2013 Wrap Up - Part 1 (Cram!)

 Okies... well to start off, blogger, feathers and photos and various other crucial sites for my existence were giving me a lot of trouble throughout the second half of 2013 so I couldn't post any trip reports. Due to this, I've nicknamed this report 'Cram!'
I'll pick up where I left off and run through the highlights of the year.

Through Facebook, I got in contact with Jillian Nolan, a birder and photographer based in Sydney. She kindly offered to take me out to Western Sydney for my first Western Sydney run on the 23rd August!

On this trip I saw my first Banded Lapwings at the Windsor Turf Farms albeit a bit distant, my first Great Crested Grebes at Castlereagh, male and female Scarlet Robins and Swift Parrots at Mulgoa Nature Reserve!!! Along with these birds we also observed Rose Robin, Peaceful Dove and Little Lorikeet.

Scarlet Robin (Male)

Banded Lapwing (Windsor Turf Farms)

Great Crested Grebe (Castlereagh)

Little Lorikeet

Peaceful Dove

Rose Robin

We also saw a Camel and a Donkey which was quite amusing.

Following this, on the 14th September I got my first good look at a Little Grassbird at Eastlakes Golf Course with my dad as well as observing some Brown Quail, a Fan-tailed Cuckoo and some other nice birds.

Little Grassbird

Brown Quail

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

After Eastlakes, a quick drive to the airport ponds produced a Peregrine Falcon, a Striated Heron and some Yellow-rumped Thornbill along with the usual suspects.

Striated Heron... wasn't too friendly!

After that it was off to Orchestra after which I briefly dropped in to the Botanical Gardens and found myself a Powerful Owl and a Peregrine Falcon with a Rock Dove.

Peregrine silhouette

Powerful Owl preening

On the 16th September I got a tip off from Andrew Taylor, a local birder, about some Buff-banded Rail in my suburb!!! I went to the site and sure enough, there they were! So far I've seen 3 there.

Glebe Buff-banded Rail

On the 17th September I went out to Western Sydney with Katy Wilkins on a survey. As well as a Fox, we observed a young Pacific Baza, a Black Kite, some Double-barred Finch, a Brown Falcon

Fox

The Baza

Black Kite silhouette

Double-barred Finches

From the 19th through to the 21st of September I went banding out at Munghorn Gap with Graham Fry. Banding has always been fascinating to me and although this was only my second trip, I really felt like I was getting the hang of it! Aside from the fun of extracting birds from nets and handling and banding them, the birding around Munghorn Gap was fantastic!

On the way out of Sydney, I was thinking to myself, 'Ooh, I'll take some pictures of crossing the harbour bridge for the blog, that'll be fun!' So... I took them and when I got back I remembered that the blog wasn't exactly working for me. Nonetheless, here is the image!

Dashboard shot of the Harbour Bridge... I dunno :-P

After crossing the Blue Mountains without any pit-stops, we arrived at the Lithgow Poo Ponds where a few Pink-eared Ducks and Australian Shoveler greeted us along with the usual suspects and some Hoary-headed Grebe.

Pink-eared Duck, Shoveler and some other photobombing Teal, PBD and Hardhead

Hoary-headed Grebe

After Lithgow, we drove through the Capertee Valley stopping here and there. A White-eared Honeyeater was nice to see along Glen Davis Road, a bird that I first saw earlier this year on a hike! Further down the road a light morph Little Eagle flew over the car.

Underexposed Little Eagle (Light Morph)

After a few other stops picking up a few honeyeaters and the other more common birds we (Dad and I) came down into the farmland where we were greeted by the usual dramatic views as well as a few Zebra Finch, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Black-fronted Dotterel and other nice birds:

Just the usual sandstone cliffs

Black-fronted Dotterel

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Zebra Finch

We continued onto Glen Alice Road and after the right hand turn a little way up we pulled over at some trees. Good choice! We could hear some Diamond Firetail making their brown quail imitation and also scored a lifer, a Striped Honeyeater with a nest! Sadly my honeyeater shots didn't really come out well.

Diamond Firetail

Striped Honeyeater

A little further on we found a Spotted Harrier gliding low over the long grass of some farmland nearby. After a brief stop to photograph it, on went Beethoven and we were off to Munghorn Gap to make camp before the sun went down!

Spotted Harrier

Nothing much turned up of interest on the drive to Munghorn Gap. One Brown Goshawk and a couple of hundred Straw-necked Ibis flew over the car. We made it to Honeyeater Flat, Munghorn Gap, greeted Graham (who told us about some Painted Honeyeater calling in the area...) and set up tents just before the sun went down, in time to look at the sunset through the trees.... Straya!

Our tents

Sunset

Boobooks and Australian Owlet Nightjars kept me awake most of the night, at one point I even tried to find one! Bad idea... I walked about a kilometre and a half chasing a Boobook and managed to observe a kangaroo and get my feet nice and wet.

The next morning I didn't tell anyone about my little 1am excursion. Rising at around 5:30, I headed out to try and find the Painted Honeyeater. None heard or seen, but I did find some White-winged Chough on nests, another Striped Honeyeater, Jacky Winter, Brown Treecreeper, Pied Butcherbird, Rufous Whistler and some others around the camping area.

Striped Honeyeater

Walking down the main road a bit, I found some Eastern Yellow Robin, Noisy Friarbird, Thornbills and a lifer for me, a group of Brown-headed Honeyeater!

