Lucky's bird photography adventures

WPOTY and Newcastle baths

2011-05-21T13:58:00.000+10:00

The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibition is on again at the Newcastle Library and once again I have dropped in to make myself yearn for some of the opportunities these other photographers get with wild animals. A few Australian photographers in the categories is a nice thing to see. This year, four aussies got noticed by the judges, although only one actually took his photo in Australia.

Before the library opened I decided to go to Newcastle Ocean Baths for some sunrise pics. Well that went as well as some of my recent birding attempts as the coast was blanketed in fog with a cold on shore wind. I tried to photograph the crazy surfers but no inspiring waves or particularly energetic surfers to point the lens at, had me looking at Silver Gulls and Crested Terns instead.

Early morning found the resident birds bathing and darting out to sea looking for breakfast, so a good time for some not quite static bird photos.

Those that know the Ocean Baths will know the far side of the pools can be slippery and I nearly went butt up a couple of times while grabbing the lens and pulling it close to avoid it hitting the concrete!

Kitchener

2011-05-10T16:53:00.000+10:00

A re-invigorating bird outing with Grant on the weekend has started to bring me back to a birding photography mode after weeks of down time. While not too many photos were kept, we did manage to see quite a few species and I scored another lifer.

The morning was a cool one as we started out. Grant was hoping to see the reported Gang Gang Cockatoos and Swift Parrots recently spotted in the area. While a possible hearing of over flying Swifties was noted, we definitely scored with the Gang Gangs as a small flock of five were observed on the Kearsley South Fire trail.

We tried in vain to photograph Scarlet Robin as the sly bird kept us walking up and down the forest trying to get close enough for a picture.

Lots of mixed Thornbill flocks and a few Spotted Pardalotes kept us entertained and our shutters clicking like mad although we would have liked nicer light.

Species seen included Black Swan, WBSE, Eurasian Coot, Dusky Moorhen, Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant and Great Cormorant, Thornbills (Brown, Striated, Buff-rumped and Yellow), Robins (Scarlet, Rose and Eastern Yellow), Honeyeaters (Yellow-tufted, White-eared, Black-chinned, Yellow-faced), Cuckoo-Shrikes (Black-faced and White-bellied), Gang Gang Cockatoo, Little Corella, Eastern and Crimson Rosella, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Grey Shrike Thrush, Spotted Pardalote, Eastern Spinebill, White-winged Chough and a couple of others I have obviously forgotten.

White-winged Black Tern

2011-04-29T09:18:00.000+10:00

A walk along the breakwall in stockton with the family yesterday was not only windy and wet, but also a new bird day. At the end of the breakwall I was trying to photograph a tern with a blacker head than the normal Crested Terns, but it's high speed and unpredictable flight with the winds made it pretty much impossible to capture for an ID shot. After giving up on the bird I ventured out to the end rocks where a small flock of little birds were skimming the water. After watching them for a while it was time to walk back to the car with the family, so I snapped a few average photos to take home for ID purposes and headed off.

ID'ing these birds prooved fairly easy and I quickly discovered that I had a new tick. White-winged Black Terns! The bird in the photo appears to be a juvenile but they definitely don't look like their name suggests. Names based on breeding plumage makes non breeding birds tougher to ID for sure. :)

Long time between birds

2011-04-24T16:00:00.000+10:00

Well it's been just short of two months since my last blog which means it's been that long since my last attempt to go taking photos. Work, family and weather have all plotted against me going out until now and even though this outing was not a great one, I still concidered it worthy of a post.

Friday morning saw me head out to Werekata NP, near Kitchener. Usually a nice place to see birds, this time however it was pretty quiet. Noteworthy birds seen were a pair of Peaceful Doves, Wonga Pigeon, Striated Thornbill, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike.

Today, Sunday, provided me with an unexpected bonus right in my very own back yard. A peaceful Dove among the Spotted Turtle Doves gave me the chance to snap a few photos from the comfort of my dining room and also taught me to check the camera as I took about 30 photos before realising there was no memory card.

Penrith and Ourimbah

2011-02-11T21:44:00.000+11:00

A 3 week course in Sydney has disrupted my photo outing plans and the weather has been so average in the afternoons that any photos I have taken have been poor quality. That aside I have 3 new ticks this week with Red-whiskered Bulbul, European Goldfinch and Black-faced Monarch being seen and poorly photographed :) Hopefully the weather improves next week....

Black, White-faced Heron

2011-01-30T20:33:00.001+11:00

My wife spotted a strange 'Black Heron' a week ago on her daily walk and I was unsure what to think of her sighting report. Today she called me on her mobile and said she had seen it again. With the location I set off in the car to view this strange black bird and was surprised to see it was exactly as she had said. It was indeed a heron and a black one at that! It looks for all money to be a White-faced Heron and feedback seems to say that it is Melanistic (affected by dark pigmentation).

What do you think??? :D

New website for me

2011-01-24T20:07:00.000+11:00

Thanks to some major help from fellow photog Gerard, my new photography website is open for viewing.

Please pay it a visit and leave comments or suggestion on what you think.

Click on the link in my sites to visit column or just go to

http://www.darrylluck.com/

Thanks

Lucky

Forster

2011-01-23T22:01:00.001+11:00

Went for a family drive today to Forster on the NSW North Coast. Lots of tourists still hanging around and also several bird species near the bridge.

Pelicans, terns, gulls and cormorants dominated the scene but a passing flock of 38 Pied Oystercatchers was a special treat.

While walking across the bridge I was lucky to encouter an Osprey using one of the street lights as an observation point. I was able to get really close, but no eye contact from the bird as it didn't even bother to acknowledge I was there. Maybe if I looked like a mullet it might have shown some interest.

On the way home we dropped by Seal Rocks where a Tawny Frogmouth and Lewin's Honeyeaters were seen.

Wood Sandpipers

2011-01-07T10:06:00.000+11:00

Once again the bird photographer unknowingly scoops the twitchers with an uncommon sighting. While patrolling Hexham Swamp on Tuesday morning I saw two waders which I initially thought were Sharp-tailed Sandpipers but as I looked more I thought something wasn't quite right about there appearance. This is where the camera comes in handy as I was able to snap some photos and review them with more detail when I got home.

My post outing review of my books had me certain they were Wood Sandpipers and after some e-mails to those more cleverer than I when it comes to birds it was confirmed that they were what I thought. Apparently sightings of this species in NSW aren't too common of late, so my sighting was significant to twitchers as well as being my first life tick for the year :)

King Parrot behaviour

2011-01-05T20:05:00.000+11:00

Just before xmas I was alerted by a friend that he had what he thought were King Parrots nesting in his back yard. While this sounded good there was something else...they were nesting on the ground!

This caused me to hot foot it over to confirm that this was true, and indeed it was. The birds had scraped a patched of ground and laid four eggs near his pumpkin patch. I have not been able to find any other records of this ever happening with King Parrots so I was keen to monitor the unique event. My concern was always that predation and weather may play a factor with both the eggs and young. This turned out to be a warranted concern.

The day after New Years Day I went to visit the site and was saddened to see the nest had been abandoned. No trace of eggs at all and of course no need for the parents to remain. Hopefully they have now learnt to use tree hollows although I would have loved to have seen the eggs make it through to hatching as they were only about a week off their incubation period being complete.

Back at the Sandspit

2010-12-29T13:11:00.000+11:00

Yes, I know I need to go somewhere different :)

Blue skies this morning made for a last minute decision to head out for some photos. Got to the sandspit about half an hour before sunrise and already the birds were dispersed around the lagoon so my chances of setting up early were pretty much zip.

Some people were nice enough to scare the roosting birds away so I tried to find something to photograph under the bridge. Surprisingly even the fairy-wrens were uncooperative today and after an hour I thought I may be heading home without a photo being taken. I decided for one last look along the beach on the receding tide and found a group of about 20 Bar-tailed Godwits bathing on the waterline, so I sat down to watch.

After about 30 minutes my patience was rewarded as the birds started flying back over from the dykes to land on the beach right in front of me.

As well as a few hundred extra barwits I saw Black-tailed Godwits, Eastern Curlews, Curlew Sandpipers, Crested and Caspian Tern, Silver Gull, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Pied Oystercatcher, White-faced Heron and of course Red-capped Plovers running around feeding, cleaning and eventually roosting.

With the birds gradually moving further out from the beach with the tide line I beat a retreat for the car and home happy that I had a little bit of photo processing to do.

Great Knot! Great spot!

2010-12-16T19:33:00.000+11:00

A one day, work related course had me travelling down the coast to Sydney, and with that a chance to visit the stomping ground of fellow bird photographer Mark Young...Long Reef rock platform. This was to be my first trip to the rock platform and I was hoping there would be something to photograph. As I approached the beach I could see a lonely figure standing knee deep in water looking at the rocks. I met up with Mark and we started towards the roosting area to visit the birds.

A fast flypast had Mark jumping for joy as a solitary Bar-tailed Godwit did some laps then flew off. This was his first sighting of a Barwit at Long Reef so to say he was stoked would be an understatement.

On the rock platform I was amazed to see there were lots of birds and several different species. Grey-tailed Tattlers, Ruddy Turnstones, Red-necked Stints, Pacific Golden Plover, Sooty Oystercatchers, 3 species of cormorant, Silver Gull, Crested Tern and a lone Great Knot. The knot was a first for Mark this year at this location.

While getting close to the birds was great, it was also hard work as I crawled on my stomach, elbows and knees over rock, barnacle, shell grit and oyster shell to stay low during my approaches. Definitely a good place to employ knee and elbow pads if you intend to flop around like a leopard seal (as I did).

I only spent an hour or so with the birds as a work collegue came for the drive and I could see him looking a bit bored, but I will definitely need to revisit because even though it's a small patch of rock, it's rich in bird life.

Red-capped Plovers at SSS

2010-12-14T17:51:00.000+11:00

Well once again I find myself on the beach at Stockton Sandspit watching the waders go about their daily routine. I can think of worse things to be doing on a glorious Sunday morning when the light is perfect for photography.

Several species seen including Red-capped Plover, Double-banded Plover, Grey-tailed Tattler, Eastern Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper and Bar-tailed Godwit.

New camouflage ensemble

2010-12-10T20:44:00.002+11:00

After 27 hours of knot tying I finally finished my DIY ghille (yowie, for the aussies) poncho. While the photo doesn't show it fitting in with the backyard enviroment I am hoping that the randomness of the colour pattern will allow me some camouflage in a variety of habitats.

It still has a few tweaks and additions to be added to it but it'll still get a run on Sunday morning as I try to bag some shots of Mangrove Gerygones.

Feral town = Feral ducks

2010-12-10T20:39:00.002+11:00

It is sad to see the mixed bag of birds at local ponds. Cross breeding of species creates such a hodge podge of feathered friends that some show no trace of their origins, while other do. These two chicks were related and you can see the Pacific Black Duck genes in one, but the other???? Hmmm.

No rest for Kingfishers

2010-12-05T20:37:00.003+11:00

I watched this vivid blue Sacred Kingfisher for several minutes as he was minding his own business when he was set upon by this pesky Willy Wagtail. The wagtail came from quite a distance just to annoy the kingfisher and see him off of what must be a mighty big territory. Eventually the Kingfisher had enough and flew off to another tree...where he was intercepted by yet another Willy Wagtail!!!

The wagtail arrives with lots of clicky annoyed calling.

facing off like two gunslingers at sunset (the kingfisher is not happy).

Quick manouvering and the kingfisher can't keep track of his attacker.

Lots of angry calls from both birds, but still the kingfisher holds his ground.

The wagtail swoops left....

...then comes in again for another attack.

Peregrines over Port Stephens

2010-11-28T17:52:00.008+11:00

Wednesday I joined the wife on a walk to celebrate her birthday. The destination was Tomaree Head near Shoal Bay and the climb to the lookout. The weather was quite warm (about 30 degrees celcius) with a gusty NE wind of up to 60kms per hour blowing across the summit. While not a big hill the summit is 168m above sea level and a great place to look for birds.

This day proved to be more of a treat for me than my wife as we discovered a family of Peregrine Falcons living on the hill. The chick/s had fledged and were flying well as the family of 3 zoomed across across the sky, and rode the winds both above and below our location.

At times we watched what appeared to be hunting training as the youngsters rode the winds to great heights then flipped inverted and began their trademark dives...towards their parent! At the last moment both birds would radically change direction to avoid impact. How they knew which way to turn without crashing into each other was obviously instictive or good communication (didn't look like just good luck).

It was great to watch but tough to photograph as they were so fast, and I was trying to hold the lens on them with a stiff headwind blowing me off balance and also shooting into the sun. Anyway I hope you enjoy the pics I did manage to get :)

Surveys and Baby birds

2010-11-20T21:51:00.003+11:00

Hi devoted readers,

My name is Lucky and it's been a few weeks since my last blog entry :D

Today was the day for this month's wader survey here in the Hunter. With all my fellow counters unavailable (or away enjoying interstate bird watching), it was left to me to do a solo count. No waders were seen during the wader survey in my area, although I am yet to see a wader at our spot, I still ended up with 52 species for my 3 hours of stomping through 6 foot high reed beds, muddy tracks and soggy tidal flats. For a birding gumby like me I think that's pretty good work :)

Lots of Kangaroos around today too, which kept me on my toes as they would just pop up near me and do the bolt into the bush. Best species seen were Southern Emu-wren and Brahminy Kite (both poor photo ops though).

