Some of you may have heard, though many of you probably haven't, of a Bar-tailed Godwit called E7. This bird has made international news not once, but twice this year. She is part of a satellite tracking program aimed at following the remarkable migration that many species of Australian and New Zealand shorebirds undertake, from the southern hemisphere all the way to Siberia and Alaska, and then back again.
The story of the migration is one of the most fascinating that can be found in nature, and I will be adding a section to this website to tell it at some point. For now just understand that these birds are the marathon runners of the animal kingdom, and until recently we had only suspected how true that was.
The story of E7 began in New Zealand. She was trapped and fitted with a satellite tracking device in February at the Firth of Thames in Miranda. This gave her roughly a month to get used to the device in preparation for her long journey north.
On March 17th, she began a flight with a group of other godwits that would last nearly eight days, and covered ten thousand kilometres; 10,219km to be exact - a world record for the longest single migration leg ever recorded. This brought her to Yalu Jiang in China, where she stayed for over a month, refueling for the next stage of her trip.
In comparison to the Australia-China leg, the China-Alaska leg seems almost tame, a mere 6,459km over four days. Her eventual destination was Manokinak in Alaska, where she is believed to have nested, the goal of this massive feat of endurance. Her total journey north was a staggering 17,456kms, but this was not news. We already knew that godwits traveled from New Zealand through China to Alaska. We knew about the distance.
It was the next stage that we were unsure about. It had been suggested that Bar-tailed Godwits might, just maybe, on the return journey fly directly across the Pacific Ocean. The reasoning was that fewer birds were seen on the return journey than on they journey north. The subspecies of Bar-tailed Godwit that visits Alaska and New Zealand, race baueri, is larger and stores more fat than their western cousins, race menzbieri, who visit Western Australia and Siberia. What could this size difference be attributed to? One possibility was a trans-Pacific flight, but there was no way of knowing, because all our other information was gained from catching them on the ground, i.e. after they'd stopped flying. To prove a trans-Pacific route you would have to be with them the whole way, and with satellite technology we finally could be.
And so on the 30th of August, 2007, E7 left Alaska from Cape Avinof and began what would prove to be an eight and a half day flight, covering over eleven thousand kilometres. She crossed the Pacific Ocean without stopping, covering 11,570km in one go. She smashed her previous record by over 1000kms and confirmed an unproven, slightly crazy theory about just how amazing these birds really are. Her total journey was 29,181km.
If you want to see for yourself the path that E7 flew, along with the other birds in the tracking program, this website has a map, and a link to a Google Earth file that maps out the whole journey.
Chris
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Cheetham Wetlands and the Orange-bellied Parrot Count
On Saturday I spent a whole day in the field at a place called Cheetham Wetlands. From about 8:30 through 16:00 I was out walking and driving around one of the best urban wetlands in Australia. The reason I was there was the Orange-bellied Parrot count. OBP's as they are abbreviated to down here, are Australia's most endangered bird. There are known to be less than 200 in the wild, and the real figure could be as low as 130 individuals. There is a captive breeding program going to try and help them, but one of the largest problems is that they are migratory - they breed in Melaleuca in Tasmania's far south-west, and fly to southern Victoria and South Australia for the winter. This split lifestyle makes them very difficult to manage, and their highly specific mainland preference for saltbush (typically considered "rubbish" habitat by landowners) makes things even more difficult.
In a good year, we know the whereabouts of 20 of the 100+ individuals in winter on the mainland. At any one time it's usually considerably less. And that's where the OBP counts come in. There are four rounds of surveys organised during winter, and they run over a whole weekend. The general idea is to cover as much of the available habitat as possible, and report the places you find them (if you're lucky) and the places you don't. This past weekend, my place was Cheetham Wetlands.
While I didn't find any OBPs, I did find some Blue-winged Parrots. They are closely related, they're the same size, shape mostly the same colour (though a different set of shades of green). They're even in the same genus: Neophema. But Blue-winged Parrots are common, sometimes found in large numbers, non-migratory, and much less habitat specific. It was still great to see them - I've only ever seen them once before, as they are mostly restricted to southern Australia.
A little bit about Cheetham Wetlands. They are a conservation reserve managed by Parks Victoria, the local National Parks and Wildlife institution. Cheetham is made up of a series of artificial lagoons and one large natural lagoon, and are right on the coastline. There are two creeks running through the wetlands - Laverton Creek on the eastern boundary, and Skeleton Creek running through the heart of the wetlands. Apart from the lagoons themselves, the main habitat types on the reserve are saltbush and grasslands. They are important because they support internationally significant numbers of seven migratory shorebirds protected by international treaties, and nationally significant numbers of a further two species. They are also potential habitat for Orange-bellied Parrots, though I didn't see any, and they haven't been recorded there in recent times. The main threats to the wetlands are property developments, which are encroaching very close to the boundaries of the reserve, and illegal human use of the area for things like trail bikes, bicycles and dog walking. In an area set aside for wildlife to breed and for migratory birds to rest undisturbed to refuel for a journey to far nothern Siberia, this intrusion from humans is not only unwelcome it's dangerous to the wellbeing of the wildlife.
