Top Birds & Everyfing

The Long Paddock

The Old Blighty has well over one percent of its land mass devoted to roads even considering most of the rural roads are barely wide enough for two draught horses to squeeze past one another, however that made them excelent for highway robbers. As a matter of interest, highway robbers rode horses which made them a cut above your common or garden brigand and so it was far more preferable to be robbed by a highwayman.

A Jacky Winter in flight showing off its tail pattern. Moira Forest NSW.

Meanwhile back in Australia... long before what alternated between interminable stretches of muddy tracks or blistering hot dustbowls got the entitlement to be called roads, were wide corridors of land where drovers and bushrangers could move their cattle and sheep from place to place, some of which they actually owned... the cattle and sheep that is! They needed to be wide enough to provide grazing for the stock on their journey. When drought came they also provided grazing land for the local cockies... and so they became known as the "long paddock". These days the long paddock brings utopian images of bucolic drovers moseying along on their horses, across the wide open spaces of the Australian outback under bright blue skies with the cattle moo-ing their way peacefully as they went off to be slaughtered at some distant meat works or stolen by another gang of bushrangers or these days taxed out of existence by modern day bushrangers.

The mountainous and craggy bark of the Red Iron Bark tree. Also known as Mugga Ironbark Eucalyptus sideroxylon. They grow in infertile soils in areas of low rainfall and sometimes can be seen on the long paddock. The dark black bark of the Red Iron Bark is contrasted with red fissures of amber coloured sap; gives the name of this distinctive eucalyptus.

Australian has just under one million kilometers of unmaintained and deteriorating roads and only about a third of them are paved and no one really cares how much of the continent are roads. Unlike the country lanes of Europe, Australia's country roads are much wider, less crowded and have grassy verges more than wide enough to swing a cat. Incidentally, they say that the inspiration for the idea of painting a stripe down the middle of the road to separate the traffic came from someone travelling behind a milk truck that was leaking a trail of milk down the centre of the road. No doubt many cats got run over in the aftermath.

None of this as anything to do with what I was supposed to be writing about! Moving on... I had a bucolic meander across NSW and Victoria... as they say in Texas... big hat - no cattle!

Evening reflections in the dam at the Honeyeater Picnic Area... it's full, but not a lot of bird activity... a solitary Australasian Grebe and some Scarlet Robins and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters.

It sort of began at the Chiltern - Mt Pilot National Park on the way from Canberra with a evening visit to the Honeyeater Picnic Area and the following brisk morning in the northern section of the park at Ryans Road and Klotz Track. Not a lot of bird activity in the forest at this time of the year, the usual hoardes of maraurding honeyeaters were having a holiday and there was little evidence of flowering Iron Bark and Grey Box to keep them there.

A slightly unkempt Fan-tailed Cuckoo on Magenta Rd. While the forest was generally quiet, groups of mixed species hung around together as they do...

Driving west from Chiltern there was lots of standing water, lakes and ponds full and roadside ditches brimming with water.

Similar to a previous post I made about finding large numbers of birds congregating in and around an ephemeral pond beside the highway in western Victoria a few months ago; I once again came across large numbers of birds on two adjacent ephermeral lakes; this time beside the Midland Hghway north of Bendigo. One was just to the west of Greens Lake and the other at Horseshoe Lake just a bit further to the south down Darrigans Rd. The nearby more permanent lakes... Lake Cooper and Greens Lake had by comparison much less birds. On these shallow bare looking ephemeral lakes there were large numbers of Australian Black Swans, rafts of Australasian Grebes, coots, cormorants, ducks of various sorts and a few other odds and sorts such as twenty or so Red-necked Avocets.

 

Horseshoe Lake. Rafts of Coots... about 1,500 of them... a couple of hundred Australian Black Swans, Australian Pelicans, Little Black Cormorants were among the other birds found here.

Travelling north from there I made my first visit to the Moira Forest after crossing the Murray at Echuca and following the old stock route north along what is now the Cobb Highway. This highway follows one of the traditional "long paddocks". The sealed highway is bordered on each side by a very wide grass reserve bigger than most European farms. The long paddock features widely in the literature and poetry of Australia.

    Now this is the law of the Overland that all in the west obey,

    A man must cover with travelling sheep a six-mile stage a day;

    But this is the law which the drovers make, right easily understood,

    They travel their stage where the grass is bad, but they camp where the grass is good;

    They camp and they ravage the squatter's grass till never a blade remains,

    Then they drift away as the white clouds drift on the edge of the saltbush plains.

                                         Banjo Paterson

The Cobb Highway sits on the top of a fault line that got in the way of the Murray River and created a huge floodplain; swamps, lakes and wetlands in now what is the largest red gum forest in Australia. It's part of the Bahmah - Millewa Forest; the Bahmah Forest is on the Victorian side of the River Murray and the Millewa forest is on the New South Wales side. The Moira Forest is part of the Millewa Forest. It includes Red Gum forests, Black Box and Callitris Pine.

Red Gums growing in the wetlands of the Moira Forest. 

About forty White-faced Herons were roosting in this one dead tree in the Moira Forest among White-necked Heron, Great Cormorant and some Straw-necked Ibis.