This afternoon saw me meet up with a member from HBOC who was going to show me a young Grey Goshawk in its nest. The location is hush hush because unfortunately poaching still occurs and I would hate to see the little guy/girl be taken from its nest by some money hungry thug.

The chick was great to watch as it jumped up and down exercising its wings and even found time to do a bit of nest keeping and rearrange some branches. All this hard work did eventually take its toll and the chick decided to have a nap after about 30 minutes and it disappeared from view. Still the sight of the chick more than made up for the harassment by several billion mosquitoes.

Bar-tailed Godwits and soggy pants

2010-10-17T19:34:00.003+11:00

Hooray for the sun! The big burning light in the sky finally made an appearance this morning and while the wind was still pretty gusty, I headed out in search of birds to photograph.

I bypassed the sandspit and headed for Belmont lagoon. Not a lot of action out there unfortunately, but glimpses of Southern Emu-wren made the outing ok. On the way home I broke to the pressure of the Sandspit's calling and stopped in for a look.

The tide was out but there were still quite a few Godwits and Knots way out on the receeding tide line roosting and feeding. I got down onto the beach and walked out fairly close to the birds so I decided to get down and dirty to get closer still. My efforts were rewarded as the birds pretty well ignored my obvious presence but the down side was that I was soaked through and had also managed to cut my knee on some oyster shells.

When I was done with the waders I returned to the car and stripped down to underwear for the drive home (have to protect the new car upholstery). I rang the good wife and asked her t o open the garage door for me and also prayed that I wouldn't come across a Random Breath Test stop as i'm sure the police would have loved to see me in my jocks. :) Thankfully I made it home safe and a warm shower made it all better.

Red-caps at Stockton

2010-10-16T13:53:00.003+11:00

Very little time to take bird photos lately as the weather has been dodgy to say the least. Even so, life still goes on for the local birds and in the case of the Red-capped Plovers new life is constantly being created.

The red-caps are busy with territory claiming, protecting and nest building. The males are chasing each other around and if you look carefully you will see several little ones discovering the big world that they are now a part of.

Western NSW bird adventure - Day 6

2010-09-10T22:37:00.002+10:00

Day 6.

The sound of rain and thunder before sunrise made me want to pull the sheets over my head and pretend it wasn’t really happening again. Alas, another day of rain made my day’s travel decision easy...head towards home.

A brief visit to the Nyngan STW and out to Box Cowal before pointing the car east for the long drive back to Medowie. Only a couple of photos taken because of rain but still a reasonably sized list for the journey.

Highlight of the day was watching Fairy Martins collecting mud for their nests from a roadside puddle.

Species seen between Nyngan and Medowie.

Apostlebird, Whistling Kite, Pink-eared Duck, Hardhead, Eurasian Coot, Magpie Lark, Australasian Grebe, White-necked Heron, Eastern Great Egret, Peaceful Dove, Crested Pigeon, Magpie, Galah, Rufous Songlark, Pied Cormorant, Rufous Night Heron, Australian Raven, Blue Bonnet, Yellow-throated Minor, Pied Butcherbird, Grey-crowned Babbler, Black-shouldered Kite, White-winged Fairy-wren, Emu, Fairy Martin, Welcome Swallow, Straw-necked Ibis, Kookaburra, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Sacred Kingfisher, Pelican, Noisy Minor, European Starling, Australian Wood Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Nankeen Kestrel, House Sparrow, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Eastern Rosella, Red-rumped Parrot, King Parrot, Masked Lapwing, White-throated Treecreeper, Yellow Thornbill, Striped Honeyeater.

Total species for the trip = 102, new species for me = 20

Western NSW bird adventure - Day 5

2010-09-10T22:27:00.002+10:00

Day 5.

Awoke at Byrock at 4.30am to the sound of thunder and lightning flashes in the distance. Time to get up I think. Showered with 3 frog mates who enjoyed the hot steam. Coco pops at the back of the car for breakfast, bed sorted and car ready just as the rain came.

This morning was to be a morning of scenery photos for the wife (darn the rain from letting me change lenses), but since it was wet I decided to drive somewhere else. Last night I spoke to some birding folk in the camping grounds who had just come from Warren and were saying how much water was in the area and they had trouble visiting spots for all the water, so this morning I headed for Nyngan where I would decide where to go from there.

It poured all the way to Nyngan so I decided to stay the day and see what my last day of travelling would have in store in the morning. The Bogan River is very full and flowing well. Still heaps of birds along the river with Brown Goshawk being the only addition to the list from day 2 of the trip.

Western NSW bird adventure - Day 4

2010-09-10T22:03:00.003+10:00

Day 4.

Gundabooka NP, Bourke and Byrock.

I awoke at 3.30am this morning after such a ridiculous bedtime, and waited for what I hoped would be a good morning chorus. The Singing Honeyeaters started up before dawn and did not stop all morning. They even drowned out the Crested Bellbirds and they were so annoying that I was actually wishing they would shut up. Off for my next walk to see if I could find the Quail-thrushes again but it wasn’t to be. I did however find a single White-browed Treecreeper; I was a happy boy (even if my photo is of its back). Back to the car, all packed up and on the road by 9am.

Species at Gundabooka.
Mallee Ringneck, Apostlebird, White-plumed Honeyeater, Emu, White-backed Swallow, Brown Falcon, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Rufous Whistler, Crested Bellbird, Southern Whiteface, Splendid Fairy-wren, Mistletoebird, Red-capped Robin, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush, Mulga Parrot, Willy Wagtail, Australian Raven, Little Crow, Common Bronzewing, Singing Honeyeater, Rufous Songlark, White-browed Treecreeper, White-winged Chough, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater.

Bourke.

Only place I could find worth visiting was the river banks at the ‘Port of Bourke’. Only excitement was a steak pie and a drink from the bakery, a battle between a pair of nesting Whistling Kites and a pesky Raven.

Species at Bourke.

Common Blackbird, White-plumed Honeyeater, Australian Raven, Whistling Kite, Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Eastern Great Egret, Sacred Kingfisher, Little Corella, Little Friarbird, Crested Pigeon, Rock Dove, Grey Shrike-thrush, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Magpie, Magpie Lark, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Apostlebird, Straw-necked Ibis, Black Falcon.

Byrock.

This was to be an overnight stop and for those who are ever in the area, the waterhole behind the Mulga Creek Hotel is a fantastic birding spot and an easy two day birding area. The Waterhole is on Aboriginal land but no access permits are required ;) The pub makes huge meals (don’t eat for three days prior) and though they know nothing about birds, the publican does have a list of species reported to them by travellers (Like Alan Morris). I was honoured enough to add a five new species to the list (Plumed-whistling Duck, Banded Lapwing, Diamond Dove, Brown Quail and Rufous Night Heron). At least a dozen Pink Cockatoos seen, including a nesting pair (no idea on young).

Species at Byrock.

Apostlebird, Hooded Robin, Red-capped Robin, Crested Pigeon, Pied Cormorant, Black-fronted Dotterel, Australasian Grebe, Aust, Reed Warbler, Welcome Swallow, Willy Wagtail, Restless Flycatcher, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Galah, Grey-crowned Babbler, Pink Cockatoo, Straw-necked Ibis, White-plumed Honeyeater, Mistletoebird, Spotted Bowerbird, Mallee Ringneck, Magpie, Magpie Lark, Diamond Dove, Mulga Parrot, Striped Honeyeater, Southern Whiteface, Banded Lapwing, Zebra Finch, Red-winged Parrot, Plumed Whistling duck, Inland Thornbill, Brown Quail, Peaceful Dove, Splendid Fairy-wren, Rufous Night Heron, Little Friarbird.

Western NSW bird adventure - Day 3

2010-09-10T21:54:00.004+10:00

Day 3.

Cobar to Gundabooka National Park

Early to rise and first stop for the day was the fabled ‘New Tank’. Unfortunately due to the large amounts of rain I was unable to do a lap of the lake, so my visit lasted 10 mins and nothing of interest was seen. Next stop was ‘Old Reservoir’ and ‘Devil’s Rocks’ just minutes outside of Cobar. First thing I have to say about this area is that it’s bloody brilliant! Birds everywhere and excellent habitat. I wandered around in here for a few hours and upon reaching the Devil’s Rocks I decided to sit on the ground and watch the bird life around me. About five minutes into my sit down I caught some movement close by my side. I turned to look and saw a pair of Emu feet not 2 metres from me and as I looked up with my heart racing, I saw five Emu heads checking me out at close range.

These guys must have been adolescents because of their curiosity and also because they didn’t appear as dark as other big Emus I have seen. Still they were over five feet tall, easily within striking distance with their feet and here I am sitting on the ground. They hung by me long enough to change to a 28mm lens to get some photos then wandered off into the bush never to be seen again.

Species at Cobar, Old Tank and Devil’s Rock.
Magpie Lark, Australian Magpie, Australian Raven, Pacific Black Duck, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Yellow-throated Minor, Pied Butcherbird, Crested Pigeon, Peaceful Dove Welcome Swallow, Red-rumped Parrot, Black-fronted Dotterel , White-plumed Honeyeater, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Blue Bonnet, White-winged Triller , Crested Pigeon, Spotted Bowerbird, Crested Bellbird, Hooded Robin, Southern Whiteface, Emu, Galah, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Singing Honeyeater, Rufous Songlark, Splendid Fairy-wren, Hall’s Babbler, and a scruffy Whistling Kite.

On the road again and making a beeline for Gundabooka National Park. The roads were in pretty good condition with only a couple of muddy patches. Emus, Kangaroos, Lizards, Goats and a Pig as big as a two seater sofa were seen on the way to the Aboriginal Rock Art walk. White-backed Swallows flew around the creek below the caves and a solitary Brown Falcon soared above while keeping a watchful eye on me.

Dry Tank Camping Ground was a nice quiet spot guarded by Red-capped Robins who flew over to check me out when I arrived. With the threat of approaching rain in the coming days I decided to get stuck into the birding straight away in case a hasty retreat was required. Little Mountain walk adjoins the campsite and this was where I headed.

One of my wife’s instructions was to take some non bird photos on my trip. Stupid me was obeying this request and had just packed the 400mm in my backpack so I could photograph the wildflowers when a Chestnut Quail-thrush walks across the track about 3 metres in front of me!!! It even stopped to look before going off into the Mulga. Several expletives and a vow to never again stop for other photos while in bird searching mode, and I was ripping my pack apart and swapping lenses. Thankfully after much stalking, I managed to find three of the Quail-thrushes as two were having a bit of a scrap (probably over the other one).

The walk was a good one and I saw several species on the walk, except for Red-backed Kingfisher and White-browed Treecreeper.

An early dinner was had and with nobody to talk to, I wrote down my notes for the day and was tucked up in the car ready for bed by 6.30pm.

Western NSW bird adventure - Day 2

2010-09-10T21:46:00.003+10:00

Day 2.

Nyngan to Cobar.

I woke early after an average sleep in the car, and then went and had a wonderfully hot shower which made everything much better. On the way back from the shower block the dawn chorus started up as the birds started their daily routine. For those who don’t know Nyngan, the Riverside Caravan Park is situated (as you would imagine) on the banks of the Bogan River, which with all the rains had lots of water in it. I walked to the riverbank to find the waterway was packed with birds! Dozens of White-necked Herons were flying around in the mist catching fish while in flight.

This surprised me as I thought the just hunted like other Herons and Egrets (always learning). Rufous Night Herons were stalking prey along the banks, Black Kites soared above the river and countless other birds going every which way made the river look more like a freeway. Twenty seven species were seen just standing in one spot on the river bank.

Species at the river...Black Kite, Whistling Kite, White-necked Heron, White-plumed Honeyeater, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Reed Warbler, Black Cormorant, Eastern Great Egret, Australian Pelican, Peaceful Dove, Galah, Willy Wagtail, Rufous Night Heron, White-faced Heron, Red-rumped Parrot, Mallee Ringneck, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Australian Raven, Starling, Apostlebird, Welcome Swallow, Sacred Kingfisher, Sacred Ibis, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Magpie, Magpie Lark, Kookaburra

After spending an hour beside the river (mainly waiting for the light to improve) I then headed out to Canonba Road, past the airport to see what I could find. This place is an absolute bird goldmine! Straight away I picked up the first Emu (with chicks) for the trip and then it was just a stop, start affair as I had to keep stopping to chase birds. Box Cowal was very impressive with many species in this small, but very healthy habitat. Several new birds were ticked off here and while I tried as hard as I could, I just couldn’t get a good picture of a ringneck or Blue Bonnet.

Species out on the airport road...White-winged Fairy-wren, Emu, Blue Bonnet, Black-shouldered Kite, Variegated Fairy-wren, Spotted Bowerbird, Cockatiel, Superb Parrot, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Jacky Winter, White-necked Heron, White-browed Babbler, Mallee Ringneck, Chestnut-crowned Babbler, Mistletoebird, Spotted Harrier, Black Kite, Pacific Black Duck, Australian Wood Duck, Grey-shrike Thrush.

Getting towards Lunchtime, I reluctantly turned the car back towards Nyngan and the drive to Cobar. Not much seen along the road (although I didn’t really look). One incident on the trip however was when I stopped to take a photo down the road (on orders from the family to take more than just bird photos), I had removed the Circ Pol filter and lens hood off of the 28-105mm lens and placed it on the roof of the car...You know where this is headed. I raced out onto the middle of the road took my photo then jumped back in the car and drove on. At 70km/h I heard a noise and looked in the side mirror just in time to see my filter and lens hood fly off and hit the road. A swear word came from my mouth as I saw black pieces littering the road, so I pulled over and walked back to the damage. Amazingly apart from a chip on the side of the filter, both survived the crash?!?!?