My day at Cheetham was a wonderful experience. I started in the morning with a quick walk beside what is known as RAAF Lake - it's next to an old airfield run by the airforce, now a strip for recreational planes and gliders. This is the site I found the Blue-winged Parrots at, feeding in the grass beside the road. I also found Pallid Cuckoos and a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo flying around and being harried by the local birds worried about being cuckolded. A sure sign that spring is nearly here. From RAAF Lake I ventured in to the reserve itself. I had previously met with the parks ranger and received a key when I signed in. To get to my search area I went through three locked gates, and drove a few kilometers in until I reached the ford over Skeleton Creek. On the way I disturbed a Red-capped Plover that was nesting. I know it was nesting because it stood up and pretended to have a broken wing, trying to lead my car away from its nest. Once I was safely past, it rushed back to the nest (a patch of gravel - the eggs were completely invisible from where I was) and sat back down to keep the eggs warm.
From Skeleton Creek I stopped briefly to count the shorebirds on one of the nearby lagoons. There were good numbers of Curlew Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers, and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, as well as some other birds like Common Greenshank and Red-necked Stint. All of these are migratory shorebirds - they end up in places like Russia, Siberia, or even Alaska in our winter (the northern summer) where they breed before returning here for our summer. The birds I was seeing were likely just returning from the hard flight south, and indeed some of them still had remnants of breeding plumage. From the lagoon with the shorebirds I proceeded to spend several hours tramping through (as opposed to trampling on) then saltbush flats looking for Orange-bellied Parrots. While I didn't find any, it was great to walk around and get a feel for the area, and I saw some great things, like a pair of Brown Quail that I flushed from the edge of a grassland.
The best was save to last though, because as I was leaving the wetlands in the mid afternoon I
reached the creek crossing and stopped. I had seen a rail, one of a group of shy and secretive birds that most birdwatchers love to see. Down here, there are two kinds of rail - the shy but common Buff-banded Rail, and the extremely shy and rare Lewin's Rail. As it turned out I saw a Buff-banded Rail, but as I walked back from investigating that bird, another rail across the other side of the ford ducked back into the fringing plants. I waited for some time, as patiently as I could, until finally I was rewarded with great views of a Lewin's Rail - the first time I have seen this species. It is an amazing bird, and it was especially satisfying because they are so difficult to see, and because I had excellent views and even managed to snap a few photographs.
So all in all my day at Cheethams was a great success. Even though I didn't find what I was looking for, I experienced an amazing and important reserve for birds, and saw some exciting species in the process. I look forward to going back there in summer for some migratory shorebird counts.
Chris
In a good year, we know the whereabouts of 20 of the 100+ individuals in winter on the mainland. At any one time it's usually considerably less. And that's where the OBP counts come in. There are four rounds of surveys organised during winter, and they run over a whole weekend. The general idea is to cover as much of the available habitat as possible, and report the places you find them (if you're lucky) and the places you don't. This past weekend, my place was Cheetham Wetlands.
While I didn't find any OBPs, I did find some Blue-winged Parrots. They are closely related, they're the same size, shape mostly the same colour (though a different set of shades of green). They're even in the same genus: Neophema. But Blue-winged Parrots are common, sometimes found in large numbers, non-migratory, and much less habitat specific. It was still great to see them - I've only ever seen them once before, as they are mostly restricted to southern Australia.A little bit about Cheetham Wetlands. They are a conservation reserve managed by Parks Victoria, the local National Parks and Wildlife institution. Cheetham is made up of a series of artificial lagoons and one large natural lagoon, and are right on the coastline. There are two creeks running through the wetlands - Laverton Creek on the eastern boundary, and Skeleton Creek running through the heart of the wetlands. Apart from the lagoons themselves, the main habitat types on the reserve are saltbush and grasslands. They are important because they support internationally significant numbers of seven migratory shorebirds protected by international treaties, and nationally significant numbers of a further two species. They are also potential habitat for Orange-bellied Parrots, though I didn't see any, and they haven't been recorded there in recent times. The main threats to the wetlands are property developments, which are encroaching very close to the boundaries of the reserve, and illegal human use of the area for things like trail bikes, bicycles and dog walking. In an area set aside for wildlife to breed and for migratory birds to rest undisturbed to refuel for a journey to far nothern Siberia, this intrusion from humans is not only unwelcome it's dangerous to the wellbeing of the wildlife.
My day at Cheetham was a wonderful experience. I started in the morning with a quick walk beside what is known as RAAF Lake - it's next to an old airfield run by the airforce, now a strip for recreational planes and gliders. This is the site I found the Blue-winged Parrots at, feeding in the grass beside the road. I also found Pallid Cuckoos and a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo flying around and being harried by the local birds worried about being cuckolded. A sure sign that spring is nearly here. From RAAF Lake I ventured in to the reserve itself. I had previously met with the parks ranger and received a key when I signed in. To get to my search area I went through three locked gates, and drove a few kilometers in until I reached the ford over Skeleton Creek. On the way I disturbed a Red-capped Plover that was nesting. I know it was nesting because it stood up and pretended to have a broken wing, trying to lead my car away from its nest. Once I was safely past, it rushed back to the nest (a patch of gravel - the eggs were completely invisible from where I was) and sat back down to keep the eggs warm.
