Broken Hill

We left our camp by sunup, and stopped for breakfast at Cobar, right on the edge of town where a small dam offered a range of birds. Whiteface and babblers shared a treestump, cockatoos and corellas screeched in to drink. Dozens of martins circled us.



Just past Wilcannia we came across a flock of more than 200 Red-tailed Black Cockatoos feeding on the ground beside the road. They apparently change food sources depending on the seasons, feeding on Sheoak seeds, White Cedar fruits or the seeds of weeds such as Storksbill and Cathead.

And then on to Broken Hill and the Desert Park. An amazing place - the Living Desert Sculptures on top of the ridge were spectacular in the late afternoon light, and the bird and animal life could have kept us occupied for hours.

Bird list:

Chirruping Wedgebill (pictured above)
Yellow-throated Miner
White-backed Swallow
White-winged fairywren
Singing Honeyeater
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Orange-breasted Chat
Tree Martin
Southern Whiteface (Pictured above)
White-browed Babbler
Pied Butcherbird
Apostlebird
Australian Raven
Galah
White-winged Chough
Ringnecked Parrot
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Major Mitchell Cockatoo
Black-fronted Dotterel
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Crested Pigeon
Little Corella
Willie Wagtail
Emu
Red-winged Parrot
Australian Pipit
Australian Kestrel
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
Black Kite
European Starling

Nyngan

First day of the trip we were more focused on covering some kms, getting out to where the 'outback' begins than in birding and sightseeing. For the early part of trip we followed the Golden Highway, a fairly recent State Highway that follows a rather pretty route up the Hunter Valley. Black-faced Suffolk Sheep and fields of yellow canola added to the bucolic charm. We stopped beside the river at Nyngan just on dusk and wandered with cameras. Ringneck parrots were settling down in a hollow branch of a eucalypt, and babblers were babbling on the grass and in the low branches of the trees. An emu on the other side of the fence was silhouetted by the setting sun. It was too dark for great images so we went off to have the roast of the day at the RSL club and drove out of town to find a spot to freecamp.

Bird List:

Grey-crowned babbler (pictured above)
Australian Kestrel
Black-winged Kite
Whistling Kite
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Emu
Grey Teal
Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Little Pied Cormorant
Pacific Heron
Eurasian Coot
Purple Swamphen
Peaceful Dove
Crested Pigeon
Ring-neck Parrot
Cockatiel
Red-Rumped Parrot
Galah
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
Eastern Rosella
Apostlebird
White-winged Chough
Australian Raven
Australian Magpie
Restless Flycatcher
Magpie Lark
Pied Butcherbird
White-plumed Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Willie Wagtail
White-breasted Woodswallow

Nesting Pardalotes

Lucky got some great shots of Spotted Pardalotes gathering nesting material. Although Spotted Pardalotes are reasonably common down the east coast, they are difficult to photograph (or even see) for most of the year as the tiny birds feed in the tops of tall trees. Pairs make soft, whistling wheet-wheet calls to one another, which thus come from two different directions, and which carry for quite a distance making it even more difficult to locate them.

However they nest in holes in the ground. They excavate a narrow tunnel in an earth bank with an enlarged, lined chamber at the end. So at this time of the year they can be found close to the ground.

Kooragang Island

The infrequently-mown grass beside Hi-Fert provides a buffet for Double-barred and Red-browed finches. Today they were joined by a flock of Chestnut-breasted. The Chestnut-breasted Mannikin or Chestnut-breasted Munia (Lonchura castaneothorax) can form flocks of several hundred birds - this group were a paltry twenty or so, but good to see them there.

John Gould wrote of it:
“I had not the good fourtune to meet with this bird in a state of nature, but I have been informed that it frequents reed beds bordering the banks of rivers and lagoons on the eastern coast, and that it much resembles the Bearded Tit Panurus biarmicus, of Europe in the alertness with which it passes up and down the upright stems of reeds, from the lower part to the very top, a habit for which the lengthened and curved form of its claws seem well adapted."

Courtship Display

0022_1317 Male Blue Bill Duck, originally uploaded by alwynsimple.