Into Cobar now and a chance meeting with a bird guy at the Tourist Info Centre and I had a hot location for Splendid Fairy-wrens. The walk took about an hour to complete and at the end of it I had ticked off Splendid Fairy-wren and Hall’s Babbler!

I came across another Spotted Bowerbird, but this one was at his bower. I sat down and watched this guy running around and squawking as several girls checked out his handy work. A great moment with less than great light, but still nice to see.

Staying overnight at the Cobar Caravan Park with very friendly Apostlebirds as neighbours, and will look for chats tomorrow morning before heading westward again to Gundabooka National Park (which only opened to traffic at 10am this morning).

Western NSW bird adventure - Day 1

2010-09-10T21:39:00.002+10:00

Day 1.
Medowie to Nyngan.
After picking up the hire car for the family to use while I was away, I finished packing the last couple of things and headed west. The plan was not to look for birds on this leg, but rather to hopefully reach Narromine and camp overnight instead of risking night driving with kangaroos and wombats. The Golden Highway was looking like its name suggests as the road was lined with stunning, flowering wattle trees the whole way to Dubbo.

I did work out a couple of things along the way to Dubbo.

1. The brakes on the car are very good. Driving along happily at 100km/h on cruise control when a young fox wanders out from under the side rail and into the middle of my lane. A heavy planting of the anchors meant both the fox and the car avoided injury and all my packing stayed put.

2. Long-necked Tortoises are nuts. Found a determined little guy crossing the highway so after driving over him without squashing him, I pulled over and went and moved him off the road.

One surprising thing I did notice was the lack of any large raptors along the journey. Plenty of Kestrels and Black-shouldered Kites seen but nothing bigger.

I reached Dubbo in good time and after filling up on fuel and food, I pushed on towards Narromine (at least that was the plan). Upon reaching the 110km/h zone I thought I might try and push on to Nyngan instead. No wildlife along the dark, straight road but oncoming headlights are very deceiving. A couple of times I didn’t overtake because I could see traffic heading towards us, only to have the vehicle pass about 10 mins later!!! Anyway I reached Nyngan just after 7pm and pulled into the Riverside Caravan Park (on recommendation from Dave Stowe) for the night.

Birds seen on day one... Black-shouldered Kite, Nankeen Kestrel, Australasian Grebe, Chestnut Teal, White-necked Heron, Eastern Great Egret, Apostlebird, Eastern Rosella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Galah, Indian Myna, Starling, Pied Butcherbird, Grey Butcherbird, Australian Raven, Australian Magpie, Magpie Lark, Willy Wagtail, Welcome Swallow and Double-barred Finch.

T minus 16 hours

2010-09-04T19:21:00.003+10:00

Well tomorrow sees the start of my big solo adventure into the NSW outback and I don't know if i'll get any sleep tonight....I'm just too excited. :)

Everything that I intend to take with me has been checked, given a full charge or fresh batteries, checked again and finally packed. My normal bird photography camelbak has been replaced by a backpack, two water bottles and another two pouches full of 'essential' stuff. You would think I was packing to survive a nuclear winter instead of going out to photograph birds.

My plans have been a bit of a mess the last few days as the weather prediction has been continually changing out west. Now with a huge tropical low causing lots of rain in the west I am just hoping that the dirt roads I intend on travelling out near Bourke will be open. I was looking at making a dash towards Gundabooka National Park, but I have thought "stuff it". There's no point driving around madly and not enjoying the trip so we'll just play by ear and see what happens.

Just so you know where i'll be over the next week, i'll leave you a rough itinerary and we'll see how much it changes after I get back.

Sunday - 12pm. Pick up the hire car to leave for the family to use, then head as far west as I can before it gets too late and sleep in the car in a rest area (maybe Narromine?).

Monday- early start to Nyngan and Cobar, Stopping to look for birds in the area along the way. O/nite Cobar.

Tuesday - dawn start again travelling towards Gundabooka National Park where i'll explore and stay for 2 nites (weather permitting).

Thursday - head for Bourke and then turn eastwards towards Byrock with a possible o/nite at either Byrock or through to Nyngan (not decided yet).

Friday - longest driving day with 7 hours driving towards home. With photo stops I may sleep in another rest stop if it gets too late.

Saturday - back home in time to return the hire car by 12pm.

Very abridged version of the trip, so fingers crossed the weather lets me keep to the program.

Anyway, time to pace the room waiting for the clock to say it's time to go. See you all in a week!

Still here

2010-08-31T18:24:00.002+10:00

Just thought i'd check in since I haven't posted for a few weeks. My main reason for this was because my camera suddenly died and had to be sent to the Canon Hospital in Sydney for repair.

The camera is fixed and both the patient and owner are now doing well.

This Sunday sees me departing on my biggest ever bird adventure as I travel from home to Bourke and back again in 6 days. I plan to visit places such as Nyngan, Cobar, Gundabooka National Park, Bourke, Byrock, Warren and Gilgandra along the way.

I am already chaffing at the bit to hit the road and can't wait to pack the car and be off.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for my trip report. Hopefully it'll be an absolute corker of a trip with lots of photos.

Till then, my faithful followers :)

Lucky

Cold, wet, dirty and birds

2010-08-08T20:50:00.005+10:00

Two hours at Stockton Sandspit this morning found two cute little Red-capped Plover chicks. Must have only been days old, but they are the first for the (early) season.

Not much of a meal for a big bird, but obviously this little fish was still worthy of a flip.

Trusting me to get close, but still not taking its eye off of me.

Off into the big blue.

Bit of a stretch for this young Stilt. Those legs are insane :)

Not huge numbers of other birds but enough to get me crawling on the cold, wet ground in single figure temperature. Bring on the warm sunny weather :)

Enough of the rain please!

2010-07-29T20:57:00.002+10:00

No picures for this blog post, just a plea for some sunshine so I can go out and enjoy some photography. July is almost done and we have only seen the sun for 27 hours for the whole month! That's less than 3 days out of 29 and most of that has been while I have been at work.

Time for a bit of sun I think.

Time with Terns

2010-07-10T20:30:00.003+10:00

After a visit to the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year Exhibition, I ducked down to Newcastle Ocean Baths for a look and to photograph some feathered friends. Nothing of significance at the baths, just the usual Silver Gulls, Crested Terns and some Aust. Gannets just off the rocks.

Even though we see terns a lot, they are great birds to practice flight photography on and also provide some nice images as they transit back and forth from the ocean looking for food. I walked out onto the rock shelf and found myself a non pooped on piece of rock (wasn't many of those!) and started snapping.

Terns and gulls are also good subjects for those without long lenses as you can get quite close them.

I tried my darndest to get a photo of one shaking off the salt water while it was flying back to the rocks but they were either too far out when they did it, or my shots didn't get the result I was after.

My next western bird photography trip is currently in the planning stage and I hope to be heading out in September for the Lake Cargelligo area.

Dubbo weekend

2010-07-05T20:21:00.003+10:00

Sunday morning before the sun had risen and the family were heading west for an overnight stay at Dubbo. Nothing exciting to report until we past Sandy Hollow then we began seeing large flocks of Galahs and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos feeding in many a farmer’s paddock along the way. Kestrels were extremely numerous with at least 40 seen on powerlines before we reached our destination. A solitary White-winged Chough and about 4 Apostlebird hopped away from the road and my spotting was not quick enough to alert the family of the sights as we drove along at 100kmh.

After booking in to our accommodation, we headed straight for the Zoo.

I was looking for birds as much as I was looking at the captive animals and I was rewarded at our first stop with a group of White-browed Babblers scratching around under a tree near the baby Rhino. Next on the bird list were a large flock of more than 30 Apostlebirds in an exhibit. I finally got to show the family what they looked like when suddenly they took off en masse and headed straight for us!!! These birds were suddenly all around us like Seagulls around a chip packet as they came mooching for food.

They were literally running between our feet and making us duck for cover as they flew in. It’s a shame that they have become so reliant on people food, but great for photos of normally flighty birds. These scenes repeated themselves on many occasions in the park, but mainly around the picnic areas. A Noisy Minor took a fancy to the car rear view mirrors and we were eye to eye at a distance of less than 30cms.

A Yellow-throated Minor stopped at my feet for a photo. This was a real treat for me as I have only seen this bird once from a distance.

An Azure Kingfisher perched on a branch over the moat surrounding the primate islands. A Blue-faced Honeyeater stood on a table next to a couple eating their lunch. I think it too was looking for scraps.

Day two Found Yellow-rumped Thornbills and House Sparrows twittering (not online) outside the apartment, while Galahs and Magpies flew above. Off to the Zoo again and more of the same birds including the same Noisy Minor from yesterday swooping straight onto the rear view mirror as we pulled up in the exact same car park (There’s something wrong with this bird!). A huge mob of at least 60 Choughs got into a scrap with an equally large number of Apostlebirds near the midway cafe over some bits of meat scraps. It was an interesting sight and the calls of the choughs were haunting in the cool morning air.

On the way home and it was pretty quiet until I saw some parrots on the roadside that weren’t Eastern Rosellas... Mallee Ringnecks!!! New bird tick but no stopping for a photo with the family in tow. Next western trip they will be a target bird. These birds were between Dunedoo and Dubbo (62kms west of Dunedoo). Again the Black-shouldered Kites and Kestrels were numerous along the road and two Black Falcons on a fence were a great sight. Last bird encounter of note was a Raven ripping apart a Galah on a fence post. Pink and grey feathers were flying everywhere.

Birds seen on the trip were...

Wedge-tailed Eagle, Galah, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White-winged Chough, Sacred Ibis, Apostlebird, White-browed Babbler, Eastern Rosella, Australian Wood Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Chestnut Teal, Black Swan, Pelican, Brown Falcon, Australian Hobby, Eastern Rosella, Rock Dove, Crested Pigeon, Raven, Pied and Grey Butcherbird, Black-shouldered Kite, Nankeen Kestrel, Welcome Swallow, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Black Falcon, Willy Wagtail, Straw-necked Ibis, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Magpie, White-plumed Honeyeater, Crimson Rosella, Noisy Minor, Yellow-throated Minor, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Azure Kingfisher, Red-rumped Parrot, Mallee Ringneck (new bird 252) and several LBB species seen and heard that I couldn’t ID.

Raymond Terrace Birding

2010-07-03T20:54:00.005+10:00

Sounds unexciting I know, but I had a surprisingly good day with some unexpected bonuses. I began with a drive out to Seaham Weir to find the Restless Flycatcher I had seen last weekend, which did not show up today. Lots of little birds in good numbers seen including Red-browed Firetail, White-browed Scrubwren, Yellow Thornbill, Grey Fantail, Jacky Winter, Superb Fairy-wren, Bar-shouldered Dove, Whistling Kite and Eastern Whipbird.

After a few hours at the weir I drove back into Raymond Terrace along Newline Road where the highlight was a Grey Goshawk at Eagleton.

Back in Raymond Terrace and I set up at the pond next to Mac Donalds. It's a stinky, dirty place with overfed geese and half bred ducks, but always a chance for some photos. Lots of Sacred Ibis, Royal Spoonbills, Eurasian Coot, Purple Swamphen, Dusky Moorhen, Masked Lapwings and Rufous Night Herons as per normal, but I was shocked to see two Brahminy Kites hunting over the pond!!! Good for me, but the Night Herons were in a right panic with the two raptors sitting in their tree.

Off to Dubbo tomorrow with the family, so it'll be good to see what birds are out there even though it's not a birding trip.

Boat Harbour

2010-07-02T13:43:00.003+10:00

Went whale watching this morning off the rocks at Boat Harbour, near Anna Bay NSW. My wife and I were treated to a great show by the big mammals, but I got the added bonus of a new bird and some great views of Australasian Gannets and a huge White-bellied Sea-eagle with its prey.

The gannets were performing suicide dives into the water right next to the rock shelf! Not my idea of an easy meal. While searching for whales I noticed a small flock of birds following a little fishing boat. As they got closer I noticed a few brown backed birds among them and focused on them with both my binoculars and the camera. Some quick back and forth references to my bird book said that they were Fluttering Shearwaters. A new bird for me, so bird 251 and some WBSE pics more than made up for the cloudy sky and cold wind.

Photographing Shorebirds at Stockton Sandspit

2010-06-25T13:15:00.006+10:00

While Stockton Sandspit is a haven for birdlife, it can be a challenge for the bird photographer. Knowing your subject’s habits and of course when to visit, will help you capture those shots you’re after.

When to visit SSS to photograph birds???

While anytime is a good time to take photos, if you want to achieve better quality photos you need to have good light and the right tide. The best light for any photography is the hour after sunrise or the hour before sunset. This time is called the ‘golden hour’ as the light is softer and really highlights natural colours. Tide time is another crucial factor at Stockton Sandspit. Those who visit the location will know that the bird numbers and species present change with the tides. I find that the best time to be there is one or two hours before high tide. This allows you to be on the Sandspit before the bigger waders fly in from the Kooragang Dykes and other locations. My personal, favourite time to visit is when high tide is about an hour or two after sunrise. On these occasions I can be found lying on the ground before sunrise as I like to get out onto the Sandspit in low light while most birds are still at their night roosts. This allows me to get comfortable and setup without disrupting the arriving birds looking for their breakfast.