 

Miranda Shorebird Centre - Ramsar 459

Against the backdrop of clouds rolling across the shallow waters of the Firth of Thames is the old hide at the Miranda Shorebird Centre.

The shell banks at Miranda are an example of Chenier Plains which are a series of shell banks interspersed with mudflats and are a rare landform globally. 

The shell banks and the mudflats are ideal hight tide roosts for shorebirds. Bar-tailed Godwits; many changing into breeding plumage, and Oystercatchers are among the many birds that are found in the area.

The Wrybill, Anarhynchus frontalis, is an endemic bird of New Zealand and is the only bird that has its bill bent sideways. It is a frequents visitor to the mudflats at Miranda. It breeds on the wide braided rivers of the South Island.

Behind the shoreline are a series of shallow lakes much used by waders, ducks and herons.

The White Heron, to give it its New Zealand name, feeds among the shallow water and mangroves.

Bar-tailed Godwits take to the sky on a dark grey morning. Miranda is the site where the famous E7 departed at 8:00 a.m. on the 17th march 2007 for Korea and Alaska. She returned to Miranda on the night of the 7th September, 2007 after a non-stop 8 day flight from Alaska. The round trip was a 29,000 kilometre flight and is a remarkable achievement of endurance and navigation.

Readers may wish to see my previous posts in the science link of this blog for a discussion on navigating by compass and celestial navigation, as well as some ideas on how birds may navigate over vast open Pacific Ocean.

Bird species seen on a brief visit to Miranda were, Pukeko (Purple Swamphen), Black Shag (Great Cormorant), White-fronted Tern, Red-billed Gull (Silver Gull), Pied Oystercatcher, Variable Oystercatcher, Turnstone (Ruddy Turnstone), Spur-winged Plover (Masked Lapwing), Banded Dorrerel (Double-banded Dotterel), Wrybill, Pied Stilt (Black-winged Stilt), Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Lesser Knot (Red Knot), White Heron (Great Egret), White-faced Heron, Grey Teal, Grey Duck (Pacific Black Duck), Australasian Shoverler, Australasian Harrier (Swamp Harrier), Kingfisher (Sacred Kingfisher), Welcome Swallow, Australian Magpie, Dominican Gull (Kelp Gull), Blackbird, House Sparrow, Myna and Common Starling.

Sandfly Creek - Mackay - Queensland

Sandfly Creek is just down the river from the centre of Mackay and was close to where I was staying over the weekend. It's great to see conservation areas set aside so close to towns, especially for visitors. I was only in Mackay for a short visit so I managed an early Saturday morning walk along the path which goes alongside a mangrove forest, tidal river and grasslands. The tide was high so there were a few waders in close; Eastern Curlew; Whimbrel, Greenshank and Pied Oystercatchers and a Nankeen Night Heron.

 

Immature Channel-billed Cuckoo... I wonder what bird was it's host parents. 

A loud screeching found me staring up at a immature Channel-billed Cuckoo which was great because I don't get to see them that often. My books indicate their hosts include Pied Currawong... the last time I had seen Channel-billed Cuckoos was on the waterfront at Wollongong right beside a busy road. There was two adults in a Norfolk Pine tree harrassed by a pair of Pied Currawongs. One of the Cuckoo's was in the Currawong's nest. It consumed three eggs whole... it picked the eggs up one by one and down they went. The other Cuckoo then came down and swallowed the fourth one. No chicks for that pair of Currawongs.

 

Mangrove Honeyeater. A far more attractive bird than it's Singing relative. I particularly like the bold yellow face and the blue eye.

I decided to go to Sandfly Creek to find some Mangrove Honeyeaters and there was plenty of them there although they seem fairly shy compared to Singing Honeyeaters. I like their blue eyes. Red-backed Fairy-wrens were in plentiful supply, the males perched high on the grass stalks.

 

Non-breeding Golden-headed Cisticola...

I always get the grass birds mixed up but I reckoned there were lots of non-breeding Golden-headed Cistacolas. They were flying overhead, calling loudly, rapidly flicking wing beats, then descending into the grass. Below is a photo I took in Timor Leste a few years ago. Both Zitting and Golden-headed Cistacolas are found in Timor Leste and Indonesia.

 

This photo was taken in Timor Leste I believe is a Zitting Cistacola... the slightly raised tail and spikey hairdo... ideas anyone?

A lone Pheasant Coucal flew past carrying on a bit...

 

I've got much clearer phtos of Pheasant Coucals but the underwing pattern of this fuzzy bird appeals to me.

 

Adelaide’s Sore Thumb Conservation Cove.

 

Mutton Cove Conservation Park. Site of historic ship wrecks, birds and industrial development. Severely degraded by since European Settlement is now in need of extensive restoration.

When I’m back home in Adelaide I don’t get much time to go bird watching. There is alway more jobs lined up than you can shake a big stick at. So, when a small window appears and I can escape for a few hours I head north up the beach from my home, past historic Port Adelaide and up the Le Fevre Peninsular to Mutton Park Conservation Reserve. Its a great place to go bird watching... close to the centre of Adelaide, not too big, no crowds, not even anybody... a reasonable number of birds... what more could you want? Well when it comes to Mutton Cove, lots...

