Well the annual NSW Twitchathon is over and those annual twitchers can now get a reasonable night’s sleep. The Black-necked Stalkers trialled a new route this year starting in Glen Innes and finishing at Tullymorgan, near Lawrence. We didn’t expect to win as the bar has been raise so high in recent years that only teams starting well west and finishing on the coast have a chance of getting in excess of 230 species. Our team, comprising Russell Jago, Maree Davis and me, with Annette Harrison as non-participating scribe, was hoping to beat the 200 mark. Last year with a number of western breeding birds, such as the Straw-necked Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Stilt, Eurasian Coot etc., completely absent from the NSW North Coast, we only obtained a disappointing total of 186.
We arrived at Glen Innes with a couple of hours to spare and managed to locate most of the needed species. These were ones that we wouldn’t get on the Clarence lowlands on the Sunday. Unfortunately a number of them are introduced species but they do also count. At 1600 hrs we were off ticking a number of common species but a large adult female Brown Goshawk was a bonus. Although not a rare species it can be difficult to find when you want it, particularly on the Twitchathon weekend. The Common Blackbird was next and the Red Wattlebird and White-winged Triller were species not expected on he Sunday. The local wetland produced a beautiful male Blue-billed Duck, Australasian Shoveler and Hoary-headed Grebe but the female Musk Duck seen by one team member never resurfaced!! On to a site along the Gwydir Highway where were were very surprised to encounter a family of Forest Ravens, corvid species number 3 for the day. I checked HANZAB last night and it wasn’t a range exten sion as I had first thought. We also had Glossy Black-Cockatoo at this site. We arrived quite late at Gibraltar Range National Park but managed to get the Rufous Scrub-bird, Scarlet Robin, New Holland Honeyeater, Southern Emu-wren and Superb Lyrebird. A bonus was a flock of White-throated Needletails. On to the Washpool as the light was really fading but we managed to get Noisy Pitta, Bassian Thrush, Rufous Fantail and Large-billed Scrubwren. We had dinner while listening for birds and then recorded Sooty Owl and Australian Owlet-nightjar. On the trip down the range towards Grafton we added Eastern Barn Owl and by the time we went to bed at 0135 hrs we had notched up 103 species. We were happy.
At sunrise the next morning we were on the heath near Sandon where we recorded Eastern Ground Parrot, Tawny-crowned Honeyeater and Red-backed Fairy-wren. A pair of Beach Stone-curlews, one with colour bands that I had placed on it two years ago, greeted us at Sandon. The Mangrove Gerygone, which has eluded us on the two previous twitches, was calling enthusiastically from the mangroves. We recorded it at two locations at Sandon and at another location later in the day. By 0730 hrs with Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo and White-breasted Woodswallow listed we had 140 species. Coastal Emu, Grey-crowned Babbler and Forest Kingfisher were added between Brooms Head and Maclean and a nestling Peregrine Falcon was still sitting on its nest ledge near Maclean. The Iluka Nature Reserve was a little disappointing as we missed Regent Bowerbird and Little Shrike-thrush but we did get White-eared Monarch and Spectacled Monarch. The rock platforms in the Woody Head area produced for us as we listed Greater Sand Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Red-necked Stint, Sooty Oystercatcher, Ruddy Turnstone and Little Tern.
The Tyndale area was very productive as usual with Black-necked Stork, Varied Sittella, Little Bronze-Cuckoo and Little Corella being ticked. The Coldstream wetlands provided a wonderful surprise with a flock of Magpie Geese. This species had been absent from the Clarence Valley for some time. The Pink-eared Ducks were back at Lawrence and in that area we added Brolga, Whiskered Tern and at Tullymorgan Nankeen Night Heron and Wandering Whistling-Duck. An unidentified shorebird in that area has been identified as a Ruff, after much deliberation. The final total was 204. We were ecstatic.
The 23 threatened bird species recorded were: Coastal Emu, Magpie Goose, Blue-billed Duck, Black-necked Stork, Brolga, Eastern Osprey, Beach Stone-curlew, Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Sooty Oystercatcher, Comb-crested Jacana, Greater Sand Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Little Tern, Glossy Black-Cockatoo, Eastern Ground Parrot, Sooty Owl, Rufous Scrub-bird, Brown Treecreeper, Speckled Warbler, Grey-crowned Babbler, Mangrove Honeyeater, White-eared Monarch and Varied Sittella. Three threatened mammals, the Parma Wallaby, Rufous Bettong and Humpback Whale were also observed.
Dr Greg. P. Clancy Head Stalker Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon Team ===============================
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