"We interrupt this broadcast..." Pelagic 2!

Taking a break from the big trip report, a smaller trip report on the pelagic trip I went on last weekend :)

The trip was off Eden on the South Coast, near Bega. No, I did not survive purely on cheese. The Eden trips are run by the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG), not SOSSA, which is why most likely most people won't have heard of them.

There were two trips scheduled for the weekend, but I was only on the saturday trip. On the sunday, I went birding in the area...

Anthony Overs, my banding instructor, was leading the trips, so I was able to go with him.

The Saturday began early. Fresh home from the Kimberley, early was no problem for me! a 10-past-5am start from where we were staying with the very generous David and Diane near Bega, saw us arrive at the small port in Eden by 6.40, all ready for a 7am start.

The rest of the people didn't arrive till 10 to 7, by which time Anthony was beginning to get nervous!
I was extremely happy to see that one of my idols, Tobias Hayashi was going to be on board :D.

We chugged (or swooossshhhheeddddd, to be more accurate) out to sea - it was cold, but that was soon forgotten in the birding activity!

Crested and a Caspian Tern followed the boat for a while, with plenty of Silver Gulls. Remembering my Wollongong experience, I had chosen to be on the top deck of the boat for the ride out, in case any penguins or diving-petrels were seen.

No penguins, but not far out of the harbour we began to see Common Diving-petrel. CDPs are uncommon birds, but during the course of the day we saw around 50, tying in with all the reports off the east coast so far this year - something weird is going down, somewhere!

Common Diving Petrel - small bird, long distance, moving boat!

There was actually quite a big swell, which made me a little nervous - both about the iron-ness of my stomach, and the wisdom in my choice of the top deck. The boat off Eden is a very good one, but it moves around a fair bit in a swell like any boat, and being up top somewhat increases the problem.


Shy Albatrosses began to appear, and after about half an hour, we entered a stream of southgoing Short-tailed Shearwaters. They didn't hang around the boat, just kept on flying, which was a bit annoying for photography.

Shy Albatrosses

As the day progressed and we got a bit further out, it became clear that in the swell it would not be possible to reach the continental shelf. That was a bummer, and instead we just sort of tacked around on the ocean.

Fairy Prions began to appear, giving terrible views at first, merely pale shapes among the dark shearwaters. We were entertained by mammals - Common Dolphin and Humpback Whales were around us, and we got good views of both.

 

Humpback Whale

After a very brief visit by a Great-winged Petrel, and an even briefer visit by a Giant-petrel of unknown species, the day quietened down and we didn't see much new for a while.

Great-winged Petrel

Eventually we decided to stop, and try burleying. Out came the shark liver, and into the water went the contents of Anthony's special bottle of tuna oil. I don't overly mind the smell of shark liver and tuna oil, but it certainly isn't something I'd go out of my way to be smelling on a close-to-upset stomach (thank god for Kwells), so I moved to the upwind side of the boat.

The Fairy Prions (and another prion I am waiting for ID confirmation on, but most likely it's just an odd fairy) closed in and came within just a meter or two of the boat, rivalling the Shy Albies for proximity. Despite the amazing views, it was hard to track them with the camera as the swell was accented by our lack of movement (and also I was half-trying to focus on dodging the frequent doses of spray that threatened to drench my lens if I wasn't careful).

 

This is the weird Prion... Love to hear anyone's thoughts!

Someone saw a White-faced Storm Petrel, right at the back of the oil-slick, but I couldn't find it - damn!!

However, just a few minutes and several lousy Prion shot later, it was back - and even quite close! I managed to even get a photo of it :D

White-faced Storm Petrel

I kind of expected that to be the highlight of the day, really. But I was wrong, as after a short while a Grey-backed Storm Petrel appeared! It stuck around for about half an hour to 45 minutes, dropping in and out of sight, and even came right in close a couple of times (within 8-10m of the back of the boat). A real delight to see, and as Tobias said it's about the best views you'll ever get of one!

 Grey-backed Storm Petrel

We were also amused (or perhaps distracted) by the antics of an Australian Fur Seal in the water behind the boat, a'nommin' on the shark liver.

 

Australian Fur Seal

We began to head for home. The only other bird of real note was an immature - and yes, I said and mean 'an' - Black-browed Albatross. The one and only bird of this species (or any Albatross species other than Shy) of the trip!!!

 Following us home... A Short-tailed Shearwater (top) and the view from the back of the boat!

As we pulled into the harbour, there were Black-faced Cormorants and Pacific Gulls on the assorted floating thingos that are usually in harbours, providing a nice, easy life and year tick to end the day!