 

A Rock Parrot sitting on mangroves at Mutton Cove.

The Le Fevre Peninsular stretches north from Port Adelaide, bounded on the west by the Gulf St Vincent and to the north and east by the Port River. It’s a low lying finger of land much used for large scale industrial purposes, a process that grows even bigger today with the expansion of port facilities at Outer Harbour and the massive development of the Techport Australia project to build air warfare destroyers and potentially new submarines. All of this is fine, if Australia wants to develop more industry, it has to put it somewhere.

 

Mutton Cove has the last remaining samphire on the Le Fevre Peninsular. Brown Songlark sighted here in January 2012 was the first of this species seen here over my visits of the last few years.

Tucked away in one small out of the way corner of the peninsular is Mutton Cove, the last remaining samphire flats and mangrove woodland on the peninsular. It’s a small piece of natural estuarine landscape, albeit severely degraded since european settlement, in an otherwise industrial landscape. It probably owes it’s existence more to being abandoned as useless rather than because of the farsightedness of some sagacious person. Over the years it’s been a dumping ground for rubbish, old cars, waste and all manner of degradation. Fortunately it was rescued before it was totally reclaimed and is now a conservation reserve. However today, it still appears to be a wasteland despite the efforts of community groups and volunteers who have laboured long and hard to remove rubbish, plant shrubs and improve facilities.

 

Contaminated area suffering from past unregulated dumping and reduced tidal flows and tide heights with which to flush the Cove properly.

The Cove was once part of the Port River tidal inlet and as such its estuarine habitat was subject to the natural tides of the river. Some time ago the whole area was largely isolated from the main tidal flow by the construction of a sea wall. Since then a limited flow of sea water into the Cove occurs through some inadequate piping that allows sea water to flow in during flood tides and drain out on the ebb.

 

The sea wall which separates the Port River and the Cove. The pipes just visible under water only allow a portion of the incoming tide to flow in restricting tidal range and flushing. This wall needs to be breached with a bridge that allows full tidal flow.

As you would expect, the sea level in the Port River rises for several hours during the flood tide, covering the intertidal zone until it reaches its high tide. However within Mutton Cove, because the pipes restrict the flow, by the time the river tide is at its peak the Cove level is still much lower, by a half metre or more. When the river tide falls, initially the tide continues to flow in for a short time until the the river level and the Cove level are the same and then outflow begins, again lagging behind the river tide.

 

Waders frequent the Cover. These Red-necked Stint are resting on the river side of the sea wall.

There are two major effects of the restricted flow into the Cove. First the intertidal zone has less depth because the full extent of the tidal change is never achieved and secondly there isn’t sufficient flow in and out to flush the Cove properly. This means that the distribution zones of the intertidal plants species is different to the natural surrounding inter-tidal area and the reduced flow causes algal blooms lie in decomposing beds alongside the waterways, altered salinity and high contaminant levels.

 

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper foraging inside the Cove.

To add to this the whole reserve is unsightly; weeds abound, piles of rubble from past dumping still are much evident; the pathways, fences are in poor repair and scattered blocks of concrete, tyres and other rubbish are scattered about. Oozing contaminants seep into the samphire from the industrial waste that was dumped there in the past. Many of the plants that volunteers laboriously planted to improve the Cove have died through lack of care. All in all, it’s sad to say is what you often expect to see at an out of sight - out of mind nature reserve.

 

Beside Mutton Cove new buildings as part of the $10 Billion Techport Naval Hub are extensively landscaped and maintained.

All around the Cove there is evidence of the ten billion dollars that is being spent on the Techport development which has been labelled as Australia’s premier naval industry hub. Among all the huge development of buildings and shipping facilities the developers have done extensive landscaping and planting of native flora. It’s a different world on the other side of the fence in the Cove which by comparison languishes as an unwanted and unsightly backwater. It’s like a sore thumb!

 

The Australian Submarine Corporation and the new airwarfare destroyers are neighbours. Even though Mutton Cove is surrounded by industrial development it's value as a nature reserve should not be discounted. Many plant and bird species exist within the reserve.

According to the spin, the opening of the Techport was attended by the US Ambassador and the Deputy Secretary of Defence and delegations from Spain, India, Germany and Israel have already visited Techport... I hope they kept the visitors away from seeing Mutton Cove.

 

Australian Crake tears across the mud into the shelter of the shipwrecks. New species for me at the Cove.

Some of those ten billion dollars needs to be spent on restoring Mutton Cove to its natural state and improving the facilities to confirm with locals and visitors alike that we here in Adelaide care as much for our natural environment as we do for industrial development.

So, what more could you want for Mutton Cove? For starters the sea wall needs to be breached so that the natural tidal range can be re-established. The majority of the sea wall should remain because it provides a good walkway, but it needs a buttressed bridge under which the tide can flow unimpeded. The facilities in the Cove need to be brought up and maintained to the same standard as the Techport infrastructure surrounding the park with proper pathways, fences, hides for viewing bird foraging areas and rest facilities for visitors.

