Pelagics: Gould's Petrel, Black-winged Petrel, White-necked Petrel

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... our first pelagic for the year. I have a love-hate relationship with pelagic birding - I love it, it hates me. Well, actually, to be more specific, its mostly just the Southport pelagic that hates me. You see, I get seasick. Sometimes. Actually, mostly just off Brisbane. In the boat that we use for the Southport pelagics. Its true, I don't seem to get sick anywhere else, or in any other boats. So signing up for the February pelagic this year, I knew there was a chance it would end badly for me. The week leading up to the pelagic was ideal. There were two storm cells approaching the region, one from the north over the ocean, the other from the south, also over the ocean. The prevailing wind was from the south-east, originating in the seas north of New Zealand. All this combined to mean that seabirds would be concentrating in the ocean off Brisbane, culminating on Friday night, the day before the pelagic, when conditions would begin to ease, allowing us to get the boat out. And that's how it panned out. Winds were 10-15 knot south-easterlies, swell was 2.5 - 3m. It was pretty rough, for Southport, and with the nasty cross-currents that the area is known for the boat was tossed around a bit like a cork in a washing machine. Or at least that's how it felt to my stomach. Needless to say, two seasickness tablets had little effect, and I was sick as a dog all day. That about covers the "worst of times", however, despite this challenge, the perfect lead up produced a near perfect day bird-wise. We had everything we could have hoped for and more, with 3 lifers for me, and 13 year birds all up, all of them difficult to get any way other than on a boat.

We started the cruise out well, with the occasional Pomarine Jaeger mixed in amongst the Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed Shearwaters. We had one Hutton's Shearwater do a flypast on the way out. When we reached the continental shelf things started to get really exciting. Our first petrel of the day was a Black-winged Petrel, a good rarity for Australia and my first lifer for the day. This was joined by a second, and then by a Gould's Petrel, another cookilaria-type petrel, and my second lifer for the day. The action didn't stop, with Tahiti Petrels joining in the flurry, and then a flypast from a Kermadec Petrel which fortunately approached on the side I was throwing up over, because otherwise I probably would have missed it.

After about half an hour of watching the cookilaria petrels circle the boat, we decided to head over to a flurry of activity we could see about a kilometre away. This turned out to be a flock of a few hundred shearwaters, but sadly, the petrels didn't follow us over. We did start to pick up oceanic terns, with Sooty Tern being almost common through the day, and later on a single Bridled Tern making a pass by the boat. A Great-winged Petrel did a couple of fly-bys of the boat before disappearing - another good local rarity. Through this section of the day I missed several White-necked Petrels that passed us well back from the boat. We finally ran out of time and started heading back, and I was feeling pretty good about two lifers and a whole bunch of year birds. But the excitement still wasn't over.

On the cruise back we finally had a White-necked Petrel cruise close by the boat, affording another photographic opportunity, and my third lifer of the day. Further on, we had Lesser Frigatebirds circling over the water near a pod of offshore Bottlenose Dolphins and some Common Dolphins, all of which came and rode our bow wave for a while. The Bottlenoses, nearly twice the size of the Commons, chased the little guys away pretty quickly, but they did put on enough of a show for me to confirm Common Dolphin as a cetacean lifer for me. Not done yet, the day had one more surprise in store, with a White-tailed Tropicbird coming off the ocean near us and making a near-complete sweep of tropical pelagic species that can be seen off Brisbane.

Andrew managed to get one back on me, as I had seen Wedge-tailed Shearwaters in my disastrous sea-watch a few weeks ago. This brought our totals back to within four of each other. It does mean I'm pulling out of the March pelagic - the massive success of the bird list we came away with, coupled with the debilitating sea-sickness mean I don't want to step on a boat until winter, preferably late winter. We'll see how we go.