Where to shoot on SSS???

This really depends on what you want to photograph.

Flight photographs.

The grassy edge above the beach line is a great spot for flight photos as you will encounter waders flying towards you as they approach the sandspit from across the river. Many of the waders do a few laps of the beach and sandspit as they choose where they will land. This location is my favourite spot to photograph the very skittish Eastern Curlews as they fly in low to check out the site.

Feeding behaviour photographs.

A couple of choices here, as it depends on which species you want to capture. For the Godwits and Curlews, I find you need to set up in the same spot as above because they mostly feed along the beach. The only drawback with this is that they prefer to face out to the river and not the shoreline, so a bit of patience will get you some photos as they walk along the beach.
To photograph species such as Spoonbills, Egrets, Herons and Stilts, Big Island is the place to be. One problem with Big Island is that it’s a popular nesting site and this often means you need to keep away to allow the birds their space. When nesting birds are not a problem then the river side of Big Island is the place I choose to set up. This spot will present you with feeding, behaviour, and landing or takeoff shots. Many of the mentioned birds enjoy feeding on the incoming tide as the water rushes in from the river.

How do you get close???

The best tools you can have for shorebird photography are patience and a willingness to get down and dirty. If you draw attention to yourself the birds will fly or run off and this obviously defeats the purpose. Ask me how to get close to birds and my advice is “Be a cow”’. Cows and birds get on fabulously because they trust each other. Cows don’t care about birds, so you need to pretend that you too are not interested in them. Make all movement in slow motion. You will be amazed how close you can get if you take your time and watch the bird’s behaviour for any sign of you encroaching on its personal space. Every time you see a sign of a bird’s awareness of you increasing (head bobbing, upright stance, alert calls, preparing to fly off etc), stop and stay still. Allow the bird to settle and return to its routine. It will gradually get used to your presence and if you’re lucky they will even move towards you for a look.

If you can get down low and put up with the mud, sand, bug bites and those spiky little burrs, then you are well on your way to getting close. Even with no cover on the sandspit you can get very close to species like Godwits, Red-capped Plovers and Pacific Golden Plovers. It’s a great feeling to be accepted by the birds and get photos too.

Lucky’s top tips

1. Remember that the bird’s welfare always come first.

2. Patience is a virtue. It can take quite a while to gain a bird’s trust and be able to get close.

3. Take some food. It’s easy to forget about hunger while you’re taking photos, but it’s also easy to become impatient when all you’re feeling is hungry.

4. Dress in layers. It can be freezing cold in the early morning, but it can heat up quickly.

5. Take lots of photos, but also put the camera down once in a while and enjoy the moment.

6. Crawl in, crawl out. Don’t just stand up and walk off when you’re finished. Back out to a good distance before standing up.

Weekend birds

2010-06-20T20:28:00.003+10:00

Not too much time spent bird photographing this past weekend, But at least I took the camera out for a play.

First outing was two hours at Stockton Sandspit during low tide on Friday. Not a lot of action, though plenty of Brown Honeyeaters on the site. The Sacred Kingfishers are back and hunting the soldier crabs at low tide. Very easy pickings for the birds and they are using the bird hide as a perch to swoop onto their prey.

A Little Egret and a White-faced Heron picking off little fish near big island.

A reasonable sized flock of Eastern Curlew and a small group Bar-tailed Godwits roosting in the shallows while the Red-capped and Pacific Golden Plovers were on the shelly sand having a sleep.

Today I went out to Swan Bay with the family. Low tide visit there too with a couple of Black Swans, Some Godwits, Curlews, White Ibis and Pied Oystercatchers probing the sandy, muddy shoreline.

A special treat for the family was a mature White-bellied Sea-eagle patrolling the shoreline for lunch, while scaring all the shorebirds at the same time.

Wedge-tailed Eagle

2010-06-15T16:21:00.003+10:00

Not a birding outing, but the family and I went for a drive across the Barrington Tops over the weekend and among all the birds I did see were several Wedge-tailed Eagles. The first one we saw was having a feast on a dead cow, but was chased away by some crows before I could start my stalk to get closer. Others were seen either riding thermals or carrying nesting materials. I have struggled for ages to get WTE photos so these are my best to date....more room for improvement. :)

Why is it that birds of prey are so easily bullied by smaller birds, especially when on some prey? Giant predators that choose to only fight back among their own kind.

SSS revisited

2010-06-14T21:09:00.003+10:00

After a cold and overcast visit on Saturday morning, I felt the need to go back and improve on my plover shots. The weather was much kinder and thankfully the Double-banded was there as well. Same stalking method got me as close as I wanted to go and the birds were so happy that they all went to sleep for a bit while I was about 5 or 6 metres away. It's nice to get close for photos but it's also a great way to view their behaviour as they chase each other around.

My injured friend the Pacific Golden Plover having a wing stretch...

Resident Red-capped Plovers...

The solitary Double-banded Plover...

Not a plover, but an Eastern Curlew just to mix it up a bit.

250th bird and injured PGP

2010-06-12T19:34:00.003+10:00

I have been sitting on 249 species for a while now and with no trips planned I have been trying to find a new bird locally to reach this goal. A couple of Double-banded Plovers have been visiting Stockton Sandspit for a couple of months and it has taken almost as long for me to finally see one of them.

Also on the sandspit this morning were the resident 'over winter' Pacific Golden Plovers. Today I saw the injured male's dodgy leg. Usually he has it tucked up in his plumage but not this morning. His leg looks like a permanent disability unfortunately, but he's still eating, mobile and looking healthy. The injured right leg angles across his left leg and looks terrible when he hops around.

Many Red-capped Plovers roosting today as well. The late breeding season youngster has grown up but still seems to not want to leave its dad. The youngster constantly tried to get under dad's wing, which he sometimes allowed, and other times the dad would run away to avoid interacting with his offspring. Maybe he allows his kid to snuggle in for extra warmth because it was freezing this morning :)

Plovers at Stockton Sandspit

2010-05-30T13:30:00.003+10:00

Another quick trip to Stockton this morning for Double-banded Plovers and according to Tom 'The Sandspit King', they were there this morning but when we tried to spot them they were nowhere to be seen,

There were about 15 Red-capped Plovers roosting this morning on the shelly sand as well as 2 Pacific Golden Plovers. On the beach were at least 200 Bar-tailed Godwits and 50+ Eastern Curlew.

Today's photo effort was focused on the two Pacific Golden Plovers and I was able to get within 6 metres of one of them which was a nice treat. No action shots as all the birds were hunkered down against a strong westerly wind.

The two PGP are obviously over wintering here at the sandspit and both are in different plumage indicating a first year juvi and an injured adult. The male in breeding colours has a story behind it too so I'll include it here for some extra text :)

The male PGP was reported to have an injured leg just before they were due to fly north to breed. While he was hopping around he was still fattening up and the flock he was with appeared to be leaving their departure as late as possible, maybe as they waited to see if he would join them. Time started getting away and his flock left him as they migrated north. Since then he and the first year bird have moved from the wreck to the sandspit where they seem to be spending most of their time. He is still hopping everywhere but looks healthy apart from that.

Again I will head to Stockton next week to find what has now become my new bogey bird - DBP!

Superb Fairy-wrens

2010-05-28T21:07:00.001+10:00

Today was the first day in two weeks without rain and I had use of the car for 40 minutes so I quickly grabbed the camera and headed for Stockton with hopes of seeing Double-banded Plovers. The tide was going out as I approached Stockton so chances were low of seeing anything on the Sandspit.

Millions of Soldier Crabs travelling across the mud, One White-faced Heron and two Masked Lapwings made up the attendance list for the outing so I decided to sit down for 5 minutes where some Fairy-wrens were squabbling and chasing bugs. They took off as I approached but quickly returned as I did my best to mimic their calls. I soon had so many wrens around me that it was hard to choose which to photograph as they came to within a metre of my feet.

They continued to squabble and fight in between looking for food and I got some nice full frame shots to ensure I didn't go home with an empty memory card.

I am still stuck on 248 species! :(

Noisy visitors

2010-05-23T21:06:00.005+10:00

After a week of terrible weather, today's brief glimpse of sunshine was spent with the family. This meant that today's blog entry takes place in the old backyard. Lots of Rainbow Lori's and pigeons as usual, but I tried to focus on some of the other visitors for a change.

One Noisy lately is a Niosy Friarbird, who while being in the yard a lot, is very hard to get a clear photo of. However they have a great call, so just listening to them is as good as seeing them.

Next on the Noisy list is the Noisy Minor. Bossy birds that seem to be fearless and will take on most birds that enter their turf.

Final guest is the Magpie Lark. Not noisy by name, but noisy by nature. They love hunting the crickets while I mow, but this one scored a fat little spider for lunch. Mmmmm fat spider! :)

Looking forward to a trip very soon to the Sandspit to hopefully see a Double-banded Plover.

Bulga and Jerrys Plains

2010-05-16T20:54:00.004+10:00

Today's trip was a little west of home as myself and a friend went to explore the Bulga and Jerrys Plains area in search of Regent Honeyeaters.

No sign of the critically endangered species or flowering trees in which they would feed, however we did find a lot of other birds to enjoy.

Two new species for me today in Red-capped Robin and White-eared Honeyeater. While no photo to show of the White-eared, the Robins gave me plenty of opportunities.

Species for the day included...

Varied Sitella, Brown-headed Honeyeater, Weebill, Striated Pardalote, Speckled Warbler,

Diamond Firetail, Red-browed Firetail, Double-barred Finch, Grey-crowned Babbler,

Brown Falcon, Peregrine Falcon, Little Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel, Yellow Thornbill,

Buff-rumped Thornbill, Brown Thornbill, White-plumed Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Brown-headed Honeyeater, Scarlet Robin, Eastern Yellow Robin

Red-capped Robin, Jacky Winter, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Western Gerygone, Galah

Sulfur-crested Cockatoo, Eastern Rosella, Crimson Rosella, Red-rumped Parrot, King Parrot

Aust. Wood Duck, Mistletoebird,

and a host of others that I can't remember because I didn't keep a list today :)

King of the yard

2010-05-09T09:54:00.002+10:00

The current spate of warm Autumn weather has seen the native trees in the backyard burst into flower yet again and with the colour has come the Rainbow Lorikeets. Although regular visitors, two birds in particular have laid claim to the entire yard and actively chase off any other visitors so as to keep the seed and blossums to themselves.

Today the pair have continually chased of the resident Crested Pigeons and Spotted Turtle-doves, Noisy Friarbirds, Magpie Lark, Red Wattlebird, Musk Lorikeets, Galahs and Noisy Minors. Even when the pair fly off to neighbouring trees they seem to be watching the yard because they fly back screeching like mad as soon as another bird turns up and chases them off.

New bird and a new camera accessory

2010-05-02T20:50:00.004+10:00

Last week saw the addition of a new toy to my bird photography arsenal. A new 4WD car! This will allow my camera to get a few more spots that the old car just couldn't get to without being beaten up by the terrain.

To celebrate I went to Newcastle Ocean Baths to see if I could find the Noddy, even though I haven't heard any reported sightings for many days. I did a search of the rocks upon arrival and failed to find the Noddy and was settling in to photograph the surfers when a dark shape on the rocks caught my eye. I knew what I was looking at the moment I saw it...Eastern Reef Egret!

I have never seen one before and had actually forgotten that there had been a sighhting a couple of days earlier in this area. The surfers were quickly forgotten as I began my stalk to get closer for a photo. It proved to be rather timid and made me walk some distance to follow it along the coastline, but I finally got enough shots to be happy with.

After the Egret I began watching a young Australasian Gannet diving for fish close to the rocks and got a few ok shots.

I also encountered a mystery bird in the waves, which I am guessing was a type of Shearwater although I couldn't get a good look at it as it was being pounded by the surf. Hopefully it didn't end up dead on the beach. :(

Anyway a good afternoon with a tick and a ride in the new car.

Wader survey

2010-04-18T20:36:00.003+10:00

Saturday morning I participated in my first HBOC wader survey. These surveys are conducted monthly at various locations to record what waders are hiding in the area. My area for Saturday was around Tomago (Opposite Ash Island).

I met up with Nick and with camera, binoculars, pen and notepad we drove off into the wilderness. Several Raptors were seen, lots of Pipits, Cisticolas, Lapwings, ducks, and day to day birds, but the highlight for me was several great views (although not long enough to photograph) of an Azure Kingfisher.

One of my jobs on the day was to act as the beater and tromp through an area called the 'Rice Paddy' to flush out birds, in particular Little Bittern. Nick walked the perimetre to see what took flight. No bitterns, but an interesting trip for me as I walked through shallow water and thick grass that ranged between 5 and 7 feet tall. Some stages I had no idea where I was walking, but I would love to go back to try and photograph Cisticolas in there.

All in all it was a good few hours of birding with many species found, albeit no waders. After that I went out to test drive a few cars and stopped by the Newcastle Baths to see the Noddy again...no Noddy seen. :(

Some of the birds recorded for the survey included...