From Skeleton Creek I stopped briefly to count the shorebirds on one of the nearby lagoons. There were good numbers of Curlew Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers, and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, as well as some other birds like Common Greenshank and Red-necked Stint. All of these are migratory shorebirds - they end up in places like Russia, Siberia, or even Alaska in our winter (the northern summer) where they breed before returning here for our summer. The birds I was seeing were likely just returning from the hard flight south, and indeed some of them still had remnants of breeding plumage. From the lagoon with the shorebirds I proceeded to spend several hours tramping through (as opposed to trampling on) then saltbush flats looking for Orange-bellied Parrots. While I didn't find any, it was great to walk around and get a feel for the area, and I saw some great things, like a pair of Brown Quail that I flushed from the edge of a grassland.
The best was save to last though, because as I was leaving the wetlands in the mid afternoon I
reached the creek crossing and stopped. I had seen a rail, one of a group of shy and secretive birds that most birdwatchers love to see. Down here, there are two kinds of rail - the shy but common Buff-banded Rail, and the extremely shy and rare Lewin's Rail. As it turned out I saw a Buff-banded Rail, but as I walked back from investigating that bird, another rail across the other side of the ford ducked back into the fringing plants. I waited for some time, as patiently as I could, until finally I was rewarded with great views of a Lewin's Rail - the first time I have seen this species. It is an amazing bird, and it was especially satisfying because they are so difficult to see, and because I had excellent views and even managed to snap a few photographs.So all in all my day at Cheethams was a great success. Even though I didn't find what I was looking for, I experienced an amazing and important reserve for birds, and saw some exciting species in the process. I look forward to going back there in summer for some migratory shorebird counts.
Chris
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Trin Warren Wetlands: an urban oasis
Today I took some of my lunchbreak to travel down to a wetland in the heart of Melbourne. Royal Park, and the Melbourne Zoo are part of a green space in the north of Carlton, an inner-northern 
suburb of the city. Tucked away in Royal Park is a small wetland, restored to almost pristine condition, and surrounded by young revegetation and remnant trees. The wetland is called Trin Warren Wetland, and we were there because yesterday the first Baillon's Crake of the season for Victoria was reported. A pretty amazing record for the heart of Melbourne.
So at midday a group of us trooped off to the tram station and caught a tram up to the Zoo. We actually caught the wrong one, so ended up having to walk longer than we should have. But in the end we arrived at a lovely little wetland. If it had been in the middle of the countryside, you would have said it was an amazing habitat. In the city the birds must have more trouble finding it. Or so you would think. But sure enough, after about twenty minutes, the Baillon's Crake emerged. First one, and then another came out into the open and foraged around for as long as we could afford to keep watching them before heading back.
Baillon's Crake is a tiny, migratory water bird. They are only about 15cm long, are brown with a faint pattern to its wings, and a bright red eye. They winter in northern Australia and perhaps beyond, but return every year to Victoria, sometimes in large numbers. Last year was a bumper year for them, with birds turning up in some unlikely places, and it seems this year is off to a great start with a pair here in the heart of the city.
Chris
suburb of the city. Tucked away in Royal Park is a small wetland, restored to almost pristine condition, and surrounded by young revegetation and remnant trees. The wetland is called Trin Warren Wetland, and we were there because yesterday the first Baillon's Crake of the season for Victoria was reported. A pretty amazing record for the heart of Melbourne.So at midday a group of us trooped off to the tram station and caught a tram up to the Zoo. We actually caught the wrong one, so ended up having to walk longer than we should have. But in the end we arrived at a lovely little wetland. If it had been in the middle of the countryside, you would have said it was an amazing habitat. In the city the birds must have more trouble finding it. Or so you would think. But sure enough, after about twenty minutes, the Baillon's Crake emerged. First one, and then another came out into the open and foraged around for as long as we could afford to keep watching them before heading back.
Baillon's Crake is a tiny, migratory water bird. They are only about 15cm long, are brown with a faint pattern to its wings, and a bright red eye. They winter in northern Australia and perhaps beyond, but return every year to Victoria, sometimes in large numbers. Last year was a bumper year for them, with birds turning up in some unlikely places, and it seems this year is off to a great start with a pair here in the heart of the city.
Chris
August Wrap-up
And that brings us to the end of August. It was a good month for birds - with the Eyre Peninsula and Eaglehawk Neck trips standing out as great experiences. The birds that were my absolute highlights were Western Yellow Robin, Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren, and Grey Petrel.
The Western Yellow Robin was great because I'd tried a couple of times to track them down before and failed miserably. It actually ended up being quite an effort to find on the time I did see it, too. I spent around three days in the habitat that I could have seen them, and put in quite a few kilometres looking. In the end, I had to give up, and was on my way back to my car to leave for the airport. And there, of course, was the Western Yellow Robin, right near the car. It flew to the other side of the road, and I had to go about fifty metres up the path to track it down again, whereupon it perched out in the open and allowed photographs.