The Blue Bills have been displaying too far out in the dam for me to get a photo, but Alwyn had better luck. The bird here has been flicking water overhimself with his bill. He then swims with his bill pressed to his breast.

Walka Waterworks

Early philosophers, in dealing with the question of whether inductive reasoning leads to truth, (that is, can you generalise about the properties of a class of objects based on some number of observations of particular instances of that class) used as an example the inference that "all swans we have seen are white, and therefore all swans are white." So "all swans are white" was long used as the standard example of a scientific truth.

Then in 1697 explorers found Cygnus atratus in Australia.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Black Swan: the Impact of the Highly Improbable, says we place too much weight on the odds that past events will repeat themselves, and he argues that most of the really big events in our world are rare and unpredictable. Taleb regards almost all major scientific discoveries, historical events, and artistic accomplishments as "black swans" — undirected and unpredicted.

Nowdays we are a little more cautious about inductive reasoning - "all swans we have seen are white" therefore "we have only seen white swans" not "all swans are white." And we recognise that not all future events can be predicted on the basis of our past experience.

Oblivious to their role in the history of philosophic thought, the Black Swans at Walka practiced their synchronised swimming and added padding to their reed nest.

Bird List:

Black Swan (pictured above)
Musk Duck
Blue-billed Duck
Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Grey Teal
Chestnut Teal
Hardhead
Australasian Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Darter
Little Pied Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Australian Pelican
White faced Heron
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Straw-necked Ibis
Royal Spoonbill
Purple Swamphen
Dusky Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Bar shouldered Dove
Crested Pigeon
Galah
Sulphur crested Cockatoo
Eastern Rosella
Laughing Kookaburra
Azure Kingfisher
Superb Fairywren
Yellow Thornbill
Red Wattlebird
Little Wattlebird
Yellow faced Honeyeater
Magpie-lark
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Figbird
Grey Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Australian Raven
Red-browed Finch
Australian Reedwarbler
Silvereye
Common Myna
Golden Whistler

Hunter Bird Observers Club

Australasian Grass-owl, originally uploaded by Collaertsbrothers.

Last night at the Hunter Bird Observers Club meeting Adam Blundell reported on his research into Grass Owls in the Hunter.

A very interesting presentation, not least because he raised a conservation conundrum. In the 1970s Hexham Swamp was drained and eight floodgates installed to end the tidal flow. In the period since, the vegetation has changed from mangroves and saltmarsh to reedswamp and grassland. The current Hexham Swamp rehabilitation project will restore the tidal flow, and hopefully bring back the migratory waders - but it will mean the end of the Grass Owls.

Carrington off-leash area

I'd parked and let the dogs out of the car when I noticed the kite hovering at the far end of the park. I broke into the closest to a run that I can manage, but it dropped from sight. But then it flew up immediately overhead, clutching a mouse.

Black-shouldered Kites live almost exclusively on mice. A single adult can eat three or four mice in a day. They are one species that has expanded its range since European settlement, benefitting from agricultural practices that have increased the populations of the house mouse.

The name 'Black-shouldered Kite' was formerly used for a Eurasian species, Elanus caeruleus, and a North American species, Elanus leucurus. However modern references to the Black-shouldered Kite should unambiguously mean the Australian species. E. caeruleus is now the 'Black-winged Kite' and E. leucurus the 'White-tailed Kite'. A rare example of the aussie bird being able to keep the name it has been known by.

Hexham Swamp

The Reserve covers some 900 hectares on the southern sideof the Hunter River and is bounded generally by the Hunter Water Corporation’s Chichester pipeline to its north, the abandoned Richmond-Pelaw Colliery Railway to the west, the Ironbark and Fisheries Creek system to the east and reclaimed agricultural lands to the south. The area contains a number of endangered and vulnerable species, including the Green and Golden Bellfrog (Litoria aurea), Latham’s Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) and the Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis).

The cisticolas were everywhere, calling from their perches on the wild fennel. This area was much drier than when I previously visited, when there was a large body of water on both sides of the railway line, and huge numbers of ducks. There were still significant pools amongst the long grass, but views were limited unless the birds flew.