Swamp Harrier

Black-shouldered Kite

Nankeen Kestrel

Golden-headed Cisticola

Southern Emu-wren

Superb Fairy-wren

Striped Honeyeater

Azure Kingfisher

Brown Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

White-faced Heron

Tawny Grassbird

Little Grassbird

Brown Thornbill

Yellow Thornbill

Oycs, Ruddy's and a Noddy

2010-04-09T15:08:00.003+10:00

This morning I went into Newcastle to find a bird that had been reported in the vacinity of the Newcastle Ocean Baths over the last day or so. The visitor, a Common Noddy, is a rare bird for the Hunter and of course would be a new bird for me.

I arrived about 20 minutes before sunrise and was immediately disappointed as a south east wind was smashing huge surf onto the rock shelf surrounding the baths. There was nowhere for any birds to roost on the rocks and I was feeling that it would be a wasted trip. I went for a wonder and was happy to see 30 Sooty Oystcatchers sheltering nearby on a strip of sand so I headed for them to have a look.

On my way I also found 24 Ruddy Turnstones foraging on the sand. They were looking very dark and I suspected once it got light I would see their breeding plumage in all its glory. I sat down with the Oycs for a good 40 minutes and then decided to go back to the Turnstones only to find they were gone. I walked around the baths scanning the rock shelf and also getting splashed by the waves, when I saw by chance a dark bird flying low between the big waves...It was the Noddy!!! I snapped a few long range photos while it flew away down the coast looking for its breakfast. I hung around for a while longer and it returned twice more on its patrol but never came too close to shore.

It was time to go home again and as I walked out to the carpark I saw movement on some rocks down below. I had found the turnstones again! They were in terrible photographic light but they did look awesome. I took my photos and left them to roost, as I returned to my own roost for a shower and some breakfast.

Glad I saw the Common Noddy even though it wasn't as close as I had hoped. Maybe late next week I will duck in for another look.

More from Borah and places West of home

2010-04-06T19:58:00.003+10:00

Thought I'd add a few more photos for you all to enjoy...

Crested Shrike-tit

Brown Treecreeper

Eastern Yellow Robin

Hooded Robin

Diamond Firetail

26 ticks at Borah TSR!

2010-04-05T07:57:00.004+10:00

Grant and I departed Maitland at 0500 heading for the Hunter Bird Observer Club Easter camp at Borah Travelling Stock Reserve, west of Tamworth. A totally awesome 3 days with 99 species seen and 26 new birds for my life list.
Accommodation was basic camping with no amenities except for a hole in the ground and a thunder box.

Basic list of Hunter birds until we drove through Tamworth and then it magically began to change to Western birds. We arrived at camp before lunch and hurriedly threw the tents up and hit the bush in search of birds. Grant was going ballistic as he knows the patch of ground fairly intimately, so I was rapidly ticking new species until days end when we had 63 species (I had 14 new birds).

Day two and more of the same, except that we were hitting the ground at first light. Nine new birds added to our total, gave us 72 species, and 3 more ticks for me. By the end of day two the number of species seen by the club was 87 species within the TSR or short walking distance thereof.

Day 3 was our return to the Hunter day, and after breaking camp, having breakfast and saying goodbye to those who hadn’t already gone walking, we headed out the gate with a plan of going further west before heading east. Travelling west again and very quickly we were adding more species. 12 more species were recorded before we finally headed for home and a further 13 more before we reached my house in Medowie. So day 3 had 27 new birds giving us a total of 99 birds seen, and I picked up a further 9 lifers bringing my weekend total to 26 life ticks.
A great weekend for which I owe a great deal of thanks to Grant, his eagle eyes and awesome bird knowledge.

Bird list for the weekend in order of sighting, as follows...Lifers for me in bold type.

Day 1.

Magpie, Pied Butcherbird, Aust. Wood Duck, Raven, Magpie Lark, Black Shouldered Kite, Eastern Rosella, Kestrel, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Willy Wagtail, Starling, Sparrow, Common Myna, Red-rumped Parrot, Spotted Turtle-dove, Crested Pigeon, Galah, Welcome Swallow, Masked Lapwing, Kookaburra, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Currawong, Rainbow Lorikeet, Common Blackbird, Little Corella, Noisy Minor, Brown Goshawk, Feral Pigeon, Noisy Friar-bird, Red-winged Parrot, Superb Fairy-wren, Restless Flycatcher, Double-barred Finch, White-faced Heron, Apostlebird, White-backed Swallow, Cockatiel, White-winged Chough, Jacky Winter, Mistletoebird, Grey-crowned Babbler, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Tree Martin, Zebra Finch, Blue-faced Honeyeater, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Varied Sittella, Grey Shrike-thrush, White-plumed Honeyeater, Azure Kingfisher, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Diamond Firetail, Hooded Robin, Striped Honeyeater, Striated Pardalote, Turquoise Parrot, Speckled Warbler, Dusky Woodswallow and Brown Treecreeper.

Day 2

Collared Sparrowhawk, Little Friarbird, Black-chinned Honeyeater, Little Lorikeet, Fuscous Honeyeater, Crested-Shrike-tit, Black-fronted Dotterel and King Parrot.

Day 3.
Aust. Pipit, Brown Falcon, Yellow-throated Minor, Southern Whiteface, Singing Honeyeater, Black Falcon, Plum-headed Finch, White-winged Fairy-wren, Horsfield’s Bushlark, Aust. Grebe, Western Gerygone, Ground Cuckoo-shrike, Black Swan, Sacred Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis, Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Great Egret, Little Pied Cormorant, Royal Spoonbill, Purple Swamphen, Chestnut Teal, Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo, Musk Duck, White-headed Pigeon, Aust. Hobby and Scaly-breasted Lorikeet.

Several 'David Attenborough' moments on the weekend including up close times with a cute female Turquoise Parrot, some time up close-ish with Plum-headed Finches and a sighting of 3 Ground Cuckoo-shrikes.

BirdingOz meet at SSS

2010-03-14T21:02:00.003+11:00

As I prepared for bed on Saturday night I looked to the sky and saw stars; hoping that the clear skies would last until this morning for our planned bird outing to Stockton Sandspit. I obviously didn't hope too hard because as I left the house for the meet it was pouring down. It took a while but the rain did ease and amazingly we had some full sun later in the morning. Initial bird numbers at the Sandspit were disappointing due to something spooking the birds back to the dykes (did I say something? I meant fishermen.).

We wondered the Sandspit and the local area trying to find birds and while we found a few Egrets, Spoonies, little bush birds, Osprey, Tattlers, PGP and Terek Sandpipers it was a bit sad.

We went back to SSS for one last look and as we were walking along the beach we were suddenly surrounded by large numbers of waders looking for a landing spot. A couple of fishermen had decided to walk along Kooragang dykes while the birds were roosting at low tide and put the birds up, so they all decided to fly to the Sandspit. Yay for us!!!

With nowhere to hide we decided to lay in the grass and the birds quickly settled in on the muddy water line on the beach. Some slow belly crawling got us lots of ant bites, scrapes and scratches, but we got down onto the beach with the birds ignoring us while they slept and fed.

The Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits looked great with many already fat and red and ready for their migration. Several Eastern Curlews actually landed in front of us and that led to a progression of several other species. Little, Common and Caspian Terns, Silver Gulls, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Red-capped Plover, Whimbrel and Pied Oystercatchers.

Many photos ended up being taken, and the crew who drove up from Sydney actually got to see some birds, which, being the reason they came up, is a good thing.

Stockton Sandspit 27 Feb 2010

2010-02-28T11:40:00.003+11:00

A promising weather forecast and a need to take some photos had me thinking of visiting the local shorebirds before they migrate to the northern hemisphere for the winter. With a high tide of 1.9m just after sunrise, I thought this would bring many of the waders up close. I was wrong. It was a huge tide which flooded most of the sandspit and in fact seemed to make the birds look elsewhere for a roosting and feeding area. I was hoping to see Double-banded Plovers (migrant from NZ) which had been sighted; but they and most of the regulars failed to show.
It was not all in vain however, because the Oystercatcher family was present and they allowed me to get really close. Must have been some decent stalking by me, because they just watched me approach and lay down within 10 metres of them as they strolled around. I scored some nice family portraits and got to see the oysterkids take to the skies. Amazing how they’ve grown up before our eyes!

I decided to leave the sandspit and visit a local wreck which is a popular roost for the Pacific Golden Plovers. It too was almost totally submerged but thankfully five PGP and a White-faced Heron were there. No sign of breeding plumage on the PGP’s so they will hopefully be around for a few more weeks yet.

I found the leftovers of some fisherman’s catch on the beach and decided to see what I could lure in with it. I threw it out into the water and watched the rapid arrival of a Pelican and a Pied Cormorant as they raced to it (the Pelican won).

Not happy with the quantity of photos I had taken for the morning, I headed for Blackbutt Reserve for a last destination before heading home. No unusual sightings, just Black Swans, Pacific Black Ducks and Australian Wood Ducks. One pair of wood ducks had a single youngster who was very cute and worthy of me laying in duck poo to get a close up photo.

Powerful Owl....FINALLY!!!

2010-02-07T13:34:00.003+11:00

Took a mad dash into Blackbutt today to search for Powerful Owls. Today I hit pay dirt as I found one roosting and facing right at me. While the many millions of mosquitos attacked me (I double dosed myself in aeroguard and it did stuff all), I took a few photos and let it be. While reviewing my photos I noticed it had a dodgy left eye. Possibly from a collision of a fight, but the bird looked very healthy so things must be ok, albeit a bit blurry. How big are their talons!!! I am impressed. What an awesome tick on my bird list :)

On the way home I dropped by Stockton, and even though the tide was going out there were many shorebirds to be found.

14 Pacific Golden Plovers on and around the wreck as well two Sacred Kingfishers (who were harassing the PGP's) and a Mangrove Gerygone.

At the Sandspit I saw 30 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 6 Pacific Golden Plovers, 1 Whimbrel, 4 Eastern Curlew, 1 Black-tailed Godwit (starting to change its plumage), 1 Sacred Kingfisher and the usual egrets, herons, pigeons, red-capped plovers, silver gulls and only one Pied Oystercatcher.

One life tick and Three year ticks on a wet, gloomy day. Gotta be happy with that.

Darn Owls still evade me!

2010-01-25T21:36:00.003+11:00

Again I went wondering into mosquito infested forest to try and catch a glimpse of the resident Powerful Owls in Blackbutt. Everyone I know has seen them and photographed them, but everytime I go they are nowhere to be seen. Today was one of those days for me again. The forest wasn't totally empty of bird life as I saw White-throated Treecreepers, Eastern Yellow Robin and Golden Whistler around the infamous Owl Trees. The Whistler was a year tick so with that going for me I headed for Newcastle Ocean Baths to find the Sooty Oystercatchers.

It was late morning by now and for some reason the heavy overcast sky decided to move away and Newie was blinded with very bright sunshine (not good for photos). At the baths were the usual suspects, Silver Gulls and Crested Terns with juveniles, a few Ruddy Turnstones and after a bit of a search I found Three Sooty Oystercatchers among the rocks at the Cowrie Hole.

They are very timid and it took a while of me sitting still for them to resume feeding and move close enough to warrant a photo.

Back at the Sandspit

2010-01-17T13:28:00.005+11:00

I spent a couple of hours yesterday morning hiding and watching birds at Stockton Sandspit. It's an awesome spot to see shorebirds as long as you time your visit with the tide. I turned up before the sun came up and picked out a nice uncomfortable spot to lay on and waited for some birds to come in. A bit of a mixed bag of birds, but a great morning and a few cool photos were taken.

Birds of note on the Sandspit were...

Eastern Great Egret

Little Egret

Striated Heron

White-faced Heron

Pelican

Sacred Ibis

Silver Gull

Crested Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Common Tern

Red-capped Plover

Red-necked Stint

Pied Oystercatcher

Eastern Curlew

Whimbrel

Black-winged Stilt

Bar-tailed Godwit

Black Cormorant

There was prawn on the menu just off the beach and many birds were enjoying a seafood breakfast, with the Gulls and Terns dive bombing repeatedly for the little treats.

After leaving the Sandspit I drove a little further down the Hunter river to an old wreck that is popular with Pacific Golden Plovers at high tide. I found one PGP and three Grey-tailed Tattlers enjoying the rusty roosting spot before I headed home.

My first Western birding adventure

2010-01-14T17:17:00.003+11:00

Two day trip – Mudgee and back!

A sudden decision by me to head west to look for birds found me planning a trip to Mudgee over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Day 1.

Departure was delayed by an hour after the lady at the car hire place couldn’t get my credit card to work, but after a drive into the bank and back again I was hunky dory and on my way. The day was looking to be a warm one with a chance of thunderstorms. No storms were seem but warm was an understatement! The temperature was nudging 40 degrees less than half way into my drive and there was very little birdlife to be seen.

Newcastle to Mudgee list.

Wedge-tailed Eagle, Willy Wagtail, Raven, Indian Mynah, Magpie, Magpie-lark, Welcome Swallow, Starling, Red-rumped Parrot, White-faced Heron, Noisy Minor, Aust. Wood Duck, Crested Pigeon, White-winged Chough and Yellow-rumped Thornbill.

As soon as I arrived in Mudgee I checked in to the Caravan Park I was camping at, put my tent up to bags a spot (overlooking the creek), and then hit the Tourist Information Centre for their Bird Route maps. The heat was ridiculous (42 degrees), but I decided to check out a couple of the locations to see what was to be had.