The less than salubrious entrance to Mutton Cove. Hardly condusive to being a neighbour of a centre of excelence.

It is well past the time in which industrial and government stakeholders of Techport need to take the leadership and responsibility for what is an important conservation reserve in their back yard. After all this should be a premier nature reserve reflecting its surroundings, not an embarrasment!

For those who would like more information on Mutton Cove an “ Environmental Management Plan - Mutton Cove, South Australia, produced by Faith Cook and Peri Coleman - 17 December 2003 is available on the following link.

http://www.deltaenvironmental.com.au/archives/Mutton_Cove_web.pdf

Anyway, anyway, anyway...back to those jobs... well they say you’ll never empty your in-tray, the to-do list just gets bugger (freudian slip)... so my goal when they ultimately cart me away in a box to the knackers yard... the in-tray and the to-do list will still be overloaded but my bird list will hopefully be looking better than today... well that’s the plan. Dreams are free!

And a final thought... a name change would be good. Mutton is not exactly an inspiring name although it's appropriate in its current state. Given its aboriginal heritage I'm sure a more appropriate name could be found.

 

 

Massed Coots at Never Never Land

An idealic scene in Western Victoria... trees, dry grass and a small waterhole.

Never Never land is featured in my childhood memories of J. M Barrie’s works as the dwelling place of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys... and a half magical bird called the Neverbird... which I don’t as yet have a “tick” in my Moleskin.

It’s also the name of a remote area of the Outback in Barcroft Boake’s poem “Where the Dead Men Lie”.

The Never Never... the outback north of Meekatharra. Mt Augustus is on the horizon. It is the world's biggest rock... two and a half times bigger than Uluru.

Out on the wastes of the Never Never -
That's where the dead men lie!
There where the heat-waves dance forever -
That's where the dead men lie!

Somewhat morbid but moving on...

Never Never also features in “We of the Never Never” which is an autobiographical novel by Jeannie Gunn about the author’s experiences at Elsey Station in the Northern Territory near Mataranka... a little out of the area in question...

Henry Lawson, who has to be Australia’s best poet... wrote about never-never in his poem “The Never-Never Land”

It lies beyond the farming belt,
Wide wastes of scrub and plain,
A blazing desert in the drought,
A lake-land after rain;
To the skyline sweeps the waving grass,
Or whirls the scorching sand-
A phantom land, a mystic realm!
The Never-Never Land.

The flooding rains experienced in Western Victoria in January 2011 at the end of a decade long drought I suspect filled what would have been a very dry and fairly insignificant lakebed where Never Never Road joins the Western Highway at Gerang Gerung west of Horsham in the Wimmera. While Western Victoria is not quite “beyond the farming belt” during the drought it would’ve been thought so by an overflying Neverbird.

Australasian Grebe... always seems to turn up whenever a few drops of rain get together to form a waterhole of some sort.

Driving past there during the last few days (December 2011) this small lake still has water in it albeit getting lower. The drying is evidenced by the hard mud edges to what is now a pond of only about 200 metres long and around 50 metres wide. What made me pull up in a hurry was the honking number of birds concentrated on this pokey little waterhole considering it was such a relatively wee, half pint, teeny-weeny area with little or no reed beds or other apparently supporting habitat.

I counted 270 Eurasian Coot, 170 Grey Teal, 22 Hardhead, 18 Australasian Grebe and 7 Black-winged Stilt... which is oodles of Coots.

The same waterhole... under the magnifying glass is massed with Coots, Grey Teal, Hardhead, Grebes and Black-winged Stilt.

One of the pleasures of observing nature are the multitudes of apparent enigmas in the surprising behaviours and distribution of wildlife. I can only assume that what looked like a fairly ordinary ephemeral waterhole was brimming with prey... and for me... my usual state of discombobulation!

 

December Birds In “Red Dog” Country.

 

The Miaree Pool west of Karratha. A hundred or so Plumed Whistling Ducks rest of the banks.

The last time I was in the Pilbara was this July, 2011 when "Red Dog" had its premier in Karratha. Because this was a short visit I just kept to my usual haunts... the coastal strip at Nickol Bay east of the township of Karratha and the Miaree Pool on the Maitland River west of Karratha. No doubt the Red Dog had been there looking for his mate...

 

A mixed bunch of waders arriving at their high tide resting site at Nickol Bay, Karratha.

December is generally not regarded as the most pleasant time to visit the Pilbara, especially if you are hotness adverse or bush fly adverse, but so far this year it has been surprisingly cool and according to the Old Mate only a half a million bush flies to the acre.

 

A Pheasant Coucal foraging among esturine mangroves.

For bird watchers this year has been a great time to be along the northern coast of Australia (and everywhere else) because of the abnormally high rainfall over the last year or so. For instance, the BOM website gives the average rainfall to December for Karratha as 273 mm (10 inches... so it’s arid) and the total for the year up to December in 2010 as 55 mm... parched! So far this year (2011) a total of 765 mm has been recorded, almost three time the average and fifteen times the 2010 total. As I write the first cyclone of the 2011/2012 season (Cyclone Alenga) is dispersing north west of Australia without touching land... always gets everyone’s attention in the Top End.