Western Yellow Robins are, in behavior, size and shape, identical to the Eastern Yellow Robin. The only real difference (visually that is) is the amount of yellow in their plumage. The Eastern Yellow Robin has yellow all the way from its belly to its throat. The Western Yellow Robin only had yellow from its belly to mid-chest. Another name for the Western Yellow Robin is Grey-fronted Robin. The other good thing about having seen and photographed this species is that it is only found in southern and western Australia, from about Port Lincoln to Perth. I don't spend a lot of time in that area, so seeing this bird finally was quite satisfying.
Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren was another very satisfying bird for me to find. Fairy-Wrens are the birds I attribute as what got me into bird watching. The Superb Fairy-Wren is still my favorite bird. And when I started getting serious about seeing Australian birds, I mean really traveling around looking for them, I decided that I wanted to see all the Fairy-Wrens in the world. The Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren marked the 10th species (out of 16) that I've seen, and the last of the Australian species. I didn't manage to get a photo - they are a very cryptic species and one of the most difficult of all the fairy-wrens to see and get a good look at (Lovely Fairy-Wren would probably be equally as hard). But just having seen it was a real thrill.
And finally the Grey Petrel. It's rare, it's threatened. You have to go to great lengths to see them, and to be extremely lucky. And I was. There's not really much more to say - they aren't particularly beautiful or charismatic compared to some of our more well known birds (the Lyrebirds spring to mind). We had a good but fleeting look. But there's just that feeling you get, when you know you're one of the privileged few to see something special, and the Grey Petrel that slid by our boat and off into the distance gave me that feeling.
And that's it for August.
Chris
The Western Yellow Robin was great because I'd tried a couple of times to track them down before and failed miserably. It actually ended up being quite an effort to find on the time I did see it, too. I spent around three days in the habitat that I could have seen them, and put in quite a few kilometres looking. In the end, I had to give up, and was on my way back to my car to leave for the airport. And there, of course, was the Western Yellow Robin, right near the car. It flew to the other side of the road, and I had to go about fifty metres up the path to track it down again, whereupon it perched out in the open and allowed photographs.
Western Yellow Robins are, in behavior, size and shape, identical to the Eastern Yellow Robin. The only real difference (visually that is) is the amount of yellow in their plumage. The Eastern Yellow Robin has yellow all the way from its belly to its throat. The Western Yellow Robin only had yellow from its belly to mid-chest. Another name for the Western Yellow Robin is Grey-fronted Robin. The other good thing about having seen and photographed this species is that it is only found in southern and western Australia, from about Port Lincoln to Perth. I don't spend a lot of time in that area, so seeing this bird finally was quite satisfying.
Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren was another very satisfying bird for me to find. Fairy-Wrens are the birds I attribute as what got me into bird watching. The Superb Fairy-Wren is still my favorite bird. And when I started getting serious about seeing Australian birds, I mean really traveling around looking for them, I decided that I wanted to see all the Fairy-Wrens in the world. The Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren marked the 10th species (out of 16) that I've seen, and the last of the Australian species. I didn't manage to get a photo - they are a very cryptic species and one of the most difficult of all the fairy-wrens to see and get a good look at (Lovely Fairy-Wren would probably be equally as hard). But just having seen it was a real thrill.
And finally the Grey Petrel. It's rare, it's threatened. You have to go to great lengths to see them, and to be extremely lucky. And I was. There's not really much more to say - they aren't particularly beautiful or charismatic compared to some of our more well known birds (the Lyrebirds spring to mind). We had a good but fleeting look. But there's just that feeling you get, when you know you're one of the privileged few to see something special, and the Grey Petrel that slid by our boat and off into the distance gave me that feeling.
And that's it for August.
Chris
Truganina Wetlands
I've begun visiting a different local bird spot in Altona, called Truganina Wetlands. It's frustratingly close to Cheetham Wetland - a place people aren't allowed in without a permit (despite the lack of fencing and constant invasion from dog-walkers), but it's a great spot in its own right. I was put onto it in December last year when Mike Weston showed me around Altona. I didn't think too much of it at the time (Mike only showed me the place because it looks out over Cheetham), however a recent report of Pallid Cuckoo there had me think again. Another local birder, Dave Torr, mentioned it could also be good for crakes at the right time of year, and these two pieces of information combined have convinced me to give the place a go. And I'm glad I did, because just last week I hit upon a great run of birds.
It started off pretty well. As I pulled into the carpark I found a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo calling on the telephone wires overhead. This is a migratory species, and only just freshly back from their wintering grounds in northern Australia. Amid the usual wetland birds (Teal, Ducks and Grebe) there were Little Grassbirds and an Australian Reedwarbler calling. Like the Bronze-Cuckoo, the Reedwarbler is a migratory species, and would only just have arrived in the area.
A walk out to Laverton Creek nearby didn't provide much of interest, but on the return journey along the edge of Cheetham Wetlands I flushed a Crested Shrike-Tit from a knee-high bush while I was tracking down a calling Pallid Cuckoo. Forget the cuckoo for now, the Shrike-Tit is a pretty impressive bird to get in suburbia anywhere. They also typically don't come down to ground level, so to flush one from a bush barely reaching my knee was pretty extraordinary. He (the males are obvious because they have a black bib where the females have a green one) sat in a slightly higher bush for a minute or two before hopping onto a nearby crossbranch to pose nicely for a few photos.
