On Thursday, two friends from Sydney, Nathan Ruser and Ashwin Rudder (http://oflifeandwrens.blogspot.com.au/), arrived in Canberra via the train. The reason for their visit was to accompany me on a 3-day bird banding trip to West Wyalong NSW.
Having informed me that they had seen 55 species from the train (including Little Eagle which Nathan saw but Ashwin missed, and Grey Currawong), we proceeded to go shopping for the trip.
As we were shopping, Ashwin got an email via his phone from the trip's organiser, Mark, saying that due to rain the trip may have to be called off due to bad weather. Worried but not giving up, we finished shopping and came home.
Arriving home, a second email came through - banding cancelled. DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we quickly decided to go camping anyway, and set about choosing a suitable spot.
I suggested we try Monga National Park, where we could target Pilotbird and Olive Whistler, but that doesn't allow camping. So eventually we settled on Honeysuckle Creek in Namadgi National Park. Honeysuckle Creek is the site for the former Apollo 11 tracking station, and a beautiful spot. I'd been there three times before, but never to camp. Having looked through the habitat and lists for the area, we decided we'd target Red-browed Treecreeper, Spotted Quail Thrush and Painted Button Quail.
The next morning (Friday), we started off by spending the morning at the Australian National Botanic Gardens with local birder Anthony Overs. We were hoping to find the Pink Robin that has been hanging around, and the Crescent Honeyeaters that had turned up.
We arrived at 10am, and quickly found Red wattlebird, Eastern Spinebill, Magpie lark, Crimson Rosella, Superb fairy-wren, Galah, White-browed Scrubwren, Weebill, Magpie and Pied Currawong. Moving up the main path following the edge of the rainforest gully, we had a brief view of a Common Bronzewing feeding on the path ahead. Hearing the call of a Crescent Honeyeater, we hurried off to the right, and quickly located a single bird calling and giving short but decent views, just off the path above the rock garden.
We continued to walk through the gardens towards the CSIRO gate, where the Pink Robin had been seen the previous Monday. On the way there, and in the vicinity of the gate, we picked up White Plumed Honeyeater, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, New Holland Honeyeater, Eurasian Blackbird, Spotted Pardalote, Wood Duck, Brown Thornbill, Silvereye, Grey Fantail, Red-browed Finch, White-throated Treecreeper, Australian raven, Striated pardalote and White-winged Chough.
Having failed to see the Robin near the gate (my seventh time missing the species at the gardens since it was first reported), I led the group to the currently active Satin Bowerbird bower in Section 29. Again, no robin, but we did see the Satin Bowerbirds.
Misty Morning Bowerbird
It was now close to 12.30pm, and we started to walk back to the carpark. On the way, we saw Gang Gang, Golden Whistler, King Parrot and heard Laughing Kookaburra. 3 White-naped Honeyeaters flew over, and everyone saw them but me, dammit! (Still need them for my year list).
Near the cafe, we found one of the much-reported Brown Gerygones who are making themselves at home on the outskirts of the rainforest gully.
New Holland Honeyeater at the ANBG
All up, at the gardens we saw 33 species.
Friday afternoon, we headed off to Honeysuckle Creek.
The first good birds we saw were Flame Robins. There were at least 8 birds (and at least 4 males) feeding in a roadside paddock, allowing good views and crappy pictures!
Flame Robin
We arrived at the campground just on dark, giving us just enough time to set up our tents before the sun went down. Mum left us to it, and as we settled down by the fire waiting for our pasta to boil on the portable stove, we were surrounded by Eastern Grey Kangaroos and a very bold, very fat, and heavily scarred Brush Tailed Possum. Clearly other campers fed him, and clearly he'd fought for the right to the food on offer!
Ashwin and I got up early the next morning, as Nathan slept on in the tent. We walked for about a kilometer, seeing Laughing Kookaburra, Scarlet Robin, White-throated Treecreeper, White-eared Honeyeater, Red Wattlebird, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Grey Butcherbird, Golden Whistler, Magpie Lark, Australian Raven and hearing Superb Lyrebird. Walking back, we heard some very freaky howls of wild dogs in the distance, and walked a little faster!
Early Morning Kookaburra
Lovely morning out walking in Namadgi NP
White-eared Honeyeater
Arriving back, Nathan informed us he'd heard a flock of Grey Currawongs while we'd been away. Ashwin went to the bathroom while I had breakfast. When he got back, he mentioned having seen a Bassian Thrush near the toilet block. I needed it for my year list, so I hurried over, but the bird was nowhere to be found and we did not see it again for the rest of the trip.