 

A very relaxed Magpie Lark...

2011 has been an exceptionally wet year across the length and breadth of Australia. South western WA was last on the list and finally got it’s rains by midwinter. So for the first time in I would imagine, many many years the whole of the Australian continent was green. Right across the normally arid areas of central and northern Australia high rainfall has turned the desert verdant. Some parts of central Australia instead of being its usual dust bowl looked like a cow paddock. In the Pilbara there are still many pools of water lying in the creeks and rivers where most of them would normally be bone dry.

 

While there are not so many as there was earlier in the year the Sturt Desert Pea is still in flower. This one looks like the head of the "Red Devil", not a "Red Dog".

At this time of the year the migrating waders are well established in their southern hemisphere summer habitat. Across the several thousand kilometers of coastline along the top of Australia there is an almost boundless expanse of mud and sand flats exposed by the high tidal movement... up to 10 metres in places. Most of this area is remote and difficult to access. It is almost impossible to get a handle on just how many birds are potentially out there but at least here in Karratha it is not too difficult to get a taste... and a hunger to explore further.

 

White-plumed Honeyeaters were very active around the Miaree Pool. These northern birds seem to have a large dark eye and a pale bill.

Nickol Bay boat ramp is a great coastal location to visit for both a richness of species and abundance of birds and is only a few minutes from the centre of town. It has a bustling interface with the wide expanses of tidal mud and sand flats out to sea, the mangroves that fringe the coast in many places, the estuaries of mangroves, samphire and open mudflats; and the grasslands, shrubs and rocky outcrops immediately behind the coast.

 

Singing Honeyeaters are common along the coastal fringe.

The Miaree Pool is under the North Western Coastal Highway a short drive west of Karratha. It is one of the many places where the Maitland River flows down over rocky outcrops into a series of wide and deep pools. The banks are fringed with tall eucalypts, reeds and shrubs. Triodia spinifex grasslands and sparse acacia bushes cover the surrounding undulating hills.

 

Whistling Kites, Black Kites and Wedge-tailed Eagles are frequently seen at the Miaree Pool area.

The Pilbara, while's its probably not on the "hot spot" bird watching map is a really interesting destination for bird watchers looking for something a little bit different and who enjoy exploring areas that are off the beaten track. Who knows... you might see a red dog!

Waterbirds At Gluepot

Mallee at Gluepot Reserve at Picnic Dam. abundant growth after good rainfall seasons has benefited the whole reserve.

 After a month in Italy... lakes, quaint villages, mountains, Duomo’s (cathedrals), Sacra Monte (Sacred Mountain) heavenly risottos pizza and seafood... yummy... good as it was, what I needed more than anything was to sit under a gum tree, breathe the fresh scent of the bush and see the southern stars by night. So, after a visit to the grandkids and a quick mow of the lawns it was off to Gluepot. The last time I went to Gluepot was August 2009 when it was still in drought. And has it changed since then.

 

Mallee re-generating after the 2006 fires. A good spot for Rainbow Bee-eaters who can sit on the high dead branches watching for prey.

If you haven’t been to Gluepot then you need a good talking-to. Gluepot is just one part of a huge band of conservation mallee reserves that stretches from NSW around AWC Scotia, across the border into South Australia that includes Dangalii Conservation Park, Calperum Station, Taylorville Station to mention a few. It’s a must see!

Central Bearded Dragon on the road into Gluepot

Now if you are thinking that it’s too hot to go to Gluepot in November and December, then think again. The weather right up to Christmas does get hot, but between the hot days there are always fantastic days when the cooler air blown up from the southern ocean cools South Australia... and the days are longer too. It must be a secret because I was the only person camping on the reserve... how peaceful after the madding crowds of Milano.

A Rainbow Bee-eater taking advantage of the uninterupted view from the high perches available in the burnt areas from the 2006 fires.

Driving in from the Morgan Road what was most noticeable were the large number of Woodswallows. They were in good numbers throughout the whole reserve. They were flying overhead in large groups, feeding on the ground and congregating in large groups in trees.  It seemed to start with that they were all Masked Woodswallows and were probably the most abundant, but there were still lots of White-browed and a few White-breasted.

A few of the seventy mostly juvenile Black-tailed Native Hen foraging around a flooded area at the Old Gluepot Dam.

To start with I headed west to the Old Gluepot Dams. Even though the dams on the reserve have been bulldozed the rains have filled the remaining hollows into ponds of varying sizes. At the Old Gluepot Dam there was a large number of mostly juvenile Black-tailed Native Hens, along with Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Grebes, Pink-eared Duck, a solitary Hardhead and a Coot. A White-necked and a White-faced Heron were also in attendance. Kangaroo Dam had Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Grebes, a few Black-tailed Native Hens and a Hardhead on its much smaller pond area.

Pink-eared Duck and a Coot... unusual visitors to Gluepot. At the Old Glue Dam.