Bird list:

Golden-headed Cisticola (pictured above)
Masked Lapwing

White-headed Stilt

Black Swan

Purple Swamp Hen

Australian Pipit

Willie Wagtail

Superb Fairywren

Swamp Harrier

Tawny Grassbird

Brown Quail

Walka Reserve

Step 5 Calling all the time, they embrace by rubbing necks.

Step 4 With crests erect and necks fully stretched they swim facing each other.

Step 3 Male holds weed, while female nods her head from side to side.

Step 2 Both holding the weed face each other, rising out of the water as they tread with their feet..

Step 1 Leap out of the water both holding a piece of weed.

The Great Crested Grebe has a long and elaborate courtship, with displays so complex they are often referred to as dances. Both sexes perform a series of displays, many of which are forms of normal behaviour that have been exaggerated and have become almost rituals.

In the headshaking display, the two prospective partners face each other with their necks straight and their head feathers spread out. They then turn their heads rapidly from side to side. The display usually ends with ritual preening.

The discovery dance involves one of the birds fluffing out its feathers and spreading it wings, while the other dives and rises erect from the water with its bill pointing downwards.

Another, the retreat display, has one bird suddenly dashing away across the water and then turning to face its mate.

By far the most complex is the weed dance in which both birds, like synchronized swimmers, dive together then rear up from the water and face each other, breast to breast, with their beaks full of weed as they dance and display to each other. The images above show the weed dance. This mutual display may be in the form of a "promise" to build a nest, as it is material from the lake bottom that comprises much of the material.

Walka Waterworks

Another trip out to the Walka Recreation Reserve at Maitland - hoping to see some of the less common birds closer to shore. One reward was the three Blue-billed Ducks who floated just ten meters from shore.

Along with the Musk Duck, the Bue-billed Duck belongs to a group known as the "stiff-tailed ducks" which tend to have highly varied and elaborate display behaviours. Unfortunately the blue-bills were not displaying, though their tails were raised and not lying flat on the water as they normally do.

An interesting read, if you have access to it through a database, is "Behavior of the Australian Musk Duck and Blue-Billed Duck" by Paul A. Johnsgard, The Auk Vol 83 N1 (Jan 1996) pp 98-110. (Later located a pdf file) The article describes the courtship behaviour in detail, with line drawings and observations on the possible evolutionary reasons for the behaviour.

They are officially listed as 'vulnerable', and the Department of Rec and Tourism usefully provides information on how to avoid shooting them.

Walka Waterworks

The male Musk Duck has a rather spectacular courtship display. His distinctive lobe under his bill is inflated and his tail, which usually lies flat on the water, is fanned over his back;

the display is performed for long periods at a time, both night and day in the breeding season;

the females wait to be impressed;

as he fluffs his feathers, flaps his wings, inflates his under-bill lobe and raises his tail into a fan;

he splashes water with vigorous kicks of his feet;

and throws his head back, inflates the lobe under his bill, raises himself out of the water and flaps his wings while giving a piercing whistle;

chest puffed out, tail raised and fanned, he swims in circles making clapping noises with his feet.

The Musk Duck (Biziura lobatus) is an endemic Australian bird species currently listed as vulnerable. The name comes from the musk odour given off by a gland on the rump. Musk Ducks are found only in Australia. They range throughout Southern Australia, inhabiting permanent deep bodies of fresh water. Both the male and the female sit characteristically low in the water – their shoulders are often submerged, with only the neck, head and rump being visible. Their legs are set back somewhat on the body, an advantage for diving – however this makes them rather clumsy walkers. Their size and weight make take-off difficult and they seldom fly, and are far more likely to dive than to fly away when danger threatens. The species is mainly carnivorous – feeding on small crustaceans, snails, fish, frogs, and ducklings.

Walka Reserve

The historic Waterworks, just outside Maitland, features a beautiful old pumphouse with highly decorative brickwork, and a lake with extensive walking tracks through the surrounding bush.