Rocky Waterhole Rd Bridge.
A short drive out of town to this bridge (actually a causeway/bridge). The map said it was good for Reed-warblers...that was the only bird I saw there, so the maps were as good as their word so far

Avisford Reserve
Run by NPWS at the end of the main street, this spot looked to be an old disused dam. By dam, I don’t mean cow paddock dam, I mean a big dam with curved concrete wall (still there)! No water to be seen but the site did seem to hold some potential.

King Parrot, Rufous Whistler, Eastern Yellow Robin, Common Bronzewing, Variegated and Superb Fairy-wren, Red-browed Firetail and some mystery calls were heard too.
Every bird was suffering from the heat and I called an early end to the spot after being harassed by dogs from nearby properties.

I went to the first pub I could find, and shouted myself a schooner of coke while checking out other places to visit. I ended up checking some nearby TSR’s and found nothing but Starlings. The region is nice and green after a recent soaking of rain so I suspect the starlings (thousands of the buggers), were feeding up on grass seeds and the like.
I went back to the tent to see what was in the creek area before I did some shopping. The Caravan Park was a little gold mine for birds. It even yielded two lifers for me!

Peaceful Dove, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Pacific Black Duck, Dusky Moorhen (+8 chicks), Red-browed Firetail, Common Blackbird, Galah, Sacred Kingfisher, Grey Shrike-thrush, Willy Wagtail, Mistletoebird, Little Black Cormorant, Reed Warbler, White-plumed Honeyeater and of course the Fairy-wrens.

Off to the shops and also to Eagle Boys to buy dinner. This was the highlight of the day as I sat on the creek bank, in the shade of a tree, with my feet in the flowing water while I ate my pizza and had a cold drink. Absolute heaven!
Had a terrible night’s sleep in the warm, still night. Woke almost every hour. Went for a shower at 1am then back to bed. Got up at 4.30am and broke camp so I was ready to go to Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve before sunrise.

Day 2.
Decided to go to Honeyeater Flat day area within the Munghorn Gap NR and work my way back out from there. After driving past the place twice (stupid entrance sign is in the paddock and not by the road so I missed it in the dark), I drove in as far as I could and got out. Lots of bird song to be heard...unfortunately 80% of it was from a darn Rufous Whistler above my head! Went for a wander and it was already heating up and the sun was yet to clear the hills. Two more lifers in here. One was easy to ID but hard to find. The unmistakeable call of a Superb Lyrebird coming from down in the gully among the rocks had me stalking to catch a glimpse. Amazing how easy it is to pick them when you hear 8-9 very different birds calling repetitively from the one spot. Got a glimpse and recorded the Lyrebird call on a P&S digicam movie.

Birds from Honeyeater Flat...
Superb Lyrebird, Grey Fantail, Brown Treecreeper, Brown Thornbill, Eastern Yellow Robin, Rufous Whistler, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White-winged Chough, Silvereye, Superb Fairy-wren, Eastern Spinebill, Eastern Rosella, Raven, Kookaburra, Magpie, Galah and Noisy Minor.

Next point of interest was Moolarben Day area. Quite sweaty already but went for a look. Again several mystery calls and more of the same sighted, with one exception... Leaden Flycatcher.

Birds from Moolarben...
Leaden Flycatcher, Rufous Whistler, White-winged Chough, Grey Fantail, Fantail Cuckoo, Superb Fairy-wren, Galah, Kookaburra, Eastern Spinebill, Mistletoebird, Brown Thornbill and a few mystery calls.

The temperature by 9am was back up to 37 degrees so I decided to check bridges, back roads etc as I started to make my way home. One new bird was found Dusky Woodswallow, but apart from that, nothing that hasn’t been already listed..
I got back into Newie around 2pm and headed for Blackbutt to see the Powerful Owls. Again I couldn’t find the track, and when I did (Thanks Dan), there were no Owls, just millions of mosquitoes. I am destined never to see a mythical Powerful Owl. The temp in Newcastle was heaps cooler but there was a sea fog over everything which wrote off any chances of birding along the coast, so I headed for home...earlier than planned.

All in all it was a good, but very hot, trip. I would of course have loved to have seen more new birds but the weather was against me for the whole time. Still seven lifers in two days ain’t such a bad thing. I will save up my pennies again for the HBOC Easter camp and try again for more Western birds then, since most of the birds I saw on this trip are also on my backyard and Medowie lists.

7 ticks in 2 days!

2010-01-05T20:24:00.002+11:00

Here's hoping the rest of the year can be as productive as it has been. In two days I have ticked the following birds...

Little Tern
Lesser Sand Plover
White-throated Needletail
Wonga Pigeon
Grey-crowned Babbler
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Whimbrel

A great start I think :) I am going out again tomorrow so fingers crossed for more news tomorrow night. Stay tuned.

First 2010 outing

2010-01-04T19:57:00.003+11:00

It has barely stopped raining here since Xmas and I have been sitting in the corner of the loungeroom rocking and gibbering to myself while waiting for the sun to come out. Today it all got too much and I headed out into the overcast gloom for a small trip to the Sandspit to dust off the camera.

Not a huge lot seen but it was an enjoyable hour. Superb Fairy-wrens, Starlings, Rock Doves and Black-winged Stilts were first on the list. Next were the roosting Eastern Curlews and a White-faced Heron. I headed for the beach and was rewarded with a few species but small numbers. A solitary Red-necked Avocet, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits, 6 Pelicans, 3 Silver Gulls and 2 Little Egrets as I reached the beach. Further down I could see scrurrying things and headed off in a bent over walk towards them.

I was happy to see lots of Red-necked Stints and Red-capped Plovers roosting or feeding very close by. I laid down and watched and a few curious young birds came to within a few metres to look at the funny human.

I saw some tiny white birds come in for a fish...Little Tern...Tick! Thank you very much After a bucket load of shots I backed out and started to head back when I found the Pied Oystercatcher family in the Mangroves. They have certainly grown since I last saw them! Anyway I got a few shots and left them to feed and play.

Still blogging

2009-12-28T18:52:00.004+11:00

Been quite a spell between blog posts but that's only due to lack of outings.

What have I done since last visit?

Two new backyard birds on my list. Eastern Spinebill (visits the Kangaroo Paw several times a day), and Scarlet Honeyeater (one visit only).
Took a guy I know from the Defence Intranet (lives interstate), exploring Belmont and Morriset. Very few birds seen but 2 ticks for him with White-breasted Woodswallow and Osprey.

Lots of rain of late is stopping any chance of a photo outing, and no sign of easing for a week or so.

Future planned outings are a visit to my local habitat (Medowie State Conservation Area) with some guys more knowledgeable than I too see what actually lives with the forest. May make this area my study for the year and keep detailed lists of what I find.

Other planned outing will be the HBOC Easter camp.

Anyway that's all that is happening over here. Once I get out I will be back to update. Hope you have a great 2010. My NY resolution is to get to 250 species on my life list (48 to go).

:)

Long time between pics

2009-12-07T19:44:00.005+11:00

I'm back!!!

Sunday was my first outing since Twitchathon and it was good to get out. I was so excited that I actually went to 6 different spots in search of birds. Light on for photos but still had fun and got some better photos of some bogey birds.

First stop was Belmont Wetlands. Reasonably quiet apart from where there were lots of pigeons and doves calling and a startled fox, however I got better photos of White-throated Treecreepers than I had before.

Next stop was just down the road was Belmont Lagoon where I saw heaps of Emu-wrens, a few Rufous Fantails and again scored my best pics to date of Black-shouldered Kite and Brown Thornbill.

On the road again to Morisset where I was keen to see if the resident Ospreys had raised a youngster. I found both adults at their trees but no sign of nesting or fledged young. Great photo ops as they flew close to check me out. Also found a pair of nesting Kestrels with a fledged juvi near the Ospreys.

Leaving the Raptors to enjoy some human free time I drove on to Pambalong NR to hopefully find the reported Yellow Spoonies. Lucky me found four of them...TICK

Went to the paddocks at Lenaghan's Drive next to find Glossy Ibis...no joy, and was too slow getting the camera out and stopping the car to photograph a low flying Swamp Harrier.

Last stop for the morning was Blue Gum Hills NR where I was only intending a quick visit. A short way into my walk and I was discovered by a Grey Goshawk. The Goshawk seemed highly aggitated by my presence (I was still on the track) so I tried to walk away only to have the bird continue to screech and also flank me from the treetops. I stopped to grab some photos of it when suddenly it took off (still screeching) with its talons stretched out and straight at me!!! To say I pooped myself is an understatement, as I swung the camera to keep it away. I must have looked a a big girl's blouse with a funny light sabre as I yelled at it to rack off (not the words I used). I eventually got away but it still wasn't happy. No photos of the attack, but I did get a photo of the offender.

Twitchathon 2009

2009-11-03T20:52:00.003+11:00

Dan and myself wrote ourselves into the history books on the weekend as we competed in our first ever Twitchathon. As many would know, we are not birdos, but we were keen to test our knowledge of feathered friends and maybe gain a few extra lifers in the process.

Kick off was 4pm on Saturday. Who the heck picked that time!!! It might be fine for those travelling hundreds of kilometres, so they could drive to their starting points, but for two guys who were hunting locally the time before the start dragged on. Eventually excitement and impatience got the better of us and we left for our starting point at 3.30pm. At 3.35pm we arrived at Newcastle Baths. After looking at the other birds at the baths we decided to look for feathered ones and start tracking species so that we could find them again at 4pm. Bong! Four o’clock and we were into it. First birds were Common and Crested Terns, Ruddy Turnstone, Red-necked Stint and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (not the dead ones on the beach). Pelis and Sooty Oystercatchers were the last we saw as we headed back to the car and our next destination.

We pointed the car south and were calling sightings along the trip as we neared Belmont, where we planned to tackle the wetlands and the lagoon before nightfall. Rufous Whistler was ticked as we stepped from the car and a little way down the track we got fairly close to the Grey Goshawk lurking in the branches. Scrub-wrens everywhere and Eastern Whipbird were ticked in the wetlands along with a few others. Belmont Lagoon was the next stop and it treated us really well with sightings of bathing Red-browed Finch, Yellow Thornbill, Silvereye, Variegated FW in a mud puddle along the track. A great sighting of a few Southern Emu-wren right beside the track only a couple of metres from us and further on the resident Azure Kingfishers. As the light faded we headed for the car and ticked Dotterel, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and a Striated Heron that we flushed from the canal edge.“Time to go Owling!” was the cry from team Horny Frogmouth as they drove North this time back toward Newcastle. Our goal was to tick Boobook, maybe Powerful (by call), Barn Owl and of course Dan’s Frogmouth family. What did we find??? No Powerful, no Boobook, no Barny. We did find the Frogmouths and a possum though.

Being as we were entered into the Champagne race, we were under strict rules that meant we were to stop birding between 10pm and 5.30am. No need for us to sleep on picnic benches for that amount of time and the fact that we probably couldn’t pick half the calls we would hear during a morning chorus, we headed for Castle Lucky to update the checklist and 5 hours sleep on a couple of camp beds. Total species for day one: 63 species.

Sunday morning.Up at 4am after the Luck household auto wake up system activated (my 9yo son), then hot showers, fresh undies and some breakfast before driving a whole 400 metres to tick off Sacred Kingfisher as the first for day 2. Our whole birding route rotated around the high tide time for Newcastle and more importantly, Stockton Sandspit as this is when you will see the most birds there. Nesting Pied Oystercatcher was the first notable tick for the ‘spit followed by Brown H/E and the cool call of a Mangrove Gerygone. Walking to the beach side we were greeted by Eastern Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwits, over 100 Red Knots and several thousand Red-necked Avocets. Certainly a highlight not only for the Twitchathon, but for my bird photography life was seeing all these birds take flight at once in a sea of dangly legs and beating wings….bloody awesome!!!Dan had to drag me away as the conditions were perfect for photography and heaps of subjects.

Next stop was Walka Water Works at Maitland, with a quick detour via Ash Island for Native Hen and Crakes (No Hen). Walka was another gold mine with all the Grebes and endless ducks like Grey and Chestnut Teal, Shoveller, Pink-eared Duck (tick), Pacific Black, Wood Duck and Musk Duck. Other ticks were Yellow-rumped Thornbill and Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo. In total 24 species were recorded by us at Walka. Back to the car and off to Blue Gum Regional Park at Minmi where we found a few birds. Scarlet H/E, Satin Bowerbird, Mistletoebird and Golden Whistler among them. Time was now getting away and we needed to squeeze in a lunch break so we stopped at Subway for food and also to update the main sheet again.

One more stop at Ash Island (still no Native Hen) then on to the Wetlands Centre where we finally found a Native-hen. Buff-banded Rail and Magpie Goose were the last two significant sightings before handing in our sheets at 4pm.

In total the Horny Frogmouths found 127 species of which most were actually seen, not heard. Biggest miss for the event was the common Sparrow. Rarest bird was Striped Honeyeater (we think it was rare), and the funniest moments were Dan telling me were to look for a certain bird “it’s in that big green thing” aka a tree.

I called a White-necked Heron and a black balloon a raptor, and Dan’s eye shine of a Boobook that was a possum.

New birds at my doorstep

2009-10-30T13:30:00.002+11:00

I live directly opposite a forest, yet I always found it fairly quiet with regards to bird species. Maybe I am becoming more aware, or maybe it is seasonal but today I found species I had never seen or heard in there. New birds of the forest were, Rufous Whistlers, Red-browed Firetails, Brown and Yellow Thornbills and Variegated Fairy-wrens.