By the end of the first day the winds had died away and the night was still and quiet. The next morning dawned clear, cool and not a breath of wind... I needed my jacket. I had camped at the Babbler camp site just east of the Visitors Centre. The sun was just appearing through the trees as I began the South Babbler walk. It was so utterly tranquil and lots of birds. The track starts in Casuarina, crosses a low sand dune and into mallee. Hooded and Red-capped Robins, Bell birds calling, Mulga and Ring-necked Parrots, Grey Currawong and a gorgeous male Splendid Fairy-wren.

A Masked Woodswallow, one of the many woodswallows seen all over Gluepot and surrounding areas. (Species corrected to Masked Woodswallow - thanks Helga)

Back to the camp... infused the air with the aroma of cooking bacon that I’d got from the Adelaide Central Market before I left, some free range eggs... gallus gallus and then the North Babbler Walk.

Brown-headed Honey-eater at the South Babbler Walk.

Broke camp after and Emu parade to see what I’d left lying around and headed for home via Picnic Dam, Kangaroo Dam and Old Gluepot Dam.

The absolutely fabulous Splendid Fairy-wren at South Babbler.

The White-breasted Heron was at Kangaroo Dam and the ducks, minus the Pink-eared were still at the Old Gluepot Dam.

Adult White-browed Woodswallow.

Well... after sitting under a gum tree, breathing the scents of the bush and gazing at the myriads of stars, not to mention a good selection of birds and particularly water birds my visit to Gluepot restored my inner being and helped overcome the jet-lag. But it still left me pondering why and how water birds would come to Gluepot when in reality there was not much water there. Black-tailed Native Hens numbers seem to have exploded everywhere you look. I even saw a couple down at my local beach a Seacliff foraging around a permanent spring that flows out of the base of the cliff. The puzzle continues...

A White-necked Heron at Kangaroo Dam at Gluepot. Another uncommon visitor.

 The full species list and comments can be seen on http://www.eremaea.com/Lists.aspx?List=102950 and http://www.eremaea.com/Lists.aspx?List=103078

 

An Aussie Bird Watching In New Jersey

 Hurricane Irene brought flooding to many parts of Eastern USA. A saturated Morristown west of New York City had flooded roads, fallen trees and power blackouts as the cyclone came ashore in New Jersey.

Well someone has to do it. Morristown, is about an hour’s train ride west of New York City nestled among the rolling forest covered hills of New Jersey. General George Washington and the Continental Army made the town and local area the military capital during the American Revolutionary war of independence from Great Britain.

 

 Two trucks submerged at Morristown, New Jersey.

Our first day in town there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered south of us in Virginia. Maybe it was the jet lag or maybe from growing up in New Zealand and living in PNG (pidgin - guria) where earthquakes are common, but neither of us noticed it occurring. The locals certainly did. However we did notice Hurricane Irene which arrived a couple of days later. Although the expected storm surge and high tide that threatened much of low lying New York City and New Jersey didn’t eventuate to the degree anticipated, the heavy rains caused lots of flooding inland. The strong winds and already saturated ground caused lots of trees to fall.

 

Eastern Kingbirds at the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge. Kingbirds are tyrant flycatchers... they don't look like despots...

The electrical power failed in Morristown and many places elsewhere. The power wasn’t restored in our hotel for four days... lots of cold showers and picnics.

 

A couple of Wild Turkeys take-off in formation from a roadside at the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge.

Anyway, the many roads and railways that were closed due to the flooding or being blocked by fallen trees caused lots of disruption and postponement of any ideas of traveling; even locally. However, things got back to normal and and birding began when I had some spare time off from work.

 

A group of Semipalmated Sandpipers huddle behind some esturine grasses to shelter from the wind. The is a half a Ruddy Turnstone on the left and one and a half Semipalmated Plovers on the right.

Most of New Jersey is covered in beautiful deciduous forests. Most of the housing, office and commercial properties are nestled among trees and surrounded verdant green lawns. Oddly then for bird watching, there is surprising how few birds to be seen. Our first visit to the Great Swamp Wildlife Reserve yielded only a few species... Gray Catbirds, A Great Blue Heron and some swallows. On a hill north of the town called Fort Nonsense... where George Washington built a lookout to keep his troops busy during the coldest winter in living history... we had better success seeing Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, White- breasted Nuthatches and American Robins which are only called robins because the have the orange chest colour of the european robin but are really a thrush.

 

A Double-crested Cormorant identified by the yellow above and below the eye. Cape May area.

So, we took the long journey down to Cape May for the day. Cape May is on the northern tip of Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is a birding mecca for migrants and bird watchers. It was a cold and windy day.

 A Green Heron at Cape May.

Not only is there the coastal sand dune habitat but large areas of swamp, water logged wetland, and estuary behind the sea coast. On the coast were Great Black-backed and Laughing Gulls, Royal and Sandwich terns, an Osprey and circling Turkey Vultures. On the lakes and estuaries we saw Great and Snowy Egrets, Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, American Oystercatchers, Greater Yellowlegs and Double-crested Cormorants. Despite the large areas of water very few ducks were seen - the American Black Duck was the only duck seen for the entire trip.

 

A early model Forster's Tern at Cape May. They have a distinctive eye patch and brown wings when young.

