Hi all, I realise that it is the Vic Twitchathon weekend but I have been forwarded the Hunter Home Brewers story from their successful 2013 NSW twitch. It was sent to me as a Word doc, so I’ve copied it below – apologies if the formatting is haywire. The Brewers have raised well over a $1000 and from Hunter teams alone over $5k has been pledged for the Powerful Owl Project. I think we’re looking at about $25k statewide. A great effort – well done to all involved! Cheers Mick Roderick — Hunter Home Brewers Twitchathon 2013 – Poo Pond Prats There were few decisions to be made by the Hunter Home Brewers in their preparation for the 2013 NSW Twitchathon. The only “big decision” was where to start and with no grounds to be close to home, as was required due to an expectant Mrs Mick Brew last year, the writing was on the wall – go back to the mallee! The plan was simple – improve on the 2011 mallee run by not making some of the mistakes they’d made that year. However, as they were to discover, what they thought had been their biggest mistake in 2011 actually turned out to be a brilliant strategy in 2013. This surrounded some inefficiencies that prevented them from reaching their key rainforest site on the southern slopes of the Barrington Tops. But as time progressed, the need to visit that rainforest became increasingly queried, problematic and eventually, redundant. There is a school of thought amongst the more serious Twitchathon teams (i.e. those with the ‘competitive streak’) that a big score hinges (at least in part) on being present at a rainforest during the dawn chorus. The Brewers also subscribed to this way of thinking but alternatives had to be considered if they were to start out in the mallee. The “3-hour rule” states that each team must stop for a consecutive 3-hour period between midnight and 5am. No team that starts as far west as the mallee country can even go close to making it to a rainforest by 2am (after which, if you’re still driving you’re in breach of the rule) so essentially the rainforest dawn chorus is foregone unless you leave the mallee only about 2 hours after kick-off on the Saturday, which defeats the whole purpose of going out there. Where they thought they’d gone wrong in 2011 was (a) leaving Lake Cargelligo too late on Saturday, and (b) making a rueful detour to Medhurst Bridge en-route to the rainforest. They thought that by shaving an hour off (a) and dropping (b) like a hot potato they could go close to buying back nearly 2 hours to get to the gun Barrington Tops rainforest site. Mick Brew however, thought that this 2 hours “saved” + the 2 hours travel time to get to the Barrington Tops and back onto their regular route, could be better spent at other, ‘less remote’ rainforest patches and then still have some spare change left over for other areas on the Sunday. This concept was underpinned by some traditional rainforest remnants that the lads had visited on each Twitch, as well as a new kid on the brewing block – Old Brush at Brunkerville. All of these strategic quandaries made for good brew for thought on the journey out west on Thursday morning. Spirits were high as they left Newcastle under the cover of darkness, stopping only to charge themselves with bakery fare and go for a job interview, as Grena Brew actually did in Dubbo. Whilst there, they had a brief opportunity to catch up with a one-time Brewer and current Dubbo Double Dipper, Farmboy. He delivered the welcomed news that the local Barking Owls were still in residence and had in fact reproduced. Their only night-time birding stop was hence justified. Continuing west, Ando Brew opened his new-bird account with a fly-over from a Superb Parrot at Peak Hill before ABC radio in Newcastle tracked them down for a brief interview. Their first question was “is that crazy guy from Chasing Birds in it this year?” Upon arrival at Mount Hope, the boys set about warming up the rather chilly concrete bar at the Royal Hotel. What they didn’t expect was to get into a conversation with some blokes at the bar that asked in excitement, “oh, you guys are doing the Twitchathon!?”. It turned out they were in the area working on Malleefowl conservation. Their next question was “is that crazy guy from Chasing Birds in it this year?”. Friday was spent combing Round Hill to Cargelligo seeking out worthwhile sites and in particular a place to commence the twitch. Not surprisingly, there was no sign of the Little Woodswallows that had been present on the Mt Hope to Euabalong Road in 2011 so an alternative commencement point was required. A very productive patch of mallee ecotoned with callitris-box woodland literally a kilometre west of the “Little Woodswallow spot” looked quite promising but gave way to Whooey Tank as the place to commence the ‘Dummy Run’ that afternoon. The other place they needed to do homework on was the Lake Cargelligo Poo Ponds. This was possibly the most important single site on their Saturday run and a quick reccy showed that it was in ‘solid form’. The Dummy Run happened on the Friday afternoon and confirmed some quality birds along their route. These included Crimson Chats feeding dependant young, Diamond Doves in a couple of places, scattered Black