Black-faced Cormorants

Pacific Gull

Finally, a cool composite picture by Julian Robinson of us all on the boat! (I'm on the top deck, far left :) ) http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/9927499774/

Julian

Top End 2013 - Lake Argyle to Wyndham

31st August

Today was the day of the Yellow Chat boat-cruise on Lake Argyle! We arrived at the boat ramp at Lake Argyle by 5.20am. We had 5 companions for the day, taking the total number of people to 8. The others were Mike Fidler, Ian Campton, Kay and Neil and Case, and they arrived a couple of minutes later.

We were installed on the boat, the skipper Greg gave us a brief rundown of how the day would run, and we were off.

I was expecting your ordinary 'putt-putt' tourist boat, but this thing absolutely flew! We were speeding over the glassy, jade-green waters of the lake, and the wind was refreshing even in the relatively cool, 15-degree morning.

 Our Boat

 Cast off!

 Sunrise over Lake Argyle

 The Lake....

 Dragonflies :D

Lake argyle is approximately 70km long, the biggest man-made lake in Australia. We enjoyed a stunning sunrise as we were sailing out to our first stop - a small bay, to enjoy the scenery and birdlife along the lake shore with our catered breakfast.

Magpie-goose flyover

The stop put us directly in front of the gigantic stick nest of a White-bellied Sea-eagle pair, and we could just see the head of one bird peeking out from the top. There were Long-tailed Finches nesting in gaps in the sticks of the nest, giving me an excellent opportunity to have a look at something I'd wanted to see since I read about it in the Morcombe field guide when I was 5 - small prey species seeking protection in the nest of large predators.

WBSE Nest

 

 Aaaand here's Mum....

 Forest of dead trees at the breakfast stop

I can tell you, I got the impression during breakfast (and it was an impression that was furthered throughout the trip), the $120 the eight of us paid to be on that boat may seem like a lot, but they could easily charge far, far more for the service you get. Breakfast was brilliant, and Greg was very knowledgeable about the Lake and it's avian inhabitants, as well as it's less-feathered clientele. 

At that stop we picked up several species, including a few new ones for me such as Wandering Whistling-duck, Pied Heron, and Glossy Ibis. White-breasted Woodswallows hawked close to the boat, and I picked up a Wood Sandpiper feeding among the abundant subadult Comb-crested Jacanas at the water's edge.

Australian Pelican

We got back underway and headed for the trip's main stop - Yellow Chat Island, home to the (not at all obvious from the name) Yellow Chat. This is the species we were targeting for the day, and, as far as I know, it's supposed to be the easiest place to get this species in Australia. It took us some time and several species to get there. We saw the first and only Freshwater Crocodile of the ride on the way, and we eventually arrived about 8am.

Freshwater Crocodile

Caspian Tern on arrival at Yellow Chat Island

The day was already stinking hot, so the short wade ashore was quite nice - until the actual coming ashore bit. I was wearing boots, and I had to take them off to get in the water. Quick tip, if you're doing this boat ride, take thongs, or shoes that you can completely submerge in water and then immediately walk around in!! Unless you like walking around on sticky mud and several centimetres of accumulated bird dung.

Once ashore, we could look around the island. As a place to be, it is incredibly barren - mud, rocks, some tall dead grassy plants - nothing abut the place is hospitable. It's a very large island, and we would have covered a little  more than half in the two hours or so we were ashore, but it doesn't get much greener than first sight.

We were all ashore, and almost immediately I had the pleasure of being the first to call "Yellow Chat!". An adult male was flicking about in the tall dead grasses directly in front of us, providing nice views and some photo opportunities. I thought that would be that, but no - there was better to come.

 Male Yellow Chat

Australian Pratincoles were abundant on the island, and the lowest water level in several years saw the island's fringes become a vast, muddy wetland, supporting several thousand Magpie Geese, phenomenal numbers of Hardhead and other ducks, and up to a hundred Green Pygmy-geese. these birds were impossible to approach, but provided stunning viewing as they took off in vast, intertwining flocks.

 

Plumed Whistling-duck, Magpie Goose and Black-winged Stilt

Making our way round the western edge of the island (having entered from the north), we quickly caught up with more Chats, including females this time. During our time on the island, I would say we saw at the very least 15, probably more like 20 individuals at close range. Mike Fidler wandered off on his own to try and get better pictures with his 300mm f2.8 + 2xTC combination.

 Red-capped Plover

Whiskered Tern

As I said, we spent two awesome hours on the island, mainly stalking the chats. On our way back to the boat, we saw 7 Australian Bustard in the distance, a nice addition to the trip list.

 Yellow Chats - female top, males bottom

 

We collected Mike, and set off again, this time on a lap of the island. At that point it was close to 10.00am, and boiling in the sun, so the watermelon and cold drinks on board were pretty much lifesavers. As we circled the island, we powered through enormous, thousand-strong flocks of Hardhead, Magpie Geese and Pacific Black-duck, and stopped briefly to observe Nankeen Night-heron and Great-crested Grebe before continuing.

