Author: paul

Hi birders, On Saturday, prior to my incident with the quicksand, Ruth and I paid a visit to Marlo in eastern Gippsland, Victoria to look for, and hopefully photograph, the vagrant Beach Stone-curlew that has been reported there recently. Thanks to help from local birder Len Axen (who, I think it can safely be said, knows all the birds on his local patch), we managed to find the bird in roughly the area it was previously seen – at Frenches Narrows, opposite Mots Beach. We initially located the bird by scanning the far side of the Narrows from a lookout about 100m east of the Mots Beach carpark. We found the bird sheltering under a bush almost directly opposite Mots Beach. Once we were sure we could identify the location, we headed back to the beach itself and managed a few photos from across the Narrows. Len had told us that it was possible to wade across the water at low tide, unfortunately it was now high tide (around 12:30pm). We decided to attempt the crossing anyway, so after sending Ruth out for a test wade, we loaded ourselves up with our gear and waded across. The water reached about thigh deep in the middle, and then became progressively shallower as we neared the far shore. Surprisingly, the bird was very accommodating, allowing us within about 20m – I say surprisingly, because most other people have reported that it is skittish or flighty, maybe it simply wasn’t expecting anyone to come from out of the water? The bird only moved away once we broke the 20m “barrier”, and even then it simply walked away from us. I have posted my photos from the visit to my website: http://paul.angrybluecat.com/Trips-and-Locations/2014/Marlo-Mar-2014 Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria _______________________________________________ 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

So I had an interesting time at Stockyard Point yesterday on the way back from successfully twitching the Beach Stone-curlew at Marlo. We were following-up on Tim Bawden’s sighting of a race affinis Gull-billed Tern (subsequently seen and photographed by Steven Davidson). We got to Stockyard Point with about 40 minutes of useable light left – but it soon became apparent that the first problem was that it was low tide! Stockyard Point is not particularly good at low tide – the birds are widely dispersed and there was no hope of seeing the terns roosting. We saw them distantly in flight, but there was no way I could pick an affinis at that distance. We walked all the way to the point itself and decided to walk towards the waterline, and stupidly I tried to walk across some sand with a little top water (I had successfully done the same thing a few minutes previously). Within a few steps I was up to my knees in quicksand. I struggled a little and managed to get a leg out – and tried to take another step. Within seconds I was now up to my thighs in quicksand! To make matters worse, I was weighed down with my camera and (very heavy) 600mm lens, a heavy tripod, plus my scope and its tripod… Ruth was still safe, but she had to very, very carefully head towards me so that I could hand her one piece of equipment at a time and she could, at least, take the equipment to safety. All the stereotypical stories of quicksand are true – and it is absolutely certain that struggling makes you sink deeper and deeper. I managed to maintain my cool (although I was quite afraid), so I didn’t get any deeper than my thighs. Once Ruth and the equipment was safe, the only way I could extricate my self was to (stereotypically) spread my weight so it wasn’t concentrated on my legs. Bending at the waist, I transferred weight to my hands and forearms, then as carefully as possible, pulled out one leg (with boots now full of a disgusting sand and mud mixture) and then the other, and crawled until I was on firmer ground. I cannot imagine what the owners of the Chinese restaurant in Cranbourne thought when we turned up just after 9pm with me covered in sand and mud from top to toe… Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria _______________________________________________ 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

Hi birders, Ruth and I went to Point Cook today to have another look for the (probable) American Golden Plover. We had previously tried in December with no luck. In December, however, we caught up with Bernie, one of the rangers, and he allowed us to drive into the restricted area to look for the bird. I note that access has been provided in recent times and that Bernie has even driven people around the site to find both the AGP and the Oriental Plover that is present. Anyway, today we called Bernie to see if we could get access and he told us that Parks Victoria would no longer be providing access to the restricted part of Cheetham wetlands because birders have apparently caused damage to gates and fences and have been caught walking over sensitive habitat (he said “nesting sites”). This means that the site that the Oriental Plover has been seen is off-limits, as is the high-tide roost for the Golden Plovers). The good news, though, is that it is still possible to see the American Golden Plover. Ruth and I found a group of at least 17 Golden Plovers on the westernmost rocky point near the homestead about four hours after high tide. When we were there in December we also found a group of six Golden Plovers at the same spot – unfortunately something spooked them before we could get close. Of the 17 Golden Plovers, one immediately stood out as being different (a paler bird with a much broader supercilium). I will post some pictures in a day or two, but I have been having Internet speed problems and need to get that resolved first. In the meantime I posted a small image to Birdline. Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria _______________________________________________ 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