Honeyeaters, Spotted Nightjar at the Wheat Paddock and a Little Crow seen on the edge of Lake Cargelligo township. But the clear highlight was finding a pair of Ground Cuckoo-shrikes just north of Booberoi Creek. This bird had been dubbed “The Unmentionable” due to the frustration faced over the years by Ando Brew to try and get a look at one. The remainder of the Brewers had learnt that the mention of this birds name would be enough set AB off on a tirade of expletive-laden accounts of denial of the bird’s existence and hence had dared not mention it for several years. A few of the said expletives were used however in a celebratory context once he’d parked his peepers on this particular pair. The other highlight was the sheer productivity of the poo ponds. It was so good that there was probably justification to work the area for as long as they did in 2011, with Wood and Marsh Sands, White-winged Black-Tern, 3 crakes, 10 ducks and fly-overs by things such as Major Mitchells and Black Falcons; the poo ponds could really become their “rainforest dawn chorus” if they worked it long enough. With deliberations over how to approach the rainforest dilemma still up in the air there was much heated discussion during the session of Crackers Disco that evening. The following morning was spent fine-tuning the sites close to town before they filled the car with fuel and the two eskies, Eric (beer) and Evan (anything that isn’t beer) with ice then headed north and west back to the mallee to find a place to start the main event. Time was running out and the Brewers still didn’t have a decision made on where to start. They decided to check the site just west of where the Little Woods had been 2 years earlier and once Mick Brew came back with reports of Mulga Parrot, Shy Heathwren, Hooded Robin and a likely Little Woodswallow (views just weren’t good enough to clinch it as a definite sighting apparently) the lads agreed this was the spot. After sampling a 2008 Watervale Grosset, they positioned themselves hot on the tail of a not-so-shy Shy Heathwren and as 4pm ticked over it went down as first bird. A series of mallee and quality western birds followed in quick succession, including Mulga Parrot, White-fronted, Yellow-plumed and Grey-fronted Honeyeaters and Western Gerygone. A juvenile Black-eared Cuckoo was discovered by Mick Brew, who quickly dragged two of the others back to confirm and as they were doing so a pair of Major Mitchells flew overhead. The Hooded Robins however had scarpered and there was no sign of the recently vocal Southern Scrub-robin. They spent an unusually long period of 29 minutes at this site before they decided to move on. The second stop was at the Whooey Tank entry track where 4 pigeons were added, but not the Diamond Doves that had been present the day before. Some decent birds such as White-browed Babbler, Black Honeyeater and Southern Whiteface were recorded before it was time to head to the quality-not-quantity site in the Wheat Paddock. Grena Brew found the Spotted Nightjars again whilst Mick picked out a Chestnut Quail-thrush. A Gilbert’s Whistler finally sounded off (the only one heard at this spot during the 3 visits they’d made here) and Splendid Fairy-Wrens crossed the track. There was still no sign anywhere of the scrub-robin and then it dawned on them that they hadn’t heard a Crested Bellbird either. After what seemed like a very long wait in silence they decided they needed to move on. A quick stop along the railway line produced a perched Diamond Dove and a calling bellbird at last. Satisfied that they could live with dipping on the scrub-robin with so many other birds to bag, they carried on to the open woodland where the Crimson Chats were feeding young yesterday. They were easily found, along with Painted and Brown-headed Honeyeaters and a well-oiled Speckled Warbler, being their 50th bird. With the quality wooded habitat now behind them they started seeing open country birds without needing to get out of the car, including some important ones such as Pallid Cuckoo, Brown Songlark and Blue Bonnet. Booberoi Creek failed to produce ‘the-bird-that-was-until-recently-not-mentioned’ but gave them Little Friarbird as a very small consolation. Their best chance at Emu also passed without a show and Chat Alley only provided the White-fronted variety, as well as White-winged Fairy-Wren. However, spirits soared as they drove past the turn-off to the Cargy Airport when Mick at the helm of The Patrol flushed an Aussie Pratincole from the side of the road. An almighty “get there!” was delivered as Ando got his 5th new bird for the trip and a real bonus bird was added to the tally of 74 species. After a quick stop at Frog Hollow to add Restless Flycatcher, they moved eagerly onto the poo ponds. Grena Brew, as scribe, limbered his fingers ready for rush of bird names about to be thrown at him. This started with “Aussie Shelduck, Little Grass, Hardhead, Grey Teal, Swamphen….hang on…Black Falcon!!”, which was ensued by a who’s who of Australian waterfowl and associated species. Migratory shorebirds were in attendance and onto the list went Sharpies, Marsh and Wood Sands, Greenshank and Red-necked Stint – all but the first of these were not to be seen