I met up with Maureen and we started off along the miniature railway track alongside the lake, hiding in the shrubbery from time to time to coax the ducks, swans and grebes into coming back closer to shore. The grevilleas were in full flower and little birds chased insects amongst the blossoms. There were few honeyeaters though. We did the whole circuit focusing our lenses alternately on the lake and the bush.

White-winged Choughs are a favourite of mine. When I lived in one of the new southern suburbs of Canberra a group would come by regularly and take food from my hand. They are highly social birds, living in family groups of up to twenty birds. Nesting and breeding is communal, with all birds helping to raise the young. Choughs spend most of their time on the ground, foraging for worms, insects, grain, and snails in a loose group. They walk with a distinctive swagger, and call softly to one another every few seconds. When one bird finds something special they all come running to share it.

Bird list:

White winged Chough (pictured above)

Blue billed Duck

Musk Duck

Black Swan

Australian Shelduck

Australian Wood Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Australasian Shoveller

Grey Teal

Chestnut Teal

Hardhead

Australasian Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Darter

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Black Cormorant

Great Cormorant

Australian Pelican

White faced Heron

Great Egret

Cattle Egret

Australian White Ibis

Royal Spoonbill

Purple Swamphen

Dusky Moorhen

Eurasian Coot

Spur-winged Plover

Crested Pigeon

Eastern Rosella

Superb Fairywren

White-browed Scrubwren

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Red Wattlebird

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Golden Whistler

Magpie-lark

Grey Fantail

Willie Wagtail

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Red-browed Finch

Australian Magpie

Australian Raven

Welcome Swallow

Silvereye

Common Myna

Tighes Hill

The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos are regular visitors to the White Cedar in my front yard, pulling off the bark to get to the borers. This morning they stopped off at the neighbour's for an appetiser of pine nuts.

The female has a grey eye-ring and a pale bill, while the male has a red eye-ring and a dark bill. They bite off a pine cone and hold it in one foot to tear it apart to get at the seeds.

Although not particularly common, they are one of the iconic birds of Australia. They fly comparatively low and have large wings which they flap deeply, and very slowly, giving them an immediately recognisable silhouette. When you add their loud, eerie wailing calls that carry for long distances, they are hard to miss.

Mount Vincent

One the way back from the Regent Honeyeater Survey we stopped briefly at Mount Vincent where there seemed to be lots of honeyeaters, so I went back today for a longer walk.

There certainly were a good number of birds high in the flowering stringybarks. Bell miners were bathing in the dam, and a wedge-tailed eagle soared high overhead. A kookaburra was being mobbed by the honeyeaters and miners. The Brown Falcon was having trouble staying on his wire and soon flew off to a distant pole. These birds are also known as the Cackling Falcon, after their distinctive call.

Bird List:

Brown Falcon (pictured above)
Laughing Kookaburra (pictured above)
Bell Miner (pictured above)
Little Lorikeet
Australian King-Parrot
Sacred Kingfisher
Superb Fairywren
Variegated Fairywren
Bell Miner
Lewin's Honeyeater
Yellow faced Honeyeater
Fuscous Honeyeater
White naped Honeyeater
White cheeked Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Pied Currawong
Red-browed Finch
Welcome Swallow

Stockton Channel

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Australian Hobby

We were up particularly early this morning - probably as a result of falling asleep in front of the television. So I walked the dogs in the dark, and grabbed the camera from the car just as the sun rose.

A large group of thornbills were chirping in the mangroves and I was attempting to capture them in the very poor light when a hobby flew onto a sunlit perch beside me. He could have positioned himself a little better, but he perched there for some time much to the consternation of the thornbills, which immediately became still and quiet.

The hobby is one of Australia's smallest raptors. They will hunt small birds, up to nearly their own size. The yellow-rumped thornbill is one of the more common thornbills, identifiable by its spotted head as well as its yellow rump.

I stopped in at Stockton Sandspit, and came across the Hunter Bird Observers Club, gathering for their Tuesday walk. I chatted for a moment, but we had been out for two hours and a hot breakast was marginally more appealing than more walking.