After I'd had my fill of photographing the Shrike-Tit, I tracked down that Pallid Cuckoo that was calling. Initially the bird was very cagey, flying when I got too close to it. Normally I'm pretty good about getting near birds, and if I'm disturbing them I back off. But the cuckoo was flying before I got anywhere near it. In the end I gave up and started walking back. At which point the cuckoo landed in a nearby tree and sat and posed while I got some very satisfying shots.
While I didn't manage to find any rails or crake on this trip, I had a very good run of luck with birds and photographs, and came away with a number of species I'd not seen in Altona before, so it was a very successful day.
Chris
It started off pretty well. As I pulled into the carpark I found a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo calling on the telephone wires overhead. This is a migratory species, and only just freshly back from their wintering grounds in northern Australia. Amid the usual wetland birds (Teal, Ducks and Grebe) there were Little Grassbirds and an Australian Reedwarbler calling. Like the Bronze-Cuckoo, the Reedwarbler is a migratory species, and would only just have arrived in the area.
A walk out to Laverton Creek nearby didn't provide much of interest, but on the return journey along the edge of Cheetham Wetlands I flushed a Crested Shrike-Tit from a knee-high bush while I was tracking down a calling Pallid Cuckoo. Forget the cuckoo for now, the Shrike-Tit is a pretty impressive bird to get in suburbia anywhere. They also typically don't come down to ground level, so to flush one from a bush barely reaching my knee was pretty extraordinary. He (the males are obvious because they have a black bib where the females have a green one) sat in a slightly higher bush for a minute or two before hopping onto a nearby crossbranch to pose nicely for a few photos.
After I'd had my fill of photographing the Shrike-Tit, I tracked down that Pallid Cuckoo that was calling. Initially the bird was very cagey, flying when I got too close to it. Normally I'm pretty good about getting near birds, and if I'm disturbing them I back off. But the cuckoo was flying before I got anywhere near it. In the end I gave up and started walking back. At which point the cuckoo landed in a nearby tree and sat and posed while I got some very satisfying shots.
While I didn't manage to find any rails or crake on this trip, I had a very good run of luck with birds and photographs, and came away with a number of species I'd not seen in Altona before, so it was a very successful day.
Chris
Monday, 3 September 2007
Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania
Another week another adventure. Earlier in the year I began organising a boat trip out of Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania. This is because the regularly scheduled Victorian "pelagic" trips - boat trips out from the continental shelf, had all been canceled for this year. Since I wanted to make sure I got out into the southern waters while I am living in Melbourne, I decided to make my own opportunity.
And so in mid August I found myself out on a boat off the coast of Tasmania on a freezing cold morning praying my Kwells worked if the wind and waves got too much for us. Why would I do this to myself you might ask? Albatross. Well, Albatross and other seabirds, but mainly the Albatross. You see, going out on a boat off the continental shelf gives you an opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the largest flying birds in the world. With a bit of help from some chicken mince and fish oil. But there's nothing quite like being out on the ocean and watching the first Albatross of the day slide past the boat, effortlessly and gracefully on its enormous wings.
Seabirds, or pelagic birds, are some of the most exciting and hardest to find birds in the world. They live in remote places - many of Australia's pelagic species nest on sub-antarctic islands. They spend most of their lives out at sea, and can go almost a whole year without coming in to land. There are five main types of pelagic birds - Albatross, Petrels, Storm Petrels, Prions, and Shearwaters. There are also some gulls and terns that are typically more common out on the open ocean. One of these, the Sooty Shearwater, is known for making one of the longest single journeys of any animal in the world - over twenty thousand kilometres.
On the weekend that we went out we were very lucky. The weather was perfect, the wind wasn't too strong, but also wasn't too weak. Seabirds need good wind to keep them airborne, and also to carry the scent of the fish oil we use to lure them to the boat. We started with many Shy Albatross, easily the most common bird of the voyages. Over the course of the weekend we saw many types of Albatross - Shy, Black-browed, Yellow-nosed, Wandering, Southern Royal, Buller's and Salvin's Albatross. The Salvin's was the rarest one we saw. As a group, Albatross would have to be one of my favorite birds. They have huge wingspans - the Southern Royal Albatross, with the largest wingspan of any bird in the world, clocks in at 3 to 3.5 metres. This can be pretty awe inspiring when one cruises past the boat, as we had happen on several occasions.
We also came across some pretty great other birds. Great-winged Petrels were common, as expected, but we also found Southern Giant, Northern Giant, White-headed, Cape, Providence and Grey Petrels. The Grey Petrel was easily the rarest bird we saw on our trip. They breed on Macquarie Island, an Australian Territory in the sub-antarctic. Macquarie used to have a huge problem with cats, which was causing in particular the decline of the Grey Petrel. A concerted effort got rid of all the cats, and now the Grey Petrel is recovering. You may have heard, however, that Macquarie faces another challenge. With the removal of cats, the local rabbit population has exploded, and those cute furry bunnies are now stealing the breeding holes of the petrels. And so the government is once again embarking on a program, this time to remove the rabbits from the island. Hopefully this time we can secure the future for the petrels.