Hi birders, Here are the results from the Birdlife Victoria Twitchathon this past weekend. This year we had four teams in the 24-hour event and four teams in the 8-hour competition, despite the fact that there was considerable interest in the Big Sit, unfortunately no teams ended up registering for this event. Additionally, this was the first year that we had fully-online team registration and sponsorship – all in all, it worked reasonably well, although I think we need to figure out how to make it a little easier (especially the team registration). Anyway, onto the part that we’re all interested in, the results. Firstly, the 24-hour competition: The winners of the 24-hour competition were the Tick-tock Twins (Paul Rose and Sean Fitzgerald) with a total of 209 species seen, the first time they have broken the 200-species barrier. Best bird was Sooty Owl – well, three of them! Biggest dip was Tawny Frogmouth. Congratulations Tick Tock Twins! Runners-up were long-time Twitchathon competitors, the Common Loudmouths (Greg Hunt, Paul Kelly, Philip Jackson and Russell Thomson), with 174 species. The Loudmouths have, for many years, been 8-hour competitors, so attempting the 24-hour event and scoring that many birds was a great result. Best bird was Crimson Chat at Yapeet, a great bird for Victoria generally, and for the Twitchathon in particular. Biggest dip was Zebra Finch. Next was the Ruff Rollers (Brett Whitfield, Daniel Pendavingh and Bob Dawson) with 166 species seen. Ruth and I usually bump into these guys at Goschen, which seems to be the starting point for both teams! Best bird was Little Tern and biggest dip was Hardhead. Finally was first-time competitors, the Plover United Party (Dan Eyles, Chris Timewell, Warren Tomlinson and Alexander Holmes) with 127 species. Best bird was Cicadabird at Terrick Terrick of all places! Biggest dip was Wedge-tailed Eagle. Congratulations on a good effort in your first competition! Interestingly the Plovers started in Mildura and ended in Castlemaine, so perhaps not a route that could generate the highest number of species, but they had some remarkable candidates for best bird in addition to the Cicadabird they settled on – Painted Honeyeater at Muckleford, Black-eared Cuckoo and White-browed Treecreeper at Yarara. In the 8-hour competition the winners were the Robin Rednecks with the remarkable tally of 166 species! This is a new record for the 8-hour competition, with the previous record of 156 species recorded by the Common Diving Petrolheads in 2003. Even more remarkable, the Robin Rednecks now hold BOTH the 8-hour and 24-hour records (they set the 24-hour competition record in 2011 with a tally of 225 species). Best bird was Square-tailed Kite (I don’t recall seeing this bird in Victorian Twitchathon lists in previous years) and biggest dip was Zebra Finch. The Rednecks spent all of their time in northern and central Victoria, not coming to the Western Treatment Plant, so that makes their total even more remarkable. Runners-up in the 8-hour event were long-time 8-hour competitors the Norwegian Blues (Jack Krohn and George Pergaminelis) with 145 species – not quite as high as their 2011 tally of 149 but a great result nonetheless. Best bird was Arctic Jaeger at the Western Treatment plant and biggest dip was Black-shouldered Kite, despite spending hours at the Western Treatment Plant! Next was the Oriental Prats (Rohan Bilney, Lucas Bluff, Aileen Collyer and Tamara Leitch) with a total of 137 species. Best bird was Osprey – yet another great bird for Victoria, and biggest dip was Golden-headed Cisticola. Finally in the 8-hour event were the Wallace Wanderers (Fiona and Darren Wallace and the two keen young birders, Amber – 12 years and Jaxen – 7 years) with a total of 75 species seen. Best bird was Cape Barren Goose and biggest dip was King Parrot – a really great effort and hopefully a signal to other families considering entering that not only is it possible but a Twitchathon can be a great deal of fun for the entire family! Unfortunately this year Ruth and I (the Gang Gang Gang) were unable to participate and had to withdraw at the last minute. I have an unfortunate habit of severely injuring myself whilst on holiday, and this trip was no exception with me twisting my leg and ankle and tearing ligaments. Hopefully next year. Well done to all teams that participated and thanks for all your efforts with raising sponsorship money – it will all be put to good causes, supporting advanced tertiary students studying Victorian-oriented, bird-related topics and projects at university. Paul Dodd Birdlife Victoria Regional Group – Twitchathon Coordinator =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Hi everyone, Another reminder – the Birdlife Australia, Victorian Twitchathon is on in two weeks – Sat 16th and Sun 17th November. Now is the time to register a team and seek sponsorship! All information is on The Birdlife Victoria