Bird list:

Australian Hobby (pictured above)
Yellow-rumped Thornbill (pictured above)
Black Swan
Little Black Cormorant
Australian Pelican
White faced Heron
Great Egret
Australian White Ibis
Superb Fairy wren
Little Wattlebird
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Magpie Lark
Willy Wagtail
Feral Pigeon
Brown Honeyeater
Spur-winged Plover

Kooragang Island

Driving along a road that followed the Hunter River, I became aware of a movement beside me and looked around to see a Swamp Harrier overtaking me at car window height. I watched amazed for a moment before speeding up to get in front of him while grabbing the camera from the passenger seat. (If you ever read of my demise in an inexplicable traffic accident, you can ask "What was the bird?")

It was in vain, by the time I was in position to take a photograph it had swept up and away, not to return.

Werekata National Park

Today Maureen and I took part in the annual Regent Honeyeater and Swift Parrot survey. We were given an area to cover on each side of Sawpit Road, Kitchener and arrived at 8:00am to spend two hours systematically covering the area, and filling in our form.

The frost on the ground was a bit of a shock to us coastal dwellers, but it soon warmed up into a beautiful, spring-like day. There were stringybark and spotted gum in flower and good numbers of wattles in full bloom attracting insects. It looked promising.

Since European settlement 30% of Australia’s woodlands, and 80% of temperate woodlands, have been cleared with devasting consequences for woodland birds. The Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater are mobile nectar feeders that prefer the lowland woodlands that support the richest sources of food, so they have have suffered the effects of clearing more than many and are nationally listed as Endangered. Habitat Restoration Projects will benefit not only the target species but also other threatened species including threatened bird species including the Speckled Warbler, Turquoise Parrot, Little Lorikeet, Painted Honeyeater, Brown Treecreeper, and Superb Parrot.

Data from the surveys, which have been undertaken for fifteen years, is being used for a range of research projects such as studies to improve our knowledge of migration, environmental requirements, and climate change impacts.

We had a very successful day, except for not seeing any Regent Honeyeaters or Swift Parrots. We thought we saw two Regents in flight, but could not confirm the ID. Swifties eluded us altogether.

Bird List:

Buff-rumped Thornbill (pictured above)

Noisy Friarbird

Red Wattlebird

Noisy Miner

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

White-naped Honeyeater

Lewin's Honeyeater

Bell Miner

Eastern Spinebill

Fuscous Honeyeater

White-cheeked Honeyeater

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater

Galah

Eastern Rosella

Rainbow Lorikeet

Little Lorikeet

White throated Treecreeper

Superb Fairywren

Variegated Fairy wren

Speckled Warbler

Yellow Thornbill

Australian Magpie

Pied Currawong

Eastern Yellow Robin

Stockton Channel

Australian Kestrel

Swamp Harrier

We generally park just after the bridge and walk along the mangroves before crossing to the beach.

It was afternoon and the mangroves were backlit, but as the tide was coming in it meant walking out through the squishy mud to get on the sunny side of the thornbills, brown honeyeaters and gerygones I abandoned any thought of photos of the mangrove inhabitants.

Luckily there were some raptors out - though the sea eagles stayed well in the distance over the river. There are twenty four diurnal raptor species native to Australia. The Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans) belongs to the Family Accipitridae, and the Australian Kestrel (Falco cenchroides) to the Family Falconidae.

Australian Kestrels are sometimes called Nankeen Kestrels after the red-brown cloth 'nankeen'. When hunting they plunge head first toward the ground, pulling out of their dive at the last moment to strike with their feet. Kestrels have specially adapted eyes which enable them to see ultra violet light, giving them the ability to see scent and urine trails which are invisible to humans, and gives them the advantage when hunting to know where to expect to find their prey. Adult male kestrels are identifiable by their grey heads and tails, while adult females have a brown head and rufous tail. The female birds are generally larger than the males.

The Swamp Harrier is largely dark brown, becoming lighter with age, and has a distinct white rump. Females are larger with rufous underparts, while the smaller male is lighter underneath. It hunts by flying slowly, low to the ground, on upswept wings. When hunting they 'quarter', which means that they systematically search for prey covering the ground thoroughly. The swamp harrier is widespread throughout Australia, and is usually found in wetlands and well-watered open country.