Total birds to date: 273

Photo 1: Black-winged Petrel
Photo 2: Gould's Petrel
Photo 3: White-necked Petrel
Photo 4: Common Dolphin

http://southportpelagics.wildiaries.com/trips/286

Long-billed Corella, Peregrine Falcon

I ducked into the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland yesterday afternoon with a few administrative things I had to do there, but also with a mind to finding what is probably my second most contentious feral bird for the year. Long-billed Corellas have been around and breeding in the western suburbs of Brisbane for many years, certainly longer than the ten required to meet the standard twitchers' guidelines. It still feels a little wrong to include them on a list. I suppose this is because they are a native Australian parrot, found wild in the border country between South Australia and Victoria. Because they are a native, and clearly an escapee, I think introduces a mental barrier to ticking them that doesn't exist for something like a House Sparrow, whose native range is in Europe. Nonetheless, in this quest for 350 species I can't afford to be too choosy, and if I say Long-billed Corella isn't allowed I would really have to drop Common Starling, Common Myna, House Sparrow and Nutmeg Mannikin from my list also, plus wouldn't be able to add Common Blackbird when I find one. That's 6 species off the total, which I can't afford. I of course left one feral out of that list, one which I'll address in another post. That feral is Northern Mallard, the most contentious feral on the list and one I may or may not add for different reasons.

I'm not sure how difficult most people find telling Little and Long-billed Corellas apart, but the two species make very different calls if your ears are tuned in. I found my first Long-billed Corellas in a flock of a few hundred Littles within five minutes of stepping out of my car. It was a mum feeding a baby, with dad in a nearby tree looking on, so in some ways that helped alleviate my twitcher's guilt as it was proof that they are breeding in the wild up here. I completed all the other things I had to do and was heading back to my car when all the Noisy Miners in the area started clamoring. For those of you who have birded the east coast of Australia, you would know that Noisy Miners make great raptor alarms, and sure enough, a dark shape was cruising overhead. A dark shape which quickly resolved into a Peregrine Falcon, a new bird for the year and my first for the St Lucia area! So a simple afternoon doing some administrative tasks turned into a two-bird day, possibly my last in the Brisbane suburbs. It's all uphill from here...

Total birds to date: 260

Black Bittern, Brown Goshawk

This morning I went for a walk through my local rainforest rehab plot to see what might turn up. Sadly, the council were mowing the park, so the noise prohibited birding by ear, and also meant it was unlikely I'd luck onto a Bush Hen. Butterflies were going crazy in the are, with hundreds of Blue Triangles flying around, as well as lots of other species present in smaller numbers. In the rainforest plot I did manage to see my first Golden Whistler for the season, and a family of Varied Trillers (dad, mum and several immatures) were chasing each other through the trees, calling like mad.

I came to the park for two species, and with Bush Hen being out of the question, thought I'd try my luck at Black Bittern. Heading up the creekline through the forest, I flushed something from down low which got my heart racing. When it perched in the canopy I realised it was a young Brown Goshawk, a year bird for me, but certainly no equal to bittern in terms of excitement. But all was not lost, as another hundred metres up the creek I put up a mid-sized dark bird from the edge of the water - Black Bittern! This is only my second record for the site. They move to the coast during the winter months, so I'm hopeful it might stick around for the season, but I guess we'll see.

After heading back out to the grassy area I skirted the new plantings and picked up a Leaden Flycatcher, another unusual bird for the area. All in all, a highly successful morning.

Total birds to date: 258

Photo 1: Varied Eggfly
Photo 2: Common Flatwing
Photo 3: Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Wildiaries trip report

Shining Bronze-Cuckoo and Varied Sitella

Andrew and I headed out to Samsonvale this morning to get some birding in and hopefully clean up a few easy and not so easy bush birds that can be found in the area. Before we began, Andrew wanted to see the Nutmeg Mannikins I found earlier in the week. Thinking this would be a quick and easy get for him, we headed up there early in the morning, only to have to wait 45 minutes before they finally came out in the open enough for a positive identification. Such is birding! At least Andrew came away with a new bird for the year. Samsonvale was surprisingly slow when we got there, and didn't really pick up all morning. We ran into Steve Murray at the cemetery on Gold Scrub Rd, another local birder, and he said he had only found 38 species since 5:30am. With Steve we headed off to look for some bush birds, and the first interesting thing we found was a White-throated Nightjar walking across the path in front of us! This was a very unusual find - not only are these birds nocturnal and shouldn't have been active, but the bird was walking and I've never heard of them doing this before. Sadly it flushed off the path without us managing to get a photograph (one step too close, very frustrating) and we weren't able to chase it into the bush. The nightjar was not new for the year of course, with out good views of the bird at JC Slaughter Falls earlier in the year, but it was the first time Andrew and I had seen one during the day, and it was a lifer for Steve, so it was probably a highlight of the day for all of us. Our next interesting find was Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, a new bird for both Andrew and I for the year. Apart from this we had some nice bush birds but nothing particularly interesting or rare. We stopped for lunch at the Buzz-Stop Cafe in Samford, owned by friends of Andrews, and once again, the food and conversation was great.