We drove back in pouring rain, paying our dollar road toll every few miles. One last trip to the Great Swamp before we left saw a few bush birds but again surprisingly few. Maybe it was all the rain, or the time of the year, but other than Cape May where birds were plentiful, bird life is quiet and requires lots of looking around and plenty of patience. Never-the-less, gorgeous country and friendly relaxed people made being in New Jersey a pleasure.

 

A Whale of a Time Birding in Karratha

Whimbrel's enjoying a rest on a warm morning at high tide; Nickol Bay Karratha

Rang up the old mate in Canberra the other day as you do. You, dear reader, would be doing me a outrageous injustice thinking that I’d rung him up just to broach the subject of the Canberra's winter weather, knowing that up in Karratha on the north west coast of Western Australia it was a pleasant 26°C and down there even the Koala’s were suffering uncontrollable fits of shivering under the combined effects of snow, ice, fog, freezing winds and blizzards... enough to make Emperor Penguins emigrate.

Tempted, as the old mate must have been to slam down the phone in my ear he did reluctantly admit about the low cloud and the rain and the fog and the ice and something about being colder than a well digger’s arse on the Klondike... or have I used this metaphor before somewhere... 

Anyway, it was only because I’m a card carrying member of “The Cloud Appreciation Society” that prompted me to share with him that from where I was standing I could just make out off in the distance above the flat blue tropical sea the faintest indication of a cloud in an otherwise a perfect blue sky. And I felt compelled to add that there was unlikely to be much in the way of clouds for the rest of the day because there was only a light breeze barely sufficient to raise a ripple on that flat ocean and it was likely to stay this way until November and this being July; not to put too stronger emphasis on it.

I was just beginning to share what a fantastic morning it was for bird watching, strolling along the beach gazing out across the mirror like sea to the islands in the distance, and what a birding hotspot this was when the line went dead... obviously I’d walked into one of those mobile phone black-spots... Canberra must still be having one of those prolonged outages because I rang the old mate several times afterwards and he doesn’t seem to be answering... maybe his blackberry is frozen.. 

So, I thought I’d pass on what’s happenning on my blog so the old mate won’t miss out on the good news. Moving on... according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and they never tell whoppers, Karratha has had an unseasonably wet year in 2011. Last year by the end of June, 2010 there had been about 30 mm of rain. So far this year we have had over 700 mm. Now that the dry has arrived the normal hazy dry season atmospheric conditions are absent this year due to the lack of bushfires and dust blown from the interior. The sky is a dazzling blue everyday and the stars are resplendent at night, gleaming as bright and clear as my eyes and conscience...

 

Many Little Egret over winter along the northern coast of Australia and why wouldn't you.

Moving on... The Sturt Desert Peas are flowering in profusion and the spinifex is seeding like mad. Out on the ocean Humpback Whales are having a whale of a time on their way northwards on their annual migration evidenced by great splashes and broaching of the surface. Birds too are enjoying the seasonal bounty. There is no mutiny on the bounty here.

 

A Nankeen Kestrel doing pilate's in the morning sun.

A Western Bowerbird hissing, fizzing, wheezing, jeering, booing, rasping, cackling and giving three quarks at the Nankeen Kestrel above in the same bush before flying off into the mangroves.

Cuckoos have arrived; Black-Eared, Horsfield's and this Pallid being welcomed by a Willie Wagtail.

A Sacred Kingfisher surveys the scene pleased not to be in Canberra. There I go again... downright  and unashamed anthropomorphising...

A not so shy Buff-banded Rail pokes about under the mangroves.

Cute little Yellow White-eyes are exuberant companions when I walk along the mangroves along with all the other birds that bring pleasure to an early morning walk.

Maybe, I was being a bit insensitive to the old mate, laying it on a bit thick... but I’m sure I had to get him back for something... probably blatant overuse of the Borromean Knot... real, symbolic and imaginary.

 

Karratha WA - Coastal Bird Watching Areas

 

Sunrise over Nickol Bay, Karratha. At low tide there are extensive areas for waders to forage.

Karratha is a mining town in the north west of Western Australia and named after the cattle station on which the town was built. Constructed from nothing in an outback paddock to service the iron ore, offshore gas and other resource industries of the Pilbara region; it has that dreary and non-de-script mundaneness of a town planned to house workers.

 

Old man mangroves fringe the coast.

Currently Karratha is booming, houses sell for more than a million dollars and rents are well over $100,000 a year... and that’s not a typing error.

 

Yellow White-eyes are seen everyday in the mangroves and adjacent shrubs and are often associated with Mangrove Grey Fantails.

Unless you are one of the escalating number residents or FIFO’s (fly-in-fly-out’s) for the burgeoning resources sector, then Karratha is one of those places you are going to stumble on if you are meandering your way across the top of Western Australia going somewhere else. It doesn’t rate as tourist destination, just a stop on the way and you probably wont stay too long other than to see the world’s largest, longest and heaviest trains hauling iron ore, gaze over huge gas plants and pay too much for everything.

 

The delightful Mangrove Robin. Usually well hidden in the mangroves but not shy once discovered.

It has even less of a reputation for bird watching. Unexpectedly it is a profitable area for bird watchers to stop and do some exploring.