Tomorrow is the start of the 24 hour Twitchathon (The big bird counting race). My team 'The Horny Frogmouths' will be travelling all around the Lower hunter in search of birds. I will be happy if we can spot 100 species for the 24 hours as we are both confessed 'non' birders and will be relying on sight more than calls to identify. No doubt my next post will be about the event, so stay tuned. :)

Walka Water Works

2009-10-25T20:13:00.004+11:00

Walka Water Works is near Maitland and is a great place to see lots of birds while the family enjoy a picnic. I went for a visit yesterday and experienced heavy overcast to ruin photography moments and ended up with more encounters with Kangaroos than birds. Thought I had a new bird today but it just turned out to be a female Scarlet Honeyeater, a species I first saw a couple of weeks ago but at the time only the stunning male.

Shhh...I'm hunting Pelicans.

2009-10-17T21:15:00.003+11:00

Went out this morning targeting Pelicans for a calendar I am making. Hit the jackpot with a large collection of birds in a small area plus a great sunrise producing some nice light. Of course the other birds also got some time in front of the lens too :)

Blue Gum Regional Park

2009-10-13T20:44:00.003+11:00

Another outing on Sunday after some average weather for a week. Saw my first tick only minutes into the trip when we saw a Regent Bowerbird way up in the tree tops.

Rufous Whistlers are out in force and also saw a Rufous Fantail (haven't seen one for almost a year). Positively ID'd my first Varigated Fairy-wrens and saw my first Scarlet Honeyeater! Wow what a stunning little bird and probably the highlight of the morning.

Twitchathon is now less than 3 weeks off. For a non-twitcher, I am quite excited about the event, but as long as you enjoy the outdoors and of course...birds, then a bit of friendly competition, while looking for feathers can't be anything but a good adventure.

5 ticks in 5 days

2009-10-05T21:17:00.003+11:00

Edging ever closer to 200 species on my list that was started this time last year. On Thursday I saw Black-tailed Native-hen, Spotless and Baillon's Crake in one pond on Ash Island. I got a terrible ID shot of the Native-hen and went back today but did not see it. Today, Dan and I did some scouting in the lead up to this year's Twitchathon and we found Brush Bronzewing and Bar-shouldered Dove.

Less than four weeks until Twitchathon. It's a first for Dan and myself and we know we aren't contenders, but it'll still be fun to go chasing birds for 24hours.

Strange Buddies

2009-09-29T20:44:00.003+10:00

5 minute stop at the Sandspit today yielded a nice find. A Red Knot and a Pacific Golden Plover resting together on the water's edge at high tide. They looked tired and didn't do much at all. Maybe they are new arrivals from the north, had fed up and now wanted to sleep.

Baby birds and Forest friends

2009-09-23T19:53:00.002+10:00

Very little time for outings lately. I think I have spent two hours in two weeks with the camera and am looking forward to a good outing soon.

Springtime of course and our little Red-capped Plover chicks are growing up fast. Mums and Dads are still very watchful of course :)

Had a quick trip into the forest across the road from home and found species I never see in there. Spotted Pardalote for one, though they never came down from the canopy. One keen visitor was a Yellow-faced Honeyeater.

Waders and cute little ones

2009-09-07T21:24:00.003+10:00

Gave myself a Father's Day present yesterday by going to look for waders at Stockton Sandspit. No new waders seen however the Red-necked Avocets were back in force.

Many pairs of Red-capped plovers seemed to be sorting out their nesting areas and I was happy to see the first Red-capped chick on the Island running around looking very cute and fluffy.

The Eastern Curlews gave me lots of in-flight photo ops which is nice as they are so hard to get close to.

As per usual the Raptors were chased away way to soon by Lapwings. Another highlight of the day though was seeing Dolphins in the river in a feeding frenzy not twenty metres off the beach while I was there! Very cool to see!

Strange behaviour

2009-09-07T21:13:00.003+10:00

Well if you have already seen the picture you are probably thinking "that's not strange, they're copulating!" Well I knew that but the way they do it is highly amusing.

I saw these two Purple Swamp Hens doing what they do to make babies but what I found funny was the fact that the male virtually runs on the spot while on her back. It was like a scene from flashdance but without the leg warmers as he madly went from long gangly foot to the other until he was finished.

As the comic book guy on the simpsons would say "Funniest sex act, ever!"

2 new ticks

2009-09-01T21:03:00.002+10:00

Today saw the second of my two new birds so I will start with it first. Flushed this Latham's Snipe while trying to get a better shot of a White-necked Heron. This guy must have only just got in from his migration but I am glad he stopped by for me to see him 'at work'

The next, or first tick was a Southern Boobook taken in Newcastle near the John Hunter Hospital. No idea if this is a nest hollow or just a roost but there were two Owls in the same area and this one stayed in the hole. To play it safe, we got a couple of shots and left them alone. I was happy just to see it, so no point stressing them out and disrupting hunting etc.

Quiet day

2009-08-22T20:29:00.003+10:00

Not a birding day, but I took my camera into town while doing my banking. Stopped at the pond next to McDonalds in Raymond Terrace to try my luck. Normal birds in residence, lots of ducks, geese, Swamp and Moorhens, ibis, spoonbills and night herons. The Geese were being very grumpy with each other so they must be feeling frisky.

Kooragang Dykes

2009-08-16T20:23:00.003+10:00

Had a few hours leave granted to me by the family so I headed for Stockton just before sunrise. I visited the Sandspit (as I do) but it was fairly quiet. In fact it was so quiet I had more photos of pigeons than anything else. Tom, aka the king of the sandspit came out to do his usual excellent work at the 'spit and we went for a walk to see how the Red-capped Plovers were going. We found two pairs nesting ands a total of three eggs.

After that cool find I headed for the the other side of the bridge to look for Marj's Chestnut-breasted Mannikans. Didn't take too long although they proved a job and a half to photograph. While On my belly I had several visits from Grey Fantails as they looked for their breakfast.

With the tide going out I decided to head out onto the dykes to see what lived out there. No waders on the dykes was a surprise since they weren't at the Sandspit either. Maybe they are at Ash Island???? Anyway a few common birds like Pelicans, Darters, Ibis, Kingfisher and Cormorant. Didn't get stuck out there because of a freak high tide, but definitely a place to revisit.

Hoot!!!

2009-08-14T19:48:00.002+10:00

With the assistance of a fellow bird photog I got to photograph my first owl while spotlighting on Ash Island, near Newcastle. This cool Barn Owl was perched in a tree near the road when we found him/her, but when we stopped it flew to a higher branch where it remained long enough for both of us to get some photos.

Kitchener Pardalotes

2009-08-09T20:21:00.003+10:00

Took a mate out to see the Regent Honeyeaters and Spotted Pardalotes at Kitchener yesterday. Only 3 Regent Honeyeaters still in the area, but lots of Pardalotes in nesting mode. Spent lots of time trying to photograph the busy couples. Nearly impossible to get the in flight, especially coming out of the nest, which they do with much speed and unexpectedly. Both the male and female are continually bringing in nesting material which in this case is strips of bark fibre.

Morisset - Raptors and Parrots

2009-08-07T15:32:00.003+10:00

Went out yesterday morning to see how the Osprey pair at Morisset were doing. Left home nearly two hours before sunrise as I wanted to be set up before the birds were active, and minimise disturbing them. I set up my hide in the paddock and shivered (it was 2.9 degrees) in the dark awaiting light and action.

The pair were up early too and had copulated twice before the sun was up then went fishing before I had even got a photo. Not a lot happened for a while so I went elsewhere looking for other birds while the Ospreys sorted themselves out. A few regular birds seen and also a couple of birds that I had no decent photos of. My new bird photos were the King Parrot and Long-billed Corella (who were busy preparing a nest hollow).

I returned to the Ospreys after about an hour to find the female in the nest and the male just arriving with a huge fish that was still fighting and keen not to be bird breakfast...no chance of winning that fight.

Got some cool photos thanks to the female missing a landing and having to do a lap of the paddock, flying right over my head to check me out. I left them to be after about 30 minutes and headed home.

About 5 minutes from home I saw a juvi White-bellied Sea-Eagle land in a tree in the local dam so I went through barbed wire and chest high grass to get some photos of him too.

All in all a great morning out :)

Woop! New birds-a-plenty!

2009-08-05T19:22:00.003+10:00

Had a fantastic day yesterday exploring Werekata NP, naer Cessnock and also Walka Water Works, near Maitland. My goal for the day was to see Regent Honeyeaters, which I did. However I didn't expect to see so many new species. I almost couldn't keep up. In total 110 species were recorded in 8 hours but the new ones for me were...

Brown-headed Honeyeater

Fuscous Honeyeater

Yellow-tufted Honeyeater

Regent Honeyeater

White-naped Honeyeater

Scarlet Robin

Fairy Martin

Blue-billed Duck

Hoary-headed Grebe

Great-crested Grebe

Had some great 'behaviour' moments too including finding Spotted Pardalotes at their nests and a Musk Duck doing his mating routine...way cool to see and I feel lucky (no pun) to have seen it.

Gerygone...finally!!!

2009-08-01T21:24:00.004+10:00

Very early start today. In fact it was too early, as I was sitting in the carpark at Stockton Sandspit and it was still dark and starry. Once the light started to appear I headed for the main pond with my bag hide and set myself up to see what would turn up. Early birds were White-faced Heron, Little Egret and Great Egret. An unexpected visitor on the scene was a Swamp Harrier who proceeded to scare everything else away.

With nothing on the pond, I went for a walk to the beach side via the track along the mangroves. A few hundred Red-necked Avocets were roosting in the shallows along with Bar-tailed Godwits. Having seen what was happening on the beach I decided to try again for the little Mangrove Gerygones that have always denied me a clear photo. 20 mins later and I had 3 photos.

A pair of Juvi White-bellied Sea-eagles and a Whistling Kite were patroling the sandspit too and being a nuisance as they constantly disturbed the roosting birds.

Blackbutt and Newcastle Baths

2009-07-31T20:55:00.003+10:00

Thanks to a fellow bird friend (Marj), I went off to discover a section of Blackbutt Reserve that I never knew existed. While I was there at a bad time for taking photos I did manage two new birds in the Golden Whistler and the Hardhead duck. Sulfur-crested Cockatoos were everywhere making there normal ruckus and whipbirds and bellbirds made their own noise (although much nicer to listen to). Still having an hour or so to play, I decided to head for Newcastle and the famous Ocean Baths to try for some flight shot practice with the Terns and Gulls. I found a mixed bunch of birds on the concrete on the far side of the baths, that were resting peacefully so I pulled up some concrete a few metres away and started snapping. Less than 3 minutes into my happy time, some peanut decided to ride his bike around the pool and of course right through the resting birds! They took to the air and moved away and while I tried to photograph their departure the cyclist stacked his bike on the slippery surface where the waves crash over the edge. A big thanks to Mother Nature for delivering such swift justice. :)

Another bonus for the day was a Peregrine Falcon in of all places, Mayfield. Sitting on a TV antenna of a house!

Birds seen today...

Magpie

Crow

Magpie Lark

Pelican

Sacred Ibis

Straw-necked Ibis

Laughing Kookaburra

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Eastern Rosella

Bell Minor

Native Minor

Australasian Grebe

Hardhead

European Starling

Pacific Black Duck

Australian Wood Duck

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Black Swan

Crimson Rosella

Eurasian Coot

Dusky Moorhen

Golden Whistler

Lewin'sHoneyeater

Spotted turtle-dove

Rainbow Lorikeet

Crested Pigeon

Silver Gull

Crested Tern

Little Pied Cormorant

Peregrine Falcon

Home and Stockton

2009-07-21T20:46:00.004+10:00

Sorry for the slow update but my blog did not want to let me add anything new for a while.

Well after a disastrous Pelagic adventure (for me) where seasickness was the order of the day, I have managed a few reasonable outings and encounters at home. On the home front we have been invaded by Galahs. Each day we are getting up to 20 at a time calling in throughout the course of the day to feed. They allow me to get fairly close, within 3 metres, which has given me some good portrait opportunities.

There is at least one Peregrine Falcon living near my home....I think. On two occasions now I have seen a single Falcon hunting the Rainbow Lorikeets as they enter or leave their forest roosting areas. The highest point in town, a water tower, is only about 400m away and I have now started to monitor it for signs of the speedy visitor.

A couple of short outings to Stockton in search of White-browed scrubwren and Mangrove Gerygone have proved fruitless, photographically, but I have heard the scrubwrens and had fleeting glimpses of the Gerygones so I won't give up. Speaking of Stockton I saw a male Red-capped Plover there on Sunday. This is the first i've seen in a few months so maybe they are coming back from their winter getaway. I hope so.

Quiet day

2009-07-05T20:36:00.003+10:00

Went to the movies today, Transformers 2 :) and dropped in to the local ponds for a look-see. Typical bunch of birds hanging out waiting for scraps, Swamp Hens, Moorhens, Ducks, Geese, Ibis, Spoonbills, Egrets and Night Herons.

A brief visit from a Juvi Sea-eagle before it was chased away as usual.

Next weekend will hopefully see me out at sea looking at Albatrosses, or is that Albatrii???? Fingers crossed for good weather and no burley from me.

Around town

2009-06-29T19:11:00.005+10:00

I tried a second time this weekend to photograph the Powerful Owl but ended up with nothing. However the weekend was not a total write off. I found two new birds on my outing to Belmont Lagoon. The first was a small flock of Spotted Pardalotes, which unfortunately were up on a power line in dark early morning light and the other was a pair of Striped Honeyeaters.