Brown-headed Honeyeater

To make the first banding run, I ran back to the camp, quickly hunked down some breakfast and got in the car with dad to go to the spring, our banding spot for the day. As we arrive, Graham and another bander, Martin were settling down for the first batch. After greeting them, we went off to extract some birds from the mist-nets. White-naped Honeyeater, Red-browed Finch, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Brown Thornbill and others were retrieved from the nets and dad quickly put them into the bags and took them back to Graham and Martin.

Red-browed Finch (right) and White-naped Honeyeater (left)

Daddy-O with birds in bags... hasn't quite woken up :-)

At this point, many of you readers may be wondering if this is ethical birding practice; to catch birds in nets, handle then, put them in bags, stick thin metal bands on their legs and then measure them with all sorts of tools. Well, many people have their reservations about this form of research, but personally I feel that banding is a critical form of study that needs to be undertaken to fully understand the health of an ecosystem, specifically the birdlife. When a bird has a band, if it is re-trapped in a net, it can provide valuable information on the specific bird and also the habitat that the bird is banded in. From the band, an ornithologist can determine the approximate age of a bird, depending on when it was last banded, the sex of the bird and also the weight and moulting patterns the specific species has. These are just a few ways that banding helps ornithologist learn about specific species. If birds are banded in the same spot numerous times, it shows that the birds are happy to live in the area which then provides valuable information about what sort of habitat specific species prefer. This is particularly helpful for threatened species for which habitat regeneration is one method of boosting the population. When a bird is banded in one area, the band has imprinted upon it, a unique number or colour which identifies the individual bird. If this individual bird is re-trapped at another location, banders are then able to determine possible migration patterns that birds have, as well as other movements that are influenced by food availability or weather. This is just a basic description of the immense benefits that banding provides to ornithology.

Back on track however.... below I've attached a few more shots of birds being banded.

Graham with a Brown Thornbill, about to weigh it

White-browed Scrubwren, retrap 

Graham measuring the wing-length of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater

At around 10:30 a whole lot of alarm calls rang out around the banding site. Looking up a dark raptor glided low over the trees above us and started circling upwards. After a quick squizz through the bins it was decided the bird was a dark morph Little Eagle. It was later harrassed by a female Brown Goshawk and chased away.

Dark Morph Little Eagle

More banding entailed:

Me with a Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Banding a White-naped Honeyeater

Yellow Thornbill in the hand

Soon the call of a White-throated Gerygone came from above us and Martin and Graham commented they may have a nest. It was embarrassing to admit that I had not yet seen a White-throated Gerygone. They quickly relieved me of my banding duties and told me to find it, which I did.

White-throated Gerygone

After that, a few Superb Fairywren, Eastern Spinebill, other assorted honeyeaters and thornbills and a single Spotted Pardalote were banded, which called an end to the day's banding.

Martin with the Pardalote

After we had packed up the banding set-up, Dad and I headed back to camp for lunch. Following lunch at which a Weebill was observed at close quarters, I went off for a walk to try find the reported Painted Honeyeater. I could hear one calling distantly as I bush bashed my way towards Moolarben Road. Looking up just before I crossed a small empty creek bed, a Little Eagle, presumeably the same bird, was observed sitting in a tree around 10 - 15m away.

Dark Morph Little Eagle perched

Soon after a loud warning call went up from all the honeyeaters and miners in the area and a Wedge-tailed Eagle flew low over the threes the Little Eagle was perched on, causing it to take flight as well!

(The light was pretty atrocious)

A Painted Honeyeater was briefly heard a long way down Moolarben Road, so I set about walking towards the call. On the way numerous other birds were encountered including some White-browed Babbler, Eastern Yellow Robin, a male Rufous Whistler, Mistletoebird, Yellow-tufted and other honeyeaters... so on.

White-browed Babbler

Eastern Yellow Robin

Mistletoebird

Rufous Whistler

Sadly I couldn't find my target, the Painted Honeyeater, so I headed back to camp. As I came to the campsite, Dad came up to me asking if I'd found the honeyeater. I told him I hadn't. Naturally I was then made aware that Graham, whilst walking back from the banding site, had happened across a male feeding in some mistletoe beside the road! Gripped!!!!

We went about setting up the nets for the next day's banding, rolling them up so we didn't catch any night critters. A few groups of Straw-necked Ibis flew over and Dad and I discovered emu poo for the first time!

Straw-necked Ibis flock

Dad with the bag of nets

Dad (right) and Graham (left) pulling out the nets

Off to camp

Emu poo!

That night, Dad offered to take me out looking for Barn Owls. We asked Graham where the best spot would be to find them and he told us to go for the lower, wetter areas. Naturally we decided a drive higher up would be productive. Bad move, we saw nothing and almost froze. We then decided to listen to what Graham had said and we headed towards Mudgee. Not far along the road, Dad asked, 'what's that on the signpost?' Sure enough we had a Barn Owl. We both went to bed contented with our spotlighting effort.

Not an award winning shot... but a Barn Owl nonetheless

The next morning I woke nice and early.... I needed to find this Painted Honeyeater. Perhaps I woke a little too early...

A very early start.....

I decided as I could hear a few Eastern Yellow Robins and Superb Fairywren starting up I would persist anyway, and it got lighter quite quickly. I went straight down to the gate and started walking along the road to where Graham had seen his Painted Honeyeater the day before. No Painted, but I found some more Brown-headed Honeyeaters as well as some Little Lorikeets and a bird I wasn't expecting, 4 Musk Lorikeet! Not rare birds, just unexpected.

Musk Lorikeet