 Nankeen Night Heron (top) and a massive flock of Hardhead

To my delight, as we were almost all the way round the island, we ran into a huge flock (1000+) of Green Pygmy-geese, which are now one of my favourite small swimming birds.

As we departed the island and got up to speed, a Great-crested Grebe surfaced and ran alongside us, keeping pace with the boat, for several meters before diving again, giving us a great view. 

On the return journey now, we passed the rock faces and saw a species of Rock Wallaby (which I'm not sure the exact identity of) hiding in the caves and crevices.

We stopped for a while at two different areas of rock face and played the call of the Sandstone Shrike-thrush, a species Ashwin had told me was very difficult, so I wasn't expecting much. We dipped at the first site, but at the second, a single bird hopped onto a rock into plain view - everyone's view except mine, apparently. It took Mike a good five minutes to help me find it, and even after that the bird sat obligingly halfway up the cliff before flying off. Greg observed that that was the first time he had ever seen a silent one, and that previously he had always heard it before seeing it.

 Sandstone Shrike-thrush

A final stop brought us within just a few meters of a party of White-quilled Rock Pigeon, a brown but nonetheless beautiful bird.

 White-quilled Rock Pigeons

As a conclusion on the boat trip - DO IT IF YOU CAN!! The birding is fantastic, the scenery is breathtaking and provides completely new views of the lake and cliffs unobtainable any other way, the guides are knowledgeable, friendly, and the whole affair is great fun!

We got underway, destination Wyndham, and more specifically, Parry's Creek Farm, a tourist resort just out of town. This would be the main headquarters for the Gouldian count.

We stopped for a while on the way, at a small waterhole by the roadside that Derek remembered from last year as a good spot to see Pictorella Mannikin. It was about 2pm, and no Pictorellas came in, but even in the heat of the afternoon we had a lot of activity with plenty of opportunity for photos (if perhaps not at eye level). We earmarked the spot for the next morning and moved on.

 Zebras and a Long-tailed Finch, with a sneaky Weebill

 Rufous-throated Honeyeaters and a Peaceful Dove

 Diamond Dove

 Masked and Long-tailed Finches

We arrived at Parry's Creek, and I have to say, it wasnt quite what I expected. Dust reigned, the calling card of a long dry season. I was expecting grass and leafy trees, as I'd seen in the campgrounds along the way. The advertising screen in the office told me it usually is exactly that, but not so now. We set up camp in a small area of shade in the sahara-reminiscent dust field.

After that, we pretty much just relaxed! Case, Ian, Neil and Kay were staying at Parry's too, so we all hung around in the shade until the sun went down.

 Yep, Top end alright! Frogs in the toilets....

1st September

This morning early, before light, we were on the road headed back to yesterday's waterhole. A brilliant mornings birding produced no less than FIFTY-SEVEN Gouldian Finches by Mikes count, including several full coloured adults, providing very nice photo ops.

Lots of other birds too, mainly honeyeaters and heaps of finches. No pictorellas.

 Gouldian Finches

After that, Mike showed us a spot called Pumpkin Spring, just off the road a few km back from the waterhole. Pulling up, we saw a Pheasant Coucal flying off, and in the dense stand of pandanus around the spring, Crimson Finches, Double-bars and even a few late rising Gouldians were seen drinking from the puddles in the cow hoof prints in the soft mud.

We drove into Kunnunurra to 'The Hoochery', as it is known, a large area of crop seeds known as a site for the Yellow-rumped Mannikin. No luck, but we did hear Red-backed Fairy Wren among the sorghum stems. Not a lifer or even a year tick, but a trip tick and a very nice bird nonetheless.

Golden-headed Cisticola

We returned to Parry's Creek, stopping at a small roadside waterhole in the way. A pair of Brolgas strolled off, and a pair of nesting Brown Falcons above the waterhole gave me doubts we'd see anything good. I was right, nothing interesting came in.

 

Brolga

We relaxed in camp for a while, then took a drive the Marlgu Lagoon, part of the RAMSAR wetland within which Parry's Creek Farm is situated. Many birds, but apparently down on last year. Nothing new for me except I got photos of Australian Pipit.

 Various waterbirds at Marlgu Wetland

 Intermediate Egret

Driving out though, we pulled over to check out some larks (which turned out to be Horsfields Bushlark - tick!) and found a couple of Star Finches mixed into a flock of Zebras and Double Bars. Double tick!

Horsfields Bushlark 

We went swimming in the pool until it was almost time for the opening meeting of the count at 5pm.

Mike Fidler and Sarah Pryke did the opening presentations on the count and how it functions, which was very interesting.

I'm now sitting in my swag, itching mozzie bites and wiping dust off everything, and almost falling asleep. Hopefully some good stuff to report tomorrow for the first day of the count!!