Apart from land predators on their breeding grounds, seabirds, particularly albatross, face another challenge. Long-line fishing and trawling combined kill hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions of seabirds each year. They do this by not protecting the bait or cleaning their nets before use - the seabirds dive on the hook or net and are dragged underwater and drowned. Unfortunately, the simplest solution is to make sure the birds can't get to the net or hook. This is unfortunate because the fishing industry around the world has for the most part been unwilling to come to that party and have been very resistant to any change that may cost them money, however cheap the solution may be. That said, some groups have willingly trialled methods to reduce the "bycatch" of seabirds, which have been reasonably successful so far. For more information on this, visit the Save the Albatross website.
Also consider not eating tinned tuna or salmon, as these two fish make up the bulk of what the long-liners catch, and there are currently zero controls over the source of fish (and therefore the catch method) going into those tins.
Despite the adversity, and the huge declines in population currently happening, it is still relatively easy to get out and see an albatross in Australia. The Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association (SOSSA) regularly organise trips out of Brisbane (Southport on the Gold Coast), Sydney and Wollongong, and other groups have trips that leave from Newcastle, Port Fairy (Victoria), Albany and Perth (Western Australia), and St Helen's and Eaglehawk Neck (Tasmania). So what are you waiting for? Get out there and experience the magic that is pelagic birding!
Chris
And so in mid August I found myself out on a boat off the coast of Tasmania on a freezing cold morning praying my Kwells worked if the wind and waves got too much for us. Why would I do this to myself you might ask? Albatross. Well, Albatross and other seabirds, but mainly the Albatross. You see, going out on a boat off the continental shelf gives you an opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the largest flying birds in the world. With a bit of help from some chicken mince and fish oil. But there's nothing quite like being out on the ocean and watching the first Albatross of the day slide past the boat, effortlessly and gracefully on its enormous wings.
Seabirds, or pelagic birds, are some of the most exciting and hardest to find birds in the world. They live in remote places - many of Australia's pelagic species nest on sub-antarctic islands. They spend most of their lives out at sea, and can go almost a whole year without coming in to land. There are five main types of pelagic birds - Albatross, Petrels, Storm Petrels, Prions, and Shearwaters. There are also some gulls and terns that are typically more common out on the open ocean. One of these, the Sooty Shearwater, is known for making one of the longest single journeys of any animal in the world - over twenty thousand kilometres.
On the weekend that we went out we were very lucky. The weather was perfect, the wind wasn't too strong, but also wasn't too weak. Seabirds need good wind to keep them airborne, and also to carry the scent of the fish oil we use to lure them to the boat. We started with many Shy Albatross, easily the most common bird of the voyages. Over the course of the weekend we saw many types of Albatross - Shy, Black-browed, Yellow-nosed, Wandering, Southern Royal, Buller's and Salvin's Albatross. The Salvin's was the rarest one we saw. As a group, Albatross would have to be one of my favorite birds. They have huge wingspans - the Southern Royal Albatross, with the largest wingspan of any bird in the world, clocks in at 3 to 3.5 metres. This can be pretty awe inspiring when one cruises past the boat, as we had happen on several occasions.
We also came across some pretty great other birds. Great-winged Petrels were common, as expected, but we also found Southern Giant, Northern Giant, White-headed, Cape, Providence and Grey Petrels. The Grey Petrel was easily the rarest bird we saw on our trip. They breed on Macquarie Island, an Australian Territory in the sub-antarctic. Macquarie used to have a huge problem with cats, which was causing in particular the decline of the Grey Petrel. A concerted effort got rid of all the cats, and now the Grey Petrel is recovering. You may have heard, however, that Macquarie faces another challenge. With the removal of cats, the local rabbit population has exploded, and those cute furry bunnies are now stealing the breeding holes of the petrels. And so the government is once again embarking on a program, this time to remove the rabbits from the island. Hopefully this time we can secure the future for the petrels.Apart from land predators on their breeding grounds, seabirds, particularly albatross, face another challenge. Long-line fishing and trawling combined kill hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions of seabirds each year. They do this by not protecting the bait or cleaning their nets before use - the seabirds dive on the hook or net and are dragged underwater and drowned. Unfortunately, the simplest solution is to make sure the birds can't get to the net or hook. This is unfortunate because the fishing industry around the world has for the most part been unwilling to come to that party and have been very resistant to any change that may cost them money, however cheap the solution may be. That said, some groups have willingly trialled methods to reduce the "bycatch" of seabirds, which have been reasonably successful so far. For more information on this, visit the Save the Albatross website.
Also consider not eating tinned tuna or salmon, as these two fish make up the bulk of what the long-liners catch, and there are currently zero controls over the source of fish (and therefore the catch method) going into those tins.
Despite the adversity, and the huge declines in population currently happening, it is still relatively easy to get out and see an albatross in Australia. The Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association (SOSSA) regularly organise trips out of Brisbane (Southport on the Gold Coast), Sydney and Wollongong, and other groups have trips that leave from Newcastle, Port Fairy (Victoria), Albany and Perth (Western Australia), and St Helen's and Eaglehawk Neck (Tasmania). So what are you waiting for? Get out there and experience the magic that is pelagic birding!