again on the twitch. The White-winged Black Tern was easily picked out at the rear of the same pond just as a flock of Zebra Finches flew in. The 100 species mark past without time to even be aware of the fact, as a Caspian Tern and 6 Glossy Ibis joined the feathered frenzied faecal-fed fray. Once satisfied that they’d worked the foreponds well enough it, was time to seek out the duck species lurking out of view in the hindponds. Before long they picked out the quality trio of Shoveler, Freckled and Pink-eared Ducks but couldn’t locate the Wandering Whistling Duck that they knew was in there somewhere. Finally a Cockatiel made a fly-by, well picked up by Grena despite having his nose in the notebook for so much of the time spent here. The decision to keep working the poo ponds had paid dividends and at just after 7:30pm they had 124 species on the list. It was time to make tracks but then just as they were about to leave Mick heard a tinkling finch call and the suggestion of “are they Plum-heads?” came soon after. Sure enough, a flock of about a dozen Plum-headed Finches had flown in right on dusk. The Brewers rejoiced at the sheer luck of such an unexpected bird right at the dying minutes of their active Saturday birding. Leaving Cargy with 125 species and a long haul of night roads ahead of them, the backseat brewers consulted Eric the Esky while they compared lists to ensure all was in order. The long drive meant that very few stops could be made to look for nocturnal birds. In fact, in the 450km to Cassilis they only tried for night birds twice – once in a vain attempt to hear Little Button or Stubble Quails calling in likely habitat and once to find the Dubbo Barker, which they did with ruthless efficiency before jumping back in the vehicle to make the final late night leg to their ‘camp’ at Cassilis Rest Area. The night was much quieter here than it had been in 2011 and as the lads each chose a picnic table to lay upon, they only managed to hear Owlet Nightjars and Superb Fairy-wrens sounding off! After their compulsory 3 hour break, the Brewers languidly piled back into the patrol at around 4:15am, managing to add calling Boobooks and Channel-billed Cuckoos to the list in the process. It was an odd feeling for them as they drove through rural country as dawn broke – the peak of the birding day was here and they were still nearly 3 hours from their first rainforest remnant. Having left Cargy Poo Ponds so late the evening before, the decision had effectively been made to drop the Barrington Tops rainforests and work the nearer remnants and then Old Brush later in the day. As they trucked along as day broke, a variety of roadside species were added and a quick detour to find the Plumed Whistling Ducks at Doughboy Hollow paid off. This part of the twitch seemed to lag on forever, punctuated only by the occasional addition of a pretty low quality species. Finally, after more than 3 hours in the vehicle they reached their first rainforest patch and the boys jumped out of the car, ears and eyes ready for the new purple patch of birds to be added. The very first bird seen was a Wompoo Fruit-Dove, followed by Topknot and White-headed Pigeons, Regent Bowerbird, Black-faced Monarch and Rufous Fantail. Brush Cuckoo and Wonga Pigeons were heard calling in the gully whilst a Grey Goshawk was picked up patrolling the airspace above. With this patch thoroughly worked, they headed further up the hill and in the process flushed a small dove off the ground. “Did yez see that?! That was an Emerald Dove!” shouted Steve. He pulled the car over and the rest of the team jumped out to see the bird perched on an overhanging branch. Another bonus bird bagged and one that they had not seen since their debut twitch in 1999 (about 2km away). It was also their 13th pigeon species for the 2013 run – easily their best haul of Columbiformes on a twitch. With the initial rainforest sites sufficiently worked and having 181 species clocked, they headed down the valley towards the dry woodlands, open country and wetlands of the Lower Hunter. In the process they had decided to abandon a visit to one of the Twitchathon staples, Green Wattle Creek and along with that went other key sites such as Seaham and Raymond Terrace. They had failed to hear a Torresian Crow calling in this area but figured they could make it back at either Mulbring or Shortland later. They were also still missing a good number of rainforest birds and had no scrubwrens on their list whatsoever. Old Brush was looking more and more like being a lynchpin site for them and the most efficient way of getting there was to go en-route from the Kurri woodlands to the estuary, where they need to be by about 12:30 or so. Great Crested Grebe was easily found at Walka Water Works but try as they might they could not find a Musk Duck. Banded Lapwing and Horsfield’s Bushlark were picked up soon after at Lorn along with a host of common sub-coastal species that continued add to the ever-burgeoning inventory of birds. Both New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters were in their usual patch not far from the woodland sites and when Double-barred Finches were seen at the same spot, the 198th species went down on