the boat into shore and found an old (and very rotten) tree that we tied up to. Then clambering along the shore for a couple of hundred metres upstream, searching every bush and tree we saw it! And it saw us and took off across the river…

We headed back to our boat and decided to paddle across the river to the other side – but somehow we managed to reach a spot where the current and the wind reached equilibrium and we were stuck in the middle of the river. The best our paddling could do was turn the boat around – we could not move. I guess the wind eventually dropped and we managed to get to the other side, but in thick foliage that we could not get through. Finally a fisherman and his wife came by and gave us a tow back towards the boat ramp (they would not have been able to tow us upstream). There is one patch on the river with mobile phone coverage, and as soon as we came to that we called Ian at Gipsy Point Lodge. Apart from apologising profusely, he came out to meet us with a replacement boat.

We spent the next three or four hours searching for our elusive Black Bittern but could not relocate it. We did manage to flush FOUR Striated Herons though – one was very dark, another was very pale and the others were mid-way between. None of the birds appeared to be juveniles. On one of our passes upstream we saw a flock of Topknot Pigeons in some tall dead branches. They didn’t hang around for very long, however.

Paul Dodd and Ruth Woodrow

Docklands, Victoria

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Ten days to go for VicTwitch 2010. We’re currently at 383 Victorian species this year. Sunday was a good day – we managed Little Bittern at Reedy Lake near Geelong – thanks John Newman for getting up early and wading through cold, thigh-deep water for an hour with us! We also managed to see the Stilt Sandpiper at the WTP.

Yesterday we searched a number of swamps in the Kerang area, in vain, for Painted Snipe. There is so much water around currenly! Last night we went out with Simon Starr and managed to locate a lovely female Plains Wanderer in a grassland at Terrick. I’d forgotten just how small and delicate these birds are…

This morning we searched another couple of swamps at Terrick for Painted Snipe – still no joy, but we managed a very impressive Aussie Bittern (although not a year tick for us). Next we tried Corop, but there was so much water around and all roads to one swamp were cut. We drove up a road heading back to the highway only to find the road had become a swamp. You know it’s wet when not only is there a duck swimming in the road but also a Grebe! This spot also yielded a pair of Brolga and an Intermediate Egret by the side of the road!

On to Rutherglen – once again looking for Painted Snipe and also for the faintest hope that last year’s Red-backed Kingfishers had returned (they hadn’t).

Finally over the Great Alpine Road, complete with snow, to Orbost where we’re looking for our bogey-bird of bogey-birds, Masked Owl.

Another update in a few days, provided I have mobile coverage.

Paul Dodd & Ruth Woodrow Currently at Orbost

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After successfully locating a Little Bittern at Reedy Lake this morning, we were getting on with some work. A quick phone call to Rohan Clarke at around 10am – while he was looking AT the Stilt Sandpiper – so we decided to head there immediately.

By the time we got there at around 10:30am the bird had just flown from T-Section Lagoons. Birders were attempting to relocate it. Eventually Jen Spry said it had been found at Austin Road Lagoon.

We scoped the bird, but it was very distant, and views were not satisfying. After some discussion with the other birders there, we decided that Peter Menkhorst, Ruth and I would head to Austin Road and either look from there, or at worst flush the bird back to the other side. As it happened, we got quite good views, and some terrible photos. Unfortunately, just as Peter set up his good camera, and just as the other birders started heading over to Austin Road, the two Greenshanks that were with the Sandpiper flew (they were very flighty) – the Stilt Sandpiper flew too and we could not immediately relocate it.

I received a call from Greg Oakley a little later on to say that he had seen the bird back at the T-Section Lagoons where it was reported this morning. Since then the rain has come, and the bird flew again.

Latest I heard is that the bird returned to T-Section briefly then flew off again, to the north.

Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria

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Hi birding-aussers,

Some of you may know – especially if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook – Ruth and I have spent this year chasing Tim Dolby’s VicTwitch record. Last year Tim managed to see 345 species in Victoria (excluding pelagic trips). This year Ruth and I have seen 380 species in Victoria (including pelagic trips – about 366 excluding pelagic trips).There are a number of species that we have not yet managed to see, but there are still 18 days left of this year!

Following is the list of species from the Victorian list that we have not seen this year. We certainly don’t expect to see them all, but we’re both taking the last two weeks of the year off and intend to devote ourselves to getting as many of the remaining species as possible.

We would appreciate any assistance with finding any of these species. If anyone has reasonably recent sightings of any of them, could you please let us know?

Thanks in advance!

Paul Dodd

Docklands, Victoria

King Quail

Indian Peafowl

Common Pheasant (unsure if this is on the Victorian list)

Grey-headed Albatross

Sooty Albatross

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross

Southern Fulmar

Kerguelen Petrel

White-headed Petrel

Mottled Petrel

Cook’s Petrel

Gould’s Petrel

Salvin’s Prion

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Little Shearwater

Cape Gannet

Little Bittern

Black Bittern

Osprey

Letter-winged Kite

Baillon’s Crake

Australian Bustard

Oriental Plover

Inland Dotterel

Semi-palmated Plover

Sandpipers and Allies

Terek Sandpiper

Little Stint

Long-toed Stint

Red-necked Phalarope

Australian Pratincole

Oriental Pratincole

Plains-wanderer

Australian Painted Snipe

South Polar Skua

Long-tailed Jaeger

Masked Owl

Red-backed Kingfisher

Crimson Chat

Ground Cuckoo-shrike

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Hi birding-aussers,

Unfortunately our lovely car was written-off by our insurance company after we got it waterlogged attempting to cross one too many creeks in the Northern Territory a month or so ago. However, I have bought another 4WD and have to pick it up in Brisbane tomorrow (Friday). We will pick up the car and basically drive directly to Melbourne via either the Newell or New England Highways. We do not have much time for diversions as we have a prior commitment in Victoria on Sunday.

One species that we are missing from our list is Plum-headed Finch, and if there is any possibility of seeing these on our journey south, we would really like to try. Does anyone have any convenient sites that we could try on our trip?

Thanks in advance,

Paul Dodd

Docklands, Victoria

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If anyone is going to the WTP this Sunday, Ruth and I would be keen to tag along. We have a key, we’re just short one car (I sank it in the Northern Territory, but that’s another story). We’re keen to find the Wood Sandpipers for our Vic year list…

Paul Dodd

Docklands, Victoria

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If anyone is going to the WTP this Sunday, Ruth and I would be keen to tag along. We have a key, we’re just short one car (I sank it in the Northern Territory, but that’s another story). We’re keen to find the Wood Sandpipers for our Vic year list…

Paul Dodd

Docklands, Victoria

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Ruth and I are currently in Port Augusta en route to Alice Springs. Our planned route was via Lyndhurst and Oodnadatta Track (with small diversion along Strezlecki Track to Mount Lyndhurst Station). However I have found out that Oodnadatta Track, Strezlecki Track and most of Birdsville Track are CLOSED due to heavy rain, with at least 100 people stranded at Lake Eyre and William Creek (mostly at the pub!) A day or two later and we’d have been stranded too.

Paul Dodd Currently Port Augusta, SA

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