Chris
Eyre Peninsula
Early August brought another work trip for me - this time to the Eyre Peninsula. This trip had been on the cards since February, but for a variety of reasons had been put off until now. Eyre Peninsula is a very interesting area. Situated along the curve of the Great Australian Bight, and isolated from the rest of Australia by deserts and land clearing, it has become an island habitat, a refuge for many species locally extinct in much of South Australia, and a place with many endemic subspecies of birds found elsewhere in the country.
.jpg)
Perhaps the most noticeable of these is the Brown Currawong. This is actually a subspecies of the Grey Currawong, found from Western Australia to New South Wales in woodlands, mallee and heath areas. They are usually shy, and either grey or black in colour. On Eyre Peninsula they are brown, and not shy at all.
Another interesting feature of the peninsula is that is serves as an area that melds the eastern and western dry country birds together. It is the eastern-most point for many "western" species, like Western Yellow Robin and Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren, and is the western-most point for many eastern species like Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo and Yellow-faced Honeyeater.
There are other strange things about the area as well. Because there aren't many freshwater wetlands, and many of the "fresh" springs drain straight into salty environments, the birds that
typically use freshwater habitats behave differently on the peninsula. Sandpipers and plovers that typically use freshwater habitats, like Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers, are more commonly seen on beaches.
Port Lincoln is at the tip of the peninsula, and has two national parks close by. Lincoln National Park was probably my favorite of the two,
with large amounts of mallee and some great walking tracks to do. Coffin Bay National Park was also wonderful, and here we saw many Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers and Sanderling, birds that occur typically in low numbers elsewhere in the country. Port Lincoln has another interesting thing - a bird subspecies named after it. The Port Lincoln Parrot is now considered a subspecies of the Australian Ringneck - a rosella-like parrot of the drier parts of the country. In fact, of all the subspecies, the Port Lincoln form is the most widespread, occurring through most of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and into Queensland and New South Wales as well as South Australia.
I had nearly a week to get a handle on all of this, and left feeling like I needed more time. I found the Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren and Western Yellow Robin (both new for me), and heard the Western Whipbird, which is possibly Australia's shyest bird. It calls loudly, but is extremely difficult to see. I also saw interesting birds like Southern Scrub-Robin, Southern Giant Petrel, and Western Gerygone that I didn't really expect to see in the area. I even saw a pair of Hooded Plovers, one of Australia's endangered beach-nesting shorebirds.
All up, an amazing place to visit, with some unique birds and habitats to explore.
Chris
.jpg)
Perhaps the most noticeable of these is the Brown Currawong. This is actually a subspecies of the Grey Currawong, found from Western Australia to New South Wales in woodlands, mallee and heath areas. They are usually shy, and either grey or black in colour. On Eyre Peninsula they are brown, and not shy at all.
Another interesting feature of the peninsula is that is serves as an area that melds the eastern and western dry country birds together. It is the eastern-most point for many "western" species, like Western Yellow Robin and Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren, and is the western-most point for many eastern species like Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo and Yellow-faced Honeyeater.There are other strange things about the area as well. Because there aren't many freshwater wetlands, and many of the "fresh" springs drain straight into salty environments, the birds that
typically use freshwater habitats behave differently on the peninsula. Sandpipers and plovers that typically use freshwater habitats, like Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers, are more commonly seen on beaches.Port Lincoln is at the tip of the peninsula, and has two national parks close by. Lincoln National Park was probably my favorite of the two,
with large amounts of mallee and some great walking tracks to do. Coffin Bay National Park was also wonderful, and here we saw many Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers and Sanderling, birds that occur typically in low numbers elsewhere in the country. Port Lincoln has another interesting thing - a bird subspecies named after it. The Port Lincoln Parrot is now considered a subspecies of the Australian Ringneck - a rosella-like parrot of the drier parts of the country. In fact, of all the subspecies, the Port Lincoln form is the most widespread, occurring through most of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and into Queensland and New South Wales as well as South Australia.
I had nearly a week to get a handle on all of this, and left feeling like I needed more time. I found the Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren and Western Yellow Robin (both new for me), and heard the Western Whipbird, which is possibly Australia's shyest bird. It calls loudly, but is extremely difficult to see. I also saw interesting birds like Southern Scrub-Robin, Southern Giant Petrel, and Western Gerygone that I didn't really expect to see in the area. I even saw a pair of Hooded Plovers, one of Australia's endangered beach-nesting shorebirds.All up, an amazing place to visit, with some unique birds and habitats to explore.
Chris
July Wrap-up
Wow, August just flew by this year. As a result, I'm back-dating some entries for this blog, starting with a wrap-up of milestones for me in July 2007.
July was a pretty amazing month for me. It began in the Burnett-Mary catchment area in Queensland. I was there for Birds Australia, giving workshops on bird identification, and on the rare and threatened species of the area. While I didn't get the opportunity for a lot of birdwatching, we had some really great birds on the workshops, like Tawny Frogmouth, Pale-headed Rosella, and Scarlet Honeyeater (to name but a few). My real highlight for the trip though, was heading back to Brisbane via Inskip Point, where Danica and I had amazing views of a Black-breasted Button-Quail pair feeding.