their list. Upon arrival at the woodlands Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters were quickly found amongst wheeling hordes of White-browed Woodswallows before a species that is far from guaranteed was ticked as their 200th bird at about 9:30am in the form of Varied Sittella. There were so many White-broweds that they could not find any Dusky Woods, even at a spot where they’d been seen nest-building only a few weeks earlier. Little Lorikeet, Scarlet and Fuscous Honeyeaters and White-throated Gerygone were found during the hunt for the Duskies before a slow drive-by from the Varied Wrenegades occurred…on their brewing turf! After welcoming and ‘farewelling’ the Wrenegades, the Brewers decided to head west, finally coming across a colony of Bell Miners which was an addition to their list. A 30-second stop at ‘Black-chinned Honeyeater Junction’ produced the namesake species, though ‘Buttonquail Junction’ was not as kind to them. At Buttonquail Junction they noticed the form a pushbike rider headed up the dirt track toward them. After overcoming the surprise that this wasn’t a noisy trail bike as often inhabits these woods, they realised it was Miyagi of the Dry-throated Buzzards. The conversation was skeletal, but he did reveal that they were currently experiencing tyre problems….as the Buzzards often seem to be…and as the brewers zoomed off in their not-so-environmentally-friendly mode of transportation they acknowledged the remainder of the Buzzards, struggling with tyre puncture kits, with the expected flurry of exclamations and ‘words of encouragement’ for them in their predicament. A rather protracted stop further along Hebburn Road finally produced Dusky Woodswallows as Steve Brew picked a pair perched on a dead branch. The woodlands were going quiet and with 207 down they decided that they had to try for a missing friend that they knew was in the area; Buff-rumped Thornbill. They worked a couple of otherwise ‘reliable’ sites for them, but eventually had to bite the buffy bullet and head for Old Brush. After dropping a few gold coins in the donation tin, spying a Great Egret on the dam and flushing some very welcome Brown Cuckoo-Doves from the track in, they stood on the edge of the rainforest and listened. Despite it being close to 11am birds were still calling and they added Noisy Pitta, Lyrebird, Shrike-tit and White-naped Honeyeater before venturing into the forest proper, finding the 2 more difficult scrubwrens in Yellow-throated and Large-billed. A Bassian Thrush feeding near the entry gate on their way out was the 8th quality species added at Old Brush and all agreed the tactic to work the remnants and to ‘mop up’ here was a good move. Grey-crowned Babblers and an Aussie Hobby were added at Mulbring but there was absolutely no sign of Torresian Crow at all. Frustrated that they’d now missed the best two opportunities for the crow, they headed towards the ‘next big thing’ in the form of the Hunter River Estuary. The Mulbring Hobby was backed up by Brown Goshawk, Swamp Harrier and Black Kite, all seen from ‘Kite Bluff’ and rounding out a double hat-trick on raptors. Little Egret and Yellow-billed Spoonbill were seen at Pambalong, which was the last ‘quick stop’ before heading to the make-or-break part of every Twitchathon at Stockton. This is the ‘rainforest for shorebirds’ on each twitch, along with a supporting cast of terns etc. At least on this occasion they had some of the long-legged birds from Cargy that were unlikely to be at Stockton. In contrast to virtually every other Twitchathon they’d done, the Brewers timed this one to be 3 hours before high tide, as opposed to 3 hours after, which was not an option anyway as high tide was around 3pm. Rather than go when the tide was higher or lower they hoped to catch a similar ‘staging’ of birds at the sandspit when the tide was just right so that the beach had a large, mixed flock staging before flying to high tide roosts. The nervous period is always the drive over Stockton Bridge, but as they gazed down from the left lane they saw bulk birds and there was an instant fervour. However, that fervour was soon tainted by the fact that a fisherman was wading into the water near one of the mangrove islands. Every bird could have flushed at any minute. Rather than heading under the bridge, they parked on the side of the road and darted back towards to the track that led them down to the water. Brown Honeyeaters and Mangrove Gerygones were added by call and the resident Pied Oystercatchers led their fluffy chicks away from potential danger. Fortunately the fisherman had moved away from the flock of birds but a new threat had emerged as a small boat had made landfall at the western end of the beach and ready to pounce out of it were two young boys – time was very much of the essence and the Brewers quickly set about picking out the various shorebird species. Eastern Curlew, Bar-tailed/Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sands and Red Knot were present, along with Little and Gull-billed Terns. A distant Sea-Eagle was picked out up the river whilst a Striated Heron made a very timely appearance…just as the two life-jacket clad brats from the boat ran full pelt into the