section of the website: http://www.birdlife.org.au/locations/all-victoria-statewide/conservation-initiatives-vic There you will find instructions on registering your team on the JustGiving site and instructions for sponsoring are also provided. All details of the three events – 24 hour Twitchathon, 8 hour Twitchathon and 24 hour Big Sit are on the site. Any questions to Tim Bawden, in my absence (copied on this email), Good luck! Paul Dodd Birdlife Australia, Victorian Twitchathon coordinator Sent from my iPhone =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Hi birders, It’s that time of year again to start planning your entry in this year’s Birdlife Victoria Twitchathon. This year we are running three competitions – the 24-hour Twitchathon, the 8-hour Twitchathon, and for the first time, a Big Sit! This year the competition will be run over the weekend of 16th and 17th November. The idea of a Big Sit is that instead of traipsing all over the state, your team remains within a 5.2m (17 foot) circle for 24 hours! Hopefully you know your teammates pretty well. The aim of the Big Sit is still to identify as many species as possible within the 24 hour period, but without moving – so this competition would appeal to those that are either not able to or don’t want to spend their weekend driving. The second major change that we’ve made to the competition this year is that ALL team registration and ALL sponsorship is now done online using the well-known charitable donation and sponsorship website, JustGiving. This has the benefit of allowing teams to register right up to the last minute. The other main benefit is that all sponsors will immediately receive their receipt for tax deduction purposes. Go to http://www.justgiving.com/birdlifeaustralia to register your team. Detailed instructions for registering a team are available from http://www.birdlife.org.au/locations/all-victoria-statewide/conservation-ini tiatives-vic. Once you have registered your team you will automatically create a web address in the form of http://www.justgiving.com/teams/your-team-name. Simply give this web address to your sponsors so that they can sponsor or donate on behalf of your team. Detailed instructions for sponsoring a team are also at http://www.birdlife.org.au/locations/all-victoria-statewide/conservation-ini tiatives-vic. All proceeds from the BirdLife Victoria Twitchathon are used to fund ornithological research in Victoria. Each year BirdLife Victoria selects a number of tertiary students conducting bird-related research in Victoria and funds part of their research projects. More details on this are also available at http://www.birdlife.org.au/locations/all-victoria-statewide/conservation-ini tiatives-vic. Good luck to all participating teams! Unfortunately I am overseas from now until the week of the Twitchathon (which means the Gang-gang Gang will have no time to scout our Twitchathon route prior to the event). If you have any questions regarding the JustGiving web site, please contact Edward Elston at BirdLife Australia National Office – edward.elston@birdlife.org.au. For information or basic advice on the Twitchathon, please contact Tim Bawden – tbawden@live.com.au. Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Hi all, I have uploaded my photographs of the gannets seen at the Point Danger Gannet Colony (Portland, Victoria) on the weekend. Photographs can be found at: http://paul.angrybluecat.com/Trips-and-Locations/2013/Point-Danger-Oct-2013 Or, if you only want to see the Cape Gannet, then: http://paul.angrybluecat.com/AustralianBirds/Gannets-and-Boobies2/Cape-Ganne t Alternatively, I have uploaded them to Facebook for those that follow me there. Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Hi all, I thought I’d post an update on the Cape Gannet and site detail, for those that are interested. After Sunday’s Portland pelagic, we took most participants back to the gannet colony to see if we could find the Cape Gannet. Unfortunately, even with 9 or 10 pairs of eyes and my scope, we could not relocate the bird. Allowing for daylight savings time, we were probably at the colony about three-quarters of an hour earlier than the previous day and remained for about 40 minutes or more looking. We left Jen Spry at the colony, and I believe that she is going back today to have another look. Point Danger is Australia’s only mainland gannet colony, so when conditions are right, it offers unparalleled views of these birds. The colony is double-fenced to prevent access to the nesting birds by both people and foxes. Previously they had employed two dogs of the Maremma breed (used in Italy to protect sheep from predators) – but as we found out, this program had not been entirely successful at Point Danger and was now discontinued. The main outer fence is about 2m high and has a padlocked gate. This fence is perhaps 75m from the colony. The inner fence – which is now electrified – is about 25m from the birds. A viewing platform has been built which offers scope views of the colony – this platform is about 125m from the birds. Access to the colony is from the Madeira Packet Road, which is a longish loop road to the south of Portland, Victoria, very close to the aluminium smelter. Access to the colony is by a gravel road and is marked “Point Danger” (and several other nearby sites). Currently the road is severely potholed with several deep ruts running across the road. It