After a quick breakfast with our friendly kangaroos and a small number of Red-necked Wallaby, we walked around the general vicinity of the campground.
Eastern Grey Kangaroos are very tame at Honeysuckle Creek Campground
As we walked down the road out of the camping area, Ashwin stopped to listen to a call. I passed it off as Red-browed Finch, but he shook his head and lead me off the path. Very quickly we came across a female Spotted Quail Thrush feeding in a grassy clearing. Life tick acquired!! More began to appear, until we could see three females. Ashwin rushed off to fetch Nathan, and I stayed to follow the birds.
Spotted Quail Thrush females
By the time they returned, I had followed the birds into a more scrubby area. Surrounding them, we crouched down and waited for them to come close enough for photographs. A male appeared, making four birds total. I managed record shots of the females, but none of the male. We stayed with them for a while, and I for one found them to be very endearing birds!
We hung around camp for a bit, seeing/hearing Brown Thornbill, White-browed Scrubwren, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Gang Gang, Crimson Rosella, King Parrot, Superb Fairy-wren, Eastern Spinebill, Spotted Pardalote, Striated Thornbill, Magpie, Grey Fantail and Red-browed Finch.
During the afternoon, we went for a 5km walk up the side of one of the hills. We didn't see much along the track, only hearing (and briefly sighting) a Crescent Honeyeater, and seeing a Grey Shrike-thrush whilst we were having lunch. On the return trip, we heard more Quail Thrush, but decided to leave them alone after having such good views during the morning.
Habitat along the walk
On our final morning, it began to rain. Nathan and I elected to stay in bed, while Ashwin set off for a walk. When he got back, he said he'd just seen between two and four Red-browed Treecreepers, one of our targets, quite close to camp. That got us out of bed, and straight into the damp bushes.
We failed to see the treecreeper, which is another year tick missed for both me and Nathan. However, I can always go back there anytime, and Nathan can get the much closer to home, so it wasn't a huge deal.
The rain began to get heavier, so we packed up all out stuff and took cover under the picnic BBQ area to keep dry. While we were cooking breakfast, we saw several Eastern Yellow Robins.
Mum came to pick us up, and we headed off. Our last bird for Namadgi was a male Collared Sparrowhawk, as we were driving out.
Nathan left that night (Sunday), so it was just me and Ashwin for the last day. Ashwin had booked a train ticket for 5pm, which meant we had to get any birding done before four.
We rose at 6.30, an annoyingly early hour (especially since we sat up watching le Tour de France the night before), and set off on our bikes to the Pinnacle NR.
We arrived and were greeted by a big yellow sign, announcing that the Pinnacle was closed for the kangaroo cull. Great. We cycled back, and looked at Birdline. A Swift Parrot and two interesting (and unusual for the ACT) lorikeets, Musk and Scaly-breasted, had been seen in Torrens, so we decided to go for those.
After catching the bus down, we walked to the flowering tree and found only Rainbow Lorikeets. The original reporter of the Swift Parrot was there, and talking to him, we found out there were a couple more flowering trees in the area, so we set off to look at them.
We spent about 3/4 of an hour in the area, watching and listening, but got nothing more than Rainbows and Noisy Miners. And a lot of King Parrots.
Dejectedly, we caught the bus back to the city. A few minutes after getting off, Ashwin realised he'd left his binoculars on the bus! Begin 3 hours of tense waiting, not helped by me having to catch a bus home to find our dog, who had escaped.Eventually the bins were found (as was the dog), and Ashwin returned home.
By then it was 3.00pm, so we decided to have a bit of last-ditch birding, trying to target Speckled Warbler and Little Eagle (which Ashwin missed on the train) at Shepherd's Lookout. We spent 45 minutes walking around Shepherds, and although we got nice views of a Grey Currawong, no warblers or eagles made themselves known.
We dropped Ashwin at the bus, and I've only just now woken up enough to write this!!
All said, Ashwin managed to see 74 species in the ACT over the 5 days, and a full list can be seen here:
http://www.eremaea.com/Lists.aspx?AllSites=0&Birdline=6&CommonNamesSet=1&Context=LatestLists&X=0&Y=0&List=186852&Latitude=-1000&Longitude=-1000&MapType=0&Observer=0&From=19000101&To=20130716&Region=130&MonthStart=1&MonthEnd=12&Site=0&Size=0&Species=0&SubContext=&Zone=0&ZoomLevel=7
A very enjoyable almost-week, and hopefully next time banding won't be cancelled!!!!!
Julian