After lunch we dropped in on Roger McNeill, a friend of mine from the US who now lives in the foothills of Mt Glorious, near to Samford. He is running a B&B service out there, and his property is amazing, with birds like Painted Button-Quail and Spotted Quail-Thrush possible on the block. But today we were here to see an Owlet Nightjar that has been "reliable" in a hollow near his house. Of course, even though it was there yesterday, it was conspicuous by its absence today, so Roger has agreed to let us know when it turns up again. All was not lost though, as Roger led us down the hill near his place to look for bush birds, and we lucked onto his local Varied Sitellas, a bird that is not unusual near Brisbane, but is highly nomadic and often hard to find on purpose. We had one final surprise on our way out. Roger gave us instruction on where to try for Painted Button-Quail, and though we didn't find those, we managed to come across a very young Emerald Dove, only Roger's second record for the property. The bird was so young it still had buff lines and spotting in the wings and the metallic emerald colours they are so well known for were not fully developed. All in all this was a good day of birding, though not as productive as we'd hoped.

Total birds to date: 256

Nutmeg Mannikin

When I woke up this morning, the birds around the house were unusually vocal, so I decided on the spur of the moment to go for a quick ride to check out what was in the area. I had in mind to check a particular spot that last week had a lot of seeding grasses. It is one of only two places I know in Brisbane to look for Nutmeg Mannikins, also known as Spice Finches. These birds are introduced to Australia, brought from tropical south Asia as cage birds and readily escaping and surviving in the Australian environment on the east coast. They used to be common in Brisbane, and still are in parts of their range such as Mackay. However, I only have a handful of records from the last few years so I was extremely happy when a few pairs flew in while I was watching the grass-heads. They were surrounded by Chestnut-breasted Mannikins - another unusual bird for the area, and Double-barred Finches. Nearby a Striped Honeyeater was calling - my first record for the Mandalay area. In all I had 58 species of birds in less than an hour, so it was a very productive morning.

Total birds to date: 254

February 2nd: Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Over the weekend, several birders in SEQ took advantage of the wild winds brought on by an ex-cyclone to go sea watching. I thought I would take similar advantage and ducked up to Caloundra and Coolum for the afternoon. Sadly, I didn't do anywhere near as well as others did on my sea watching, with only Crested Terns and a few Wedge-tailed Shearwaters to show for my efforts. I did see one probable Jaeger way off in the distance, but too far to even be sure it wasn't a Common Noddy. While sitting at Point Cartwright at Mooloolaba watching for seabirds, I did have one spectacular sighting, a snake I am fairly sure was a Taipan. I've sent shots to a reptile expert I know and hopefully I captured enough information to confirm an ID. I certainly wasn't going to pick it up and count underbelly scales! On my way out from Pt Cartwright I also saw a Varied Triller, bird #250 for the year. For me this seems like a real milestone, as I'm now at the point I consider the halfway mark. The next 50 species will be fairly easy, though take much longer than the first 250. The last 50 though, will be incredibly hard, so it is really at 300 that the real slog begins.

I ducked up to Point Perry and Point Arkwright at Coolum but had no more luck on the seabird front. I did find a white-morph Eastern Reef Egret, a bird we missed earlier in the year, so that was a nice surprise. I've resolved to have another go at sea watching if conditions present themselves, but I will probably head to Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island with other birders as more eyes will hopefully have more luck. At Coolum I ducked into the heathland to pick up an easy White-cheeked Honeyeater, and then ducked out to the Bruce Highway via Yandina to have a go at Grey Goshawk, which is often on the power lines in this area, but was sadly absent today.