 

Rainbow Bee-eater snaps a dragonfly from mid-air and then removes it's wings.

Like most of Northern Australia the rise and fall of the tides during the full and new moons are significant. At Karratha the tidal variation is not quite as grand as the lycanthropy inducing ten meter tides that you get in the King Sound at Derby but all the same substantial at five to seven meters. The coastal topography is low lying with extensive estuaries and long flat beaches so when the tides are at their extremes there are large areas alternatively flooded and exposed.

 

A female White-breasted Whistler. Quietly forages on the ground among the mangroves. Bangs snail shells against hard objects, even man made items such as beer bottles, to crack them open.

Those balmy moons spark off totally overrated and underwhelming “stairways to the moon”, but more importantly, for birds anyway, almost immeasurable expanses of exposed mudflats, along the almost unending beaches and among the extensive mangrove forests in the sheltered coves and estuaries, for birds to feed on. There is so much coastal habitat along the northern Australian coastline most of which is hardly visited. So while Broome and Roebuck Bay are celebrated as birding hotspots, Karratha is just about as good and is more accessible.

 

The Pilbara coast around Karratha has extensive areas of mangrove and mudflats ideal habitat for many birds that is adjacent to grassland, small shrubs and rocky outcrops. When King tides occur, as shown here, the mangroves are inundated.

Brendan the Navigator, a 5th century Irish navigator set out on a long and arduous voyage and discovered Ireland. “Paddy! I’ve just discovered a new land. Aye, Brendan, and it looks just like Ireland.”

 

Mangrove Grey Fantails are common birds foraging in and around the mangroves. Very similar to the Grey Fantail however their dark breast band is a lot narrower.

Karratha is as green as Ireland at the moment so here are the directions on how to bird watch in Karratha without getting too lost.

 

Little Corella's are common around Karratha and gather in flocks of hundreds.

So, for a look at some coastal and mangrove areas take the Searipple Road to the east past the Karratha High School where it becomes Mystery Rd. Continue along Mystery Rd until the mystery ends at the Nickol Bay boat ramp. It's only about 7 km from the centre of town.

 

The less than salubrious Western Bowerbird's bower. Bits of broken bottles,a  sardine tin lid and some shells.

Either side of Mystery Road is grasslands and shrubs with rocky hills in the distance and is worth a look. From the boat ramp you can walk or drive, albeit on undulating but accessible tracks further east along the coast. When the tide is out a wide expanse of mudflats are used by many waders but you need to squelch your way across the mud to get close. As you go further east an extensive and presumably ancient forest of very large mangrove trees fringe the coast. Behind the large mangroves is a large estuary of smaller mangroves and open mud and sand flats which is flooded regularly on the King Tides.

 

A Western Bowerbird hiding in a dense yellow flowering acacia. The pink nuchal crest just visible.

My sightings over May and June 2011 are reported on the Western Australian section of Eremaea Birds at http://www.eremaea.com/ . The following gives an idea of the usual birds to be encountered but many others can be seen also. My list for the area is in excess of 70 species.

 

Most of the common migratory waders can be seen foraging on the mudflats during the low tides and among the mangroves. White-bellied Sea-eagles, Brahminy Kites and Nankeen Kestrels can be seen practically every day as are Great, Eastern Reef and Little Egrets. Mobs of Little Corella’s are seen all around Karratha, and this year hundreds of Budgerigars were seen heading east along the coast and occasionally a few small groups of Cockatiel’s.

 
 A White-breasted Woodswallow. They are usually gregarious but just a few are found most days foraging on the sand along the beach.

In the mangroves Yellow White-eyes and Mangrove Fantails are seen everyday in small groups usually foraging together.. The unobtrusive and quiet White-breasted Whistler hides among the mangroves although my first contact was hearing one banging a snail shell on a discarded beer bottle. Mangrove Robins are another occasional quiet achiever. A Dusky Gerygone was seen in the mangroves.

 

In June 2011 Desert Peas are in bloom all around Karratha.

A couple of Western Bowerbirds hang about a certain large yellow flowering acacia. The male has an untidy and sparsely decorated bower in the acacia and can be regularly heard rasping and meowing away from the depths of the bush.

 

A juvenile Nankeen Night Heron stands motionless looking for a meal.

Plenty of Bar-shouldered, Peaceful, Diamond Doves and the odd Crested Pigeon forage around among the shrubs beside the beach. Collared Kingfisher feed on the mudflats and Sacred Kingfisher in the scrub. A few Rainbow Bee-eaters hawk from the mangroves. Pied Butcherbirds sing morning duets and Magpie Larks are everywhere. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes are common as are White-winged Trillers. When the tide is high Crested, Lesser Crested and Caspian Terns wait on the rocks just west of the boat ramp among Pied Oystercatchers and a sprinkling of Sooty Oystercatchers.

 

And for the train spotters the world's largest, longest and most powerful trains bring iron ore to the coast. Soon these trains will be driverless.

There is usually a few White-breasted Woodswallows sitting on the mangroves or feeding on the ground. For a couple of days in May huge numbers of Masked Woodswallows made their way east along the coast.

So, don't forget Karratha.