Ruff Knights WA Twitchathon summary

Hi all, it was an excellent twitchathon once again which we enjoyed thoroughly. Below is a summary of the triumphs and tribulations of the Ruff Knights (Stewart Ford, Bruce Greatwich, Nigel Jackett, Nathan Waugh), hope you enjoy reading. Congratulations on the Western Whistlers on their victory in the 24 hour and once again showing the south-west can conquer the north-west! We wound back our insanity (a little bit) from last year and decided an excellent compromise to retain northern latitude birds would be to start our twitchathon campaign in Carnarvon. However we took a large gamble in that none of us had previously birded Carnarvon (except for a couple of us who completed a tick and run for the Eurasian Wigeon a couple of years ago). To compensate for this, we left Perth Thursday morning, allowing us a full day of recce in Carnarvon, which proved to be invaluable. A big thanks to local birding legend Les George, who we met up with on Saturday morning and filled us in on what was hanging around town. We were initially very concerned upon arriving in Carnarvon and recceing on Friday. Birds that we thought would be simple were nowhere to be seen, and it was blowing a steady 40+ km/hr constantly, certainly far from ideal. We decided to start at Pelican Point, where a large flock of shorebirds were roosting during the high tide. However having staked out all the shorebirds, half the flock including all of the Bar-tailed Godwits, Great Knots and Red Knots – about 500 birds all up – was flushed to the other side of the bay by kite surfers 30 min prior to the start time. It was too late to relocate so come 5pm we quickly ticked off the shorebirds that were left and the twitchathon was on. In hindsight we believe we broke even in Carnarvon which we felt was a great result given the poor birding we encountered upon arrival. And we managed some great highlights, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Osprey and Brahminy Kite were ticked off in a single scan of the bay within 10 seconds of each other, a massive result given we hadn’t seen an Eagle or Osprey since arriving in town! A Peregrine Falcon at the sewage works was great and is rarely recorded in town according to Les, a male Chestnut Teal at the sewage works made this an excellent stop. Slender-billed Thornbill was ticked off from near the Golf Course and undoubtedly the bird of our twitchathon (and strong contender for best bird) a Little Ringed Plover at Chinaman’s Pool. We left Carnarvon on 83 birds, quite amazingly this was the same total of birds we had encountered during recce upon arriving in town. To get this in 2.5 hours was a great effort and we were pumped! The long night drive followed, highlight being we managed to avoid hitting any wildlife despite the constant kamikaze kangaroos. We did poorer then expected on night birds, but managed Boobook, Owlet-nightjar, Frogmouth and spotlighted a Torresian Crow on a radio tower (don’t worry, we got several of them during the day too ;). We attempted to spotlight a Pectoral Sandpiper on a sewage pond which we recorded on the way up. Unfortunately we didn’t get it, fortunately one of our team members won a 6-pack because of it. We also dipped on a Western Quail-thrush that we’d spotlighted on the drive up while looking for geckos! A pre-dawn Spotted Nightjar would have been the first time this species had been recorded by the Ruff Knights, if only one of the team members had agreed. We planned our “dawn chorus” stop to be in mulga woodland, and were greatly rewarded by the single chirp of a Singing Honeyeater. Ah the serenity! When mulga woodland is good it is great, but when it is bad it is a deafening silence, and in a dry December it is certainly not good. Despite this, we managed to grab specialist birds such as Bourke’s and Mulga Parrots, Chestnut-rumped, Inland and Slaty-backed Thornbills, Grey-crowned Babbler and Western Bowerbird. Continuing down the highway we ticked off the different habitats and corresponding birds. Mallee-heath brought us Southern Scrub-robin, Grey-fronted Honeyeater, White-eared Honeyeater and Blue-breasted Fairy-wren. Wandoo gave us Yellow-plumed Honeyeater, Pallid Cuckoo, Western Yellow Robin and Western Thornbill. Perth Hills gave us Red-winged Fairy-wren, Red-capped Parrot and White-browed Scrub-wren, the Wheatbelt gave us nothing despite us having recced a ‘dead cert’ site for Brown Songlark on the way up. Once again we encountered our major flaw in our route, bush birding through the middle parts of the day in 30 degree sunshine, resulting in many simple bush bird dips during a mid-day black hole where we encountered no new birds for over an hour. From the hills we hit up the coastal plain. Nigel knows Herdy like the back of his hand and as a result we quickly ticked off all the required birds, notable exception being Great Cormorant. We whizzed past 12 hour competitors Once-Bittern with some friendly heckling, and with a small amount of time we headed to Lake Claremont and were rewarded with Spotted and Spotless Crakes (also got Long-toed Stint and Marsh Sandpiper, great birds but we already had them). The Little Bittern and Night-Heron were still required but we ditched these and headed to the river for for a 2 minute watch for Great Cormorants and Fairy Terns, frustratedly dipping as a black cormorant flying deliberately into the wind at distance could not be confidently identified! Our total stood at 180 which we suspected would not get us over the line, with the Whistlers consistently recording in the low 180’s over the previous years. Down from our record of 188 from last year. Once again our route was characterized by some really great birds and some really bad dips, the trade-off for time driving versus time birding. We improved notably on the second day and in particularly through the Wandoo/Hills zone compared to the previous year, however we missed too many critical species in Carnarvon. Once again the arid zone was in poor condition, if we ever hit that area in good condition we should pick up the nomads, putting the 200 barrier within our reach. Some huge highlights including three crippling Peregrine views, the Sea-eagle/Osprey/Brahminy Kite 10 second tick, the WA Thornbill Slam which has probably never been done in 24 hours before (Slender-billed, Chestnut-rumped, Inland, Slaty-backed, Yellow-rumped and Western), Bourke’s Parrots in the Mulga, Chestnut Teal in Carnarvon, road side Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo and obviously the Little Ringed Plover spotted by Nigel at Chinaman’s pool in Carnarvon (Les George now reports 2 birds are present). And the pies at Bindoon of course. Notable dips, where do we begin? The Striated Heron we had pinned down an hour before the start, Peaceful Dove, Scarlet Robin, Night-heron, Great Cormorant, Brown and Rufous Songlark, White-fronted Honeyeater, Barn Owl, Mistletoe-bird, Black-shouldered Kite, Western Spinebill, White-breasted Woodswallow, Western Wattlebird, the list goes on! We traveled 1,510 km for our 180 birds = 11.9 birds per 100 km. Far more uneconomical than team SWAT and all others I would suggest. We really enjoyed following some of the other teams on twitter too, particularly during the difficult middle part of Sunday. Special mention must go to Wes Bancroft (Stark Raven Mad) for some hilarious updates! Once again we tested some new boundaries within the state, replicating less than 30% of previous routes. Who knows what next year will bring for the Ruff Knights