flock of birds, chasing them as if they were pigeons in a park. There could have been a Great Knot lurking in there but the Brewers were happy with what they’d managed and moved on to find the Terek Sands, Grey-tailed Tattlers and Whimbrels along the Fern Bay foreshore. This was followed by Pacific Golden Plovers along the Stockton Foreshore and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters feeding in Stockton Bight. A Gannet was seen by just 2 members so could not go down on the list. 242 species at ten to one – time for the slog into town. Every year the journey into the Newcastle Rock Platforms becomes more and more tedious and due to the warm weather it was certainly no exception on this particular Sunday afternoon. They had no hope of getting a park near the ocean baths so had to scope down on to the rocks from Fort Drive. As is customary on a Twitchathon Sunday, Sooty Oycs and Ruddy Turnstones were nowhere to be seen and the only new bird sitting on the rocks were Crested Terns. Flocks of Short-tailed Shearwaters peppered the sea in front of them and the occasional Fluttering came in close enough to enable a positive ID. Common Terns were feeding around the Cowrie Hole but frustratingly, no Gannets could be scoped and it was to be a dip for the Brewers. Still, the Common Tern was the bird that placed them on a level score with their previous best of 246 and it had only just gone one-thirty in the afternoon. The Brewers set to beat their personal best and the record of 250 looked shaky as well. But as often happens with these Home Brewers, the wheels nearly fell off in the last 3 hours of the event. They realised that they were missing 2 common species; Little Wattlebird and, perhaps remarkably, White-browed Scrubwren. Both of these were gimmes at Redhead and with recent reports of Bulbuls, Brush Bronzewing and Emu-Wrens at the same site the decision was made to work that patch. In hindsight that was probably a tactical error because the possible ‘bonus birds’ were skulkers and it may have been wiser to go somewhere else where they could have added other missing species, such as Scaly-breasted / Musk Lorikeets, Latham’s Snipe, Night Heron, Musk Duck, Tawny Grassbird and of course, that Torresian Crow. As it turned out, despite a desperate search for the skulkers, they only added the wattlebird and scrubwren on the Redhead run and with the clock showing 2:20pm they needed to make a quick turn-around and hit Ash Island. Things were getting tight and they had to at least nail the “dead cert” Tawny Grassbird on Ash. Of course, upon arrival at Schoolhouse and Ramsar Roads, normally heaving with Tawny Grassbirds like grasshoppers, there was dead silence and not a bird to be seen. Musk Duck was really the only other bird they could target and so they made the long drive through the guts of Ash Island to get a view across Deep Pond where they easily located a Musky. As they did, a Tawny Grassbird fortuitously called from about 10 metres away…and the 250 mark had been reached. At 3:15 they made a quick dash off Ash Island, not even stopping for a scan of Swan and Wader Ponds they had such little time. They did have plenty enough time though to check a harrier floating over Ramsar Road on the way out. Sure enough, it was an adult Spotted Harrier it all its splendour and the brewers went berserk at the fact that they’d just tipped the Twitchathon record score, and with a far more poetic bird than a wetlands centre Maggie Goose! When they got to Shortland they decided they had enough time to park near Mick Brew’s house and hope that one of the resident Torresian Crows would call. None did, and it was on to the not-so-wet wetlands centre where they had only allotted themselves around 10 minutes birding time as there was little on offer apart from the now-customary stake-out for an Azure Kingfisher along Ironbark Creek. There was little else to look for anyway as virtually every pond at the centre was dry. Magpie Goose was added as #252 but they never even got a whiff of anything else new. Mick certainly had more than a whiff of victory though as he collected the team sheets and glanced quickly at the Menacing Monarchs’ to see “224” scribbled down at the top left of their species sheet. After announcing the other team scores and hearing from elsewhere in NSW, it was confirmed that the Hunter Home Brewers had finally regained the Twitchathon mantle after 4 years of bridesmaidness with a new record tally. On the job, they’d come up with a strategy that shattered the preconception that a rainforest dawn chorus, or even any type of dawn chorus that wasn’t grumbling birders inside a Nissan Patrol, was a mandatory Twitchathon tactic. Very satisfied with their approach in 2013 (and remembering there are always dips on a Twitchathon) the brewing lads are looking forward to the 2014 campaign and are studying the tide charts already. Some new ideas have emerged, some old ones have faded and some assumptions have move sideways in the process. Oh…and there was much rejoicing. Jacqueline Winter =============================== 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 ===============================
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