is possible to access this road by 2WD. This road ends up at a paved circular road with car parking and a lookout. From this area a gated track leads to the old rifle range and the gannet colony. This track is clearly marked “Gannets”. In my opinion, this track is currently impassable to 2WD vehicles and a 4WD with reasonable clearance would be required. The track is very deeply potholed and rutted with murky water covering much of it – such that it is impossible to tell the depth. The base of the track is solid rock, with a thin layer of sand and leaf litter/soil on top – getting bogged is not the issue, but getting a wheel stuck in one of the potholes (or damaging the underside of a 2WD car) would be possible. On Saturday we walked the track first, and Ruth subsequently went back to collect the car. On Sunday we had our vehicle plus two Subarus – all made it successfully. There is one particularly deep hole – so it pays to follow the wheel tracks of other vehicles. When we arrived on Saturday, we met one of the rangers/wardens/caretakers of the site. He told us that vandals or thieves had been there the previous evening and had used bolt cutters to remove the padlock and had stolen all the webcams and security monitoring equipment that had been installed. He was there to survey the damage and he told us he would be coming back to replace the padlock. Anyway, after seeing our cameras, lenses and scope, he realised that we were serious birders and allowed us access to the fenced of section. This allowed us to get to the electrified fence, about 25m from the gannets. Sure enough, when we returned on Sunday, the padlock had been replaced with a very serious-looking unit, and no further access other than to the viewing platform, or what could be seen from the gate and fence were available. On Saturday we arrived at the colony around 5pm (AEST – so 6pm daylight-savings time) and were basically there for an hour. We scanned the colony completely with binoculars and scope a couple of times, seeing nothing but Australasian Gannets. The number of birds on Point Danger appears well down from the last time that Ruth and I were there. I would estimate that there were around 200-300 birds, and I am sure that the last time we were there (a couple of years ago), there would have been closer to 1000 birds. Ruth and I settled in to photograph the birds – there were numerous pairs in courting displays, some birds already on nests and some birds flying in with (and fighting over) nesting material. The wind was strong which made photography challenging, but provided amazing opportunities to see the gannets wind-hovering! I was concentrating on the western side of the colony and Ruth was concentrating on the eastern side. Ruth suddenly called out, “There’s a bird with a longer throat stripe!” So without really thinking about it, I snapped of a few shots. Then Tim Bawden and I checked it with binoculars – long gular stripe – check! Pale iris – check! All-black tail – check! To be honest, I am not sure that I could differentiate this bird from the Australasian Gannets by any difference in the golden colouring on the head and nape of neck, and – with all the calls from the colony, there is no possibility of differentiating this bird by voice (despite what some of the documentation and field guides say!) After about 20 minutes of photographing the bird – the first ten minutes of which it was grooming itself and rarely showing any of the pertinent features, we then had about ten minutes of it displaying in spectacular fashion. A truly wonderful sight! Ruth and I took about 500 photos each, I’m not sure how many Tim took. As we were still driving back from Portland last night, I haven’t had the opportunity to process or publish any images yet, but I will try to do so this evening and tomorrow. For those interested, the bird was on the eastern edge of the colony, the “third from the left” at the time we were viewing. Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Late this afternoon Ruth Woodrow, Tim Bawden and I had the opportunity to check the gannet colony at Point Danger near Portland, Victoria. We found a single Cape Gannet in the eastern edge of the colony (several hundred birds). We observed and photographed the bird for around 20 minutes before cold winds got the best of us. See Birdline Vic: http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=1 for a single iPhone photograph of the LCD screen on my camera. Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria Sent from my iPhone =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Hi everyone, Apologies for the late notice, but other avenues have dried up. There are two US birders from the eBird project at Cornell who, with very little spare time, would love to visit the Western Treatment Plant this afternoon. Normally Ruth and I would jump at the chance, but unfortunately we’ll be on the road for a non-cancelled Portland pelagic. If there is anyone that is able to take these two birders this afternoon, that would be great. Please call me on 0419516669 and I’ll attempt to coordinate. They’ll most likely need picking up from Tullamarine airport (they’re flying in from Alice Springs), and probably dropped off either back there or at whatever accommodation has been arranged for them. Thanks in advance. Paul Dodd Docklands Sent from my iPhone =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================