Black-breasted Button-Quail are both rare and threatened. The occur only in south-east Queensland and a small fraction of north-east New South Wales. They are small and fat, and look like true quail even though they are more closely related to sandpipers. When they feed, they have a funny method which is shared by all button-quail - they spin in a circle. The kick leaf litter out of the way and in the process stir up insects and leave behind a "platelet", a small circular hole in the leaf litter. These platelets are one way to track down a button-quail, which are very shy and typically don't call. This pair of Black-breasted Button-Quail have us great views, reinforcing how great Inskip Point is as a place to find them. This was only my second look at this beautiful species.
But the real landmark event for me was my trip to Cairns and Cape York. I had been planning this trip for nearly 6 months by the time it came around, and it didn't disappoint. All up I saw 17 species of birds I'd never seen before, and photographed many wonderful things. The group I was with saw over 220 species of birds in the two weeks we were travelling, with too many amazing birds to list. My highlights were seeing a Yellow-billed Kingfisher for the first time, and finding Spotted Whistling-Ducks in Weipa. The kingfisher lives on Cape York all year round, but is known for its shyness. 
The Spotted Whistling-Duck on the other hand, is an Indonesian and Papua New Guinean species which has only recently turned up on Cape York, and is best known for occasionally being at the Mapoon Sewage Ponds. Both of these species were a real thrill, partly because of how rare they are, and partly because they are amazing birds in their own right. Cape York and the Atherton Tablelands, which were the two focii of the trip, are well known for their high numbers of endemic birds. Endemic means found only in that area (something endemic to Australia is found only in Australia). So there are lots of species that can only be found in far north Queensland. In the whole trip, I saw 75 species of birds I hadn't seen yet this year, despite having traveled a great deal already.
I also reached a milestone on the trip. I saw a Trumpet Manucode - interesting in its own right as Australia's only true Bird of Paradise. However the reason it was a milestone was that it was the 600th species I have seen in Australia. While not as lofty as the "700 club", for those birdwatchers who have seen 700 birds in Australia, 600 birds is a pretty good milestone to reach. The Spotted Whistling-Ducks were #601.
The rest of the month passed relatively quietly, bird-wise (the same couldn't be said for work), however August promised to be an exciting month too.
Chris
July was a pretty amazing month for me. It began in the Burnett-Mary catchment area in Queensland. I was there for Birds Australia, giving workshops on bird identification, and on the rare and threatened species of the area. While I didn't get the opportunity for a lot of birdwatching, we had some really great birds on the workshops, like Tawny Frogmouth, Pale-headed Rosella, and Scarlet Honeyeater (to name but a few). My real highlight for the trip though, was heading back to Brisbane via Inskip Point, where Danica and I had amazing views of a Black-breasted Button-Quail pair feeding.
Black-breasted Button-Quail are both rare and threatened. The occur only in south-east Queensland and a small fraction of north-east New South Wales. They are small and fat, and look like true quail even though they are more closely related to sandpipers. When they feed, they have a funny method which is shared by all button-quail - they spin in a circle. The kick leaf litter out of the way and in the process stir up insects and leave behind a "platelet", a small circular hole in the leaf litter. These platelets are one way to track down a button-quail, which are very shy and typically don't call. This pair of Black-breasted Button-Quail have us great views, reinforcing how great Inskip Point is as a place to find them. This was only my second look at this beautiful species.
But the real landmark event for me was my trip to Cairns and Cape York. I had been planning this trip for nearly 6 months by the time it came around, and it didn't disappoint. All up I saw 17 species of birds I'd never seen before, and photographed many wonderful things. The group I was with saw over 220 species of birds in the two weeks we were travelling, with too many amazing birds to list. My highlights were seeing a Yellow-billed Kingfisher for the first time, and finding Spotted Whistling-Ducks in Weipa. The kingfisher lives on Cape York all year round, but is known for its shyness. 
The Spotted Whistling-Duck on the other hand, is an Indonesian and Papua New Guinean species which has only recently turned up on Cape York, and is best known for occasionally being at the Mapoon Sewage Ponds. Both of these species were a real thrill, partly because of how rare they are, and partly because they are amazing birds in their own right. Cape York and the Atherton Tablelands, which were the two focii of the trip, are well known for their high numbers of endemic birds. Endemic means found only in that area (something endemic to Australia is found only in Australia). So there are lots of species that can only be found in far north Queensland. In the whole trip, I saw 75 species of birds I hadn't seen yet this year, despite having traveled a great deal already.I also reached a milestone on the trip. I saw a Trumpet Manucode - interesting in its own right as Australia's only true Bird of Paradise. However the reason it was a milestone was that it was the 600th species I have seen in Australia. While not as lofty as the "700 club", for those birdwatchers who have seen 700 birds in Australia, 600 birds is a pretty good milestone to reach. The Spotted Whistling-Ducks were #601.
The rest of the month passed relatively quietly, bird-wise (the same couldn't be said for work), however August promised to be an exciting month too.
Chris
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)