My final stop for the day was to head down towards Toorbul. Not to the wader roost - it was low tide. I was heading down to a little wetland just before the wader roost where I had been told Brolga might be possible. Sure enough, as I pulled in four Brolga were flying over the wetland, obviously heading to roost somewhere. What luck to arrive just as they took to the air. A few minutes later and I would have dipped on them.

So with a few new additions I've finally broken the 250 mark.

UPDATE: Heard back from my friend - the snake is an Eastern Brown Snake. Apparently the brow and neck aren't right for Taipan.

Total birds to date: 253

Photo 1: Wild weather at Pt Cartwright
Photo 2: Unknown snake at Pt Cartwright
Photo 3: Unknown snake at Pt Cartwright

January 31st part 2: Stubble Quail (Coolmunda Dam & Durakai)

The decision to head to Coolmunda Dam turned out to be a fantastic one. On the road there we stopped a few times and picked up some new year birds: Apostlebird, Jacky Winter, and for me a White-winged Triller that Andrew missed. The reason Andrew missed this bird was he was watching a very young Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo that was being fed by Fairy-Wrens (poor things!)

Further down the road still, we came across what looked like Singing Bushlarks. We actually never got to confirm this, because as Andrew stepped out of the car he flushed a covey of Stubble Quail. Fortunately for me, they flew straight towards me and I was able to track them through the air for a good 20-30 seconds. This was fortunate as I had never seen Stubble Quail before, and it gave me ample time to see all the features on the bird I needed (it was a female, if it had been a male it would have been instantly apparent what I was looking at). We tried for a while to find them again but had no luck. Nonetheless, I had great views of the bird, and after quickly referring to my field guide was happy that Stubble Quail was not only a new bird for the year, but bird #650 for Australia for me. Andrew also found a Swamp Wallaby that looked like it might have been hit by a car, but it was feeding and mobile and we would never have got anywhere near it to try and catch it. Hopefully it lives, but I suspect it will become another sad victim of Australia's wildlife road toll.

Coolmunda Dam was every bit as amazing as I remembered. Last time I was there we had Freckled Duck on the lake. Even though these were sadly missing on the day, there were amazing numbers and diversity of waterbirds present. Before we even reached the lake though, we came across some great birds in the grassland on the road in. Singing Bushlarks were calling from the fenceline, and as we stopped to watch these, we had White-winged Fairy-Wrens pop up and put on a show. Neither Andrew nor I had seen this species of fairy-wren in SEQ before, so it was a real treat to watch a breeding plumaged male strut his stuff on the fence near us. While we watched these great birds, we had Plum-headed Finches moving through the grass as well, and Grey-crowned Babblers on the fenceline. A flock of Cockatiel flying over completed the picture, another reminder that we were in a completely different habitat to anything near Brisbane. On the lake the only new species we found was Australasian Shoveler, but there were many Musk Ducks (more than 10 anyway) and a single Black-tailed Godwit was probably the most unusual find. Without the time to investigate the lake closer, we headed off, but on another visit we will have to walk the edges to see if we can find some more shorebirds.

Our final stops for the day were Cement Mills Rd and Durakai State Forest. The area around Cement Mills Rd is basically the only place in SEQ where we have any chance of seeing Squatter Pigeon, so we figured we would have a stab at finding one in the last light of the day. Sadly the wind and rain finally got the better of our birding and we didn't manage to find any. We did get a nice consolation prize of Rufous Songlark, and yet again more Plum-headed Finches, this time feeding on the roadside and even at one point on the road itself. On our way into Durakai we had our final two new species for the day with Australian Raven (which we had probably seen driving at speed before now, but we finally managed to stop and confirm the identification), and Common Bronzewing. Durakai was dead quiet apart from a pair of Leaden Flycatcher parents feeding a young bird. As the light began to fail we decided to call it quits for the day and tallied up all the amazing things we had seen in the space of only a few hours.

Total birds to date: 248

Photo 1: Singing (Horsfield's) Bushlark at Coolmunda Dam
Photo 2: Grey-crowned Babbler at Coolmunda Dam
Photo 3: Plum-headed Finch at Cement Mills Rd