Still lots of White-cheeked Honeyeaters at the Lagoon and they were getting pretty fiesty, maybe over territory???

Saw plenty of Yellow Thornbills, Silvereyes, Red-browed Finches and Wattlebirds and as usual missed getting shots of the big birds of prey :( at one point I was under the canopy as a mature Sea-eagle swooped over while being chased by a crow. They can't have been more than 5 metres above me and you could hear the power of the Eagle from the "whoomf" of the wing beats. Shame the trees blocked a photo, but it looked and sounded cool.

Also came across 3 Eastern Spinebills also having a dispute, and while the action was fast and furious, I managed to get a shot of one while it took a break and watched the other two.

A brief expedition

2009-06-27T08:10:00.003+10:00

With an hour and a half spare I decided to head to the creek, up from Blackbutt Reserve, near Lambton. My plan was to go and see if I could find the Powerful Owls that live in the area. I visited a known roost tree but there was no sign of any Owls being there for some time. Since I couldn't let the opportunity to photograph go to waste I looked around a bit more.

Lots of Eastern Yellow Robins in the canopy but none were willing to come out for a photo. Several Grey fantails were seen but even they were timid. It was fairly dark in under the canopy so I headed for the main track where I saw, and poorly photographed, a couple of Eastern Spinebill. During this time I heard a Powerful Owl calling further down the track and set off quickly in search of it, however the calls stopped and I had no chance of finding it.

Did find a new bird today :-) A pair of Brown Cuckoo-Doves hiding up in the shadows of a tree. Many other birds seen including Lewin's Honeyeaters, Some mystery Honeyeaters way way up in the canopy, King Parrot and Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Oh and I heard a mystery bird which I am guessing was a Raptor or an Owl as there was this fearsome screaching coming from across the creek.

Back at home we had 4 Red-rumped parrots and the usual Rosellas and pigeon at the feeder.

More rain

2009-06-19T15:06:00.004+10:00

Well the rain has settled in again for what looks like another week. I'm over the wet stuff, even if it is Winter, I don't care!!! Well there's my whine for the day. Anyway here are a couple of regulars from the backyard, photographed from the dryness of the dining room.

The Eastern Rosella was puffing himself up to keep the others away from his feed. Never seen them behave in this way before. The Rainbow Lorikeet, well he's just soaked :-)

In search of Kingfishers

2009-06-14T20:06:00.005+10:00

This morning I ventured out to photograph the young Sacred Kingfishers at Stockton Sandspit. I have seen them several times and had started to see a routine in their hunting so I decided to try my luck. Using a bag hide I positioned myself near two of their favourite hunting perches. My reward did not take too long at all, in fact it took just 4 minutes before I got my first photo. This one is holding a Soldier crab that it snatched off the mud.

Lots of little birds in the adjoining mangroves including Mangrove Gerygone, Superb Fairy-wren, Silvereye and Yellow-rumped Thornbill.

On the way home I got my first sighting of an Australian Hobby, so my day was a great one for bird photography :-)

Stockton Sandspit - 90 minutes of chasing

2009-06-12T21:01:00.005+10:00

Yet another short outing but it needed to be done since the wind had died down. Headed towards the Sandspit as it was 'on the way' to my next task. On the way in I saw a Brown Goshawk across the road, I quickly pulled over, grabbed the camera off the passenger seat but it took so long to et a break in traffic that by the time I got across the road it was out of range.

Plenty of Superb Fairy-wrens at the Sandspit, and the males are back in there iridescent blue breeding plumage. Several Black-winged Stilts, a Pied Oystercatcher (the young one with the foot injury) and a Great Egret were hunting in the main pond. Afternoon light is a pain for photography here but I persisted and got a photo or two of the Egret before he moved on.

Saw a solitary Richard's Pippet and a few Lapwings as I walked towards the beach. I found a couple of relaxed White-faced Herons to snap, and a long off shot of a young Sacred Kingfisher who, while I was moving slowly closer, dived and picked up a crab from the mud and disappeared in to the mangroves.

saw several other birds of prey, including Eastern Osprey and Immature White-bellied Sea-eagle. The young Bar-tailed Godwits flew over from the Dykes for a bath and a snack so they got their pictures taken because they too were unusually approachable. On my way back towards the car I encountered a small harem of Fairy-wrens and in among them a few unfamiliar birds. At first I thought Mangrove Gerygone, but once I got a look at them I found they were actually Double-barred Finches!

These were a first for me (as a wild bird) so I got my ID photos for a record before heading out on to the road again. So a quick stopover gave me an added tick in my bird log at what I thought would be a quiet Sandspit. :-)

Raptor Day

2009-06-08T20:00:00.004+10:00

Went out to Stockton for a couple of hours this afternoon to satisfy my photography itch. Mixed up weather with sun, cloud and rain alternating constantly. Saw heaps of Raptors up today. Brahminy Kite, Osprey, Adult and Juvenile White-bellied Sea-eagles and Peregine Falcon. Got my first ID shot of the Peregrine even if he was about 50 metres above me on a roof.

Saw my first Chestnut Teals and Gull-billed Tern out on the Sandspit.

Quiet otherwise on the 'spit, even the Pelicans were bathing before bed time :)

Two new sightings

2009-06-06T19:49:00.002+10:00

Today was a short stopover at Bulahdelah, NSW in search of the Radjah Shelducks. These birds are usually found across the top end of QLD, NT and WA, however two were found way down south and have stayed on for a while. Only saw one of the reported pair (hope the other is OK), and only saw it by chance as I sat in the car about to head home. Also saw White-headed Pigeon (a first for me) and finally a photo of a Blue-faced Honeyeater. Also saw Grey Fantail, Eastern Spinebill, Red Wattlebird, Superb Faiy-wren, Dusky Moorhen and Australasian Grebes.

Hooray, the sun is back!!

2009-06-05T15:19:00.003+10:00

Finally the sun has returned and given us a pleasant change from cloud, wind and rain. No plans for birding today, but I did have errands to run, so I packed the camera for my drive to the shops. So many Eagles out soaring today around the dam. I missed out on some close photos due to smaller birds chasing them away. I am destined never to get a good photo of those birds. :-(

After shopping I diverted to a nearby wetlands near the local McDonalds. Nothing amazing (the wetlands that is) but always guaranteed seeing several types of bird. Today found Australian Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis, Eurasian Coots, Dusky Moorhens, Night Herons, Royal Spoonbills, Red-rumped Parrots, Willie Wagtails and more feral ducks and Geese than you can throw a bag of bread at.

A chilly day out

2009-05-31T20:08:00.004+10:00

Well to celebrate the last day of Autumn, Grant (birder extraordinaire) and I went on a photo outing taking in Belmont Lagoon, Awabakal Nature reserve and Newcastle.I will list our sightings at the end otherwise it'll take all night to type this. After a week of constant rain and an uncertain forecast, we thought "stuff it" and decided that we would try and take some photos. After meeting at Maccas Belmont for a quick warm up drink we headed out into the Lagoon. Things started off quiet bird wise but a couple of light showers and a strong cool breeze would not deter this duo and the quest went on. Through wild untamed grasses and round deep impassable puddles we trod in search of Emu-wrens and other feathered prizes.After a while the sun did break through the clouds for short periods and we were treated to some wonderful sights. Though the weather played havoc with the gathering of great photographic booty, we were treated to a near front row seat for an Eastern Osprey hunt which involved a huge belly flop into the canal as it chased its breakfast....it missed this time but as it flew over the mangroves we saw it dive yet again. Fingers crossed he got what he was after.

Sightings for Belmont Lagoon included.

Brown Thornbill

White-cheeked Honeyeater

Southern Emu-wren

Superb Fairy-wren

Little Wattlebird

Little Pied Cormorant

Great Egret

White-bellied Sea-eagle

Black-shouldered Kite

Brown Falcon

Eastern Osprey

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Striated Heron

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Lewin's Honeyeater

Silvereye

Azure Kingfisher

Spangled Drongo

Brown Honeyeater

Next stop for the day was Awabakal Nature Reserve, near Redhead, just South of Newcastle. This place looks like an awesome spot for Springtime and I can't wait to go back. When we got there Grant spotted an unusual sight when he saw a Crow with a golfball in its beak! He went to get a shot but it was chased away by anothe bird, although it hung on to the ball Grant and I part ways soon after entering the narrow track as he was on a mision for Emu-wrens and Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. This place was alive with little birds but does challenge you to get good clean photos due to the enclosed nature of the track. Strong winds and a little shower stopped us getting too deep into this walk, plus we had another place to be later in the day. Upon packing the cars we headed for Newcastle to grab lunch and our next birding location.

Birds seen at Awabakal.

White-bellied Sea-eagle

Tawny-crowned Honeyeater

Southern Emu-wren

New holland Honeyeater

Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Whipbird

Eastern Yellow Robin

Last stop of the day was Newcastle, to join members of the Hunter Bird Observers Club on their Seawatch. Parked below Fort Scratchley we stood in freezing wind and looked for sea birds.Though not much of a photographic experience we did see some cool birds. Lots of Australasian Gannets were diving for food just off the coast throughout the outing, but the highlights were three Giant-Petrel (unsure if Southern or Northern), heading North close to the coast, and further out several Albatross were spotted including Black-browed Albatross.

Birds seen on the coastline

Australasian Gannet

Giant-Petrel

Silver Gull

Black-browed Albatross

Australian Pelican

White-fronted Tern (?)

Crested Tern

Australian Kestrel

That's all folks. Tomorrow is Winter....Can't wait.

Birds home delivered!

2009-05-24T16:11:00.000+10:00

This weekend was supposed to be terrible with lots of rain and wind, so I decided earlier in the week that I would not go photo-ing any birds and stay home with the family. Well the weekend hasn't been too bad and today has been quite good so I have been quietly cursing the weathermen for their dodgy report. Obviously my presence was missed as we have had many visitors to the feeders in the backyard. The usual suspects (Eastern Rosellas, Crested Pidgeons and Spotted turtle-doves) were in abundance but a rare treat in the arrival of five Sulphur-crested Cockatoos had me crouching in the family room snapping photos through the window.

We also decided to take the kids for a walk to the shops and of course I packed the camera in a backpack for 'just in case'. Going past one of the stormwater catchment ponds I saw an Australasian Grebe. It was a fair way out but I will have to revisit for a better photo.

Can only hope that all no bird photo outing days are this productive :)

Belmont Lagoon and Morriset

2009-05-21T22:17:00.001+10:00

Destination: Belmont Lagoon
Where??? Just south of Newcastle, NSW

The weather looked average as I drove south to my destination, but there was nothing that would stop me from christening this shiny lens by pointing it at something feathery. A quick stop at Maccas for a hot chocolate and then down to the lagoon. I was not alone for this outing and met up with a fellow photographer as it’s always good to have someone to back up your stories.
Off we trod in search of birds. After spooking a Great Egret and several Cormorants, we came across lots of White-faced Honeyeaters and Silvereyes just waking up and getting active as the sun poked it head over the horizon. After recently hearing a report from this area, our first targets were hopefully to be Southern Emu-wrens.

It was very cool when we actually first saw the Emu-wrens flying across the track with their long, six stranded tail feathers flailing behind them. It was the first time I had seen these birds before and we quickly settled in to try and get some photos. These birds were very reluctant to come out into the open but we did manage a few photos. A quick about turn and we headed off down another track, which seemed too quiet and didn’t hold much hope for seeing anything. Luck was on our side however and we saw White-throated Treecreeper and yet another first for me, Azure Kingfishers. What a stunning bird! No hope of a photo as they darted quickly up and down the creek, but still a great sight and we made a pledge to return at a later date with a hide to try and get some photos. Still many Silvereyes flying around but time was running short for my friend who was suffering from a case of ‘under the thumb-it is’ and had to be home only a couple of hours after we started. A gentle poke in the side and some persuasion got him to stop off again at the spot we saw the Emu-wrens and we took some more photos before heading back. At the car we had a last minute photo opp with two Welcome Swallows and a White-faced Heron.
I was not under instructions today and had a day pass to enjoy myself, so I headed further south to loop around Lake Macquarie to Morriset where I was looking for Ospreys. I entered the paddock where I knew there was an Osprey nest and was happy to see one of them on the tree.

A short warning cry let me know that my arrival had been noticed. The bird was a little tentative and did not hang around too long, but I managed a few photos before it decided to go fishing. Not wanting to sit and wait I walked a short track and found yet another new bird for the day, in the form of the Mistletoebird. What a cute little bird with a striking red chest and a very inquisitive nature.

Also encountered some Red-browed Firetails (Finches) and a few Superb Fairy-wrens to top off the walk. As the sun was high overhead, I decided to head towards home via Stockton where I practiced a few flight shots with the Silver Gulls and had no hope of photographing another Osprey that was high above and riding the breeze.
An enjoyable outing with many new sightings and some cool photos to boot.

A new beginning

2009-05-21T21:11:00.000+10:00

Welcome to my first ever blog entry.

This blog, as the name suggests, will be dedicated to my adventures and discoveries while attempting to photograph Australian birds. Though work and family prevent me from snapping feathered friends 365 days a year, I will do my best to update after every outing that is worthy of a story (and a photo).

I need to start sorting myself out and get my first trip written up, so I hope to see you back in here real soon, otherwise if you don't I am just telling myself what I already know. :)

Lucky