The Ruff Knights – 2013 WA Twitchathon summary

The Ruff Knights – 2013 WA Twitchathon summary Team members: Bruce Greatwich Nathan Waugh Nigel Jackett Stewart Ford After two consecutive years of runner up placings to the Western Whistlers, The Ruff Knights embarked on an ambitious plan for this years twitchathon, with the theme for our route – “high risk, high reward”, and probably “long” should be thrown in there to. During our planning for last years twitchathon, a crazy idea was hatched, what if we started up north, and drove to Perth? It was too late to change our south coast plan, but the seed of thought had been implanted in to our head. A review of a route starting up north showed a total distance of approx 1650 km, and it dawned on us that our 2012 route was only a couple of hundred kilometers less. A potential species list for the route was completed, and with 300 species on offer, the temptation was too much to resist! We were to start in Port Hedland! Our route was structured around five key habitat types; Coastal North-West, Mulga, Mallee, Perth Hills and Wetlands. The variety in habitats was to allow us the greatest chance in accumulating a large total, but the travel time costed us birding time at each location. This is one of the great intricacies of the twitchathon, habitats and potential species vs time required to actually find the birds. Bruce, Nigel and Stewart left late in the week for the drive up, completing reconnaissance on the way up, while Nathan cashed in on frequent flyer points and flew up to Hedland, where we would all rendezvous. Mid morning on the Saturday, a couple of hundred kilometers out of Hedland, a call came through from Nathan. “Whats that Nath? You’re breaking up, reception is bad, WHAT?! You’ve got a Gallinago species Snipe?!…..” The call cut out. We were pumped, but extremely nervous, would it hold all day so we could get it on the twitchathon?! Our potential species list grew to 301. The Snipe provided us with a problem, do we change our most efficient route so that we can start on the Snipe and tick it off straight away? Or do we stay with our most efficient route, and hope we can re-locate it quickly. We decided on sticking with the route, and start time was quickly approaching. Hedland is fantastic for shorebirds, and it didn’t disappoint, ticking off 31 shorebirds around town. We missed Yellow Wagtail on the racecourse, which was extremely frustrating considering we had TWO just an hour before . But we were getting great birds; Little Curlew, Brahminy Kite, eight Terns (Common, Gull-billed, Caspian, Crested, Lesser C rested, Little, Whiskered, White-winged Black), mangrove specialists and more. Time to head to the Walkabout, not for a beer , but for the ponds behind it, to try and get back on to the Snipe. Thankfully, Nathan had plenty of time to learn its favourite spots during the day, so upon reaching the ponds, we were on to the Snipe straight away, WOOHOO, how good is a lifer on a twitchathon! With that it was off to the tip to try for the Black Falcons that had been hanging around. After spending 10 minutes searching, with that dipping feeling coming on , we decided to leave, which at that point two Black Falcons flew over. You Beauty! Being at a northern latitude, sun set is notably earlier, and the sun was well and truly set by 6:45 pm. After seeing the lovely sights of Hedland (two water treatment ponds and the rubbish tip), it was time for that long night drive. The drive south was uneventful. The never ending line of road trains heading north ensured few night birds were to be encountered. A Bush Stone-curlew was flushed off the road, and an Owlet -n ightjar was heard while refuelling at a river crossing. The absence of day-light savings appeared to become even more ludicrous, with first light beginning to show at 4:15 am. By 5 am we were birding the Mulga, surrounded by those familiar but confusing thornbills chirping away. We ticked the local four off (Chestnut-rumped, Slaty-backed, Inland and Yellow-rumped), along with other key birds such as Mulga Parrots, Western Bowerbird and Redthroat. A bonus bird in Chiming Wedgebill was very rewarding. Time to get back in that car and continue south, next stop was to be Mallee. We were concerned, conditions had been deplorable on the drive up with very strong winds making birding extremely tough, with barely a chirp or a squawk heard. We needed key species here we wouldn’t get anywhere else. But this stop turned out to probably be the highlight of the trip. The sun was shining, the air was still, and the Grey-fronted Honeyeaters were calling! We found these guys feeding in flowering eucalypts a couple of weeks prior. The flower was now gone, but thankfully the birds were still present. Other key species recorded included Dusky Woodswallow, Jacky Winter, Red-backed Kingfisher, White-eared Honeyeater, Western Yellow Robin, Southern Scrub-robin, Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, Shy Heathwren and Brown-headed Honeyeater. A drive by Peregrine Falcon and Black-breasted Buzzard were huge bonuses. The long drive through the Wheatbelt followed, with Western Corella, Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo and White-winged Triller the only new species added for a couple of hundred kilometers. Coming down the Darling scarp, it felt good to get back down home. But time was catching up with us, we were starting to dip on easy birds, and an error in our schedule meant we had to sacrifice our plan of finishing on the coast for a sea watch. We missed Western Thornbill which we needed for the Thornbill slam (and Slender-billed, but given the poor arid conditions, we never considered it a possibility) , but got other key species such as Red-eared Firetail, Red-capped Parrot, Red-winged Fairy-wren, Western Wattlebird and Western Spinebill. Coming down the scarp, an obliging Square-tailed Kite soared down the gully giving great views (sorry Wes!). Time to hit the wetlands. It felt great to get to Herdsman, and finally tick off gimme birds such as Purple Swamphen, Blue-billed Duck etc. With all the excitement, we almost forgot about a number of birds we hadn’t yet seen, almost overlooking Great-crested Grebe and Great Cormorant. Off to our last stop at L ake Claremont ( the Cat (or should it be Freckled Duck?) got let out of the bag pre-twitchathon). Freckled Ducks were everywhere, and we finally got on to an Aussie Spotted Crake after tantalizing us for several minutes, staying deep in cover. Nearing the conclusion, a sad realization was beginning to be felt. We were going to dip on White-faced Heron. How this was possible is still unknown to us, perhaps the White-necked Herons have begun preying upon them? Five o’clock ticked over, and it was done. An epic adventure had concluded, with 188 birds seen, down on our target of 200, but we were happy! Some concluding comments. Conditions in the arid zone are currently very poor. We missed virtually every regular nomadic, which in the right conditions are simple birds (Black, Pied, White-fronted Honeyeater, Crimson Chat, Masked Woodswallow, Budgies, Cockatiel, Rufous Songlark etc). We got some fantastic birds, but dipped on many basics. Our actual route of over 1800km would take us across many European countries, potentially the longest twitchathon route ever completed? We had an absolute blast. We all slept very well Sunday night Thanks to Graffy for a great job organising the event and to all the other teams. We got lots of video footage through a GoPro I wore on my head, so look out for a special Twitching Diary short documentary on our adventures some time soon. Best bird 1: Gallinago Snipe sp. (We are tentatively leaning towards Pin-tailed) Best bird 2: Black Falcon Worst dip: White-faced Heron Cheers The Ruff Knights WA-TWITCHATHON-2013-Checklist_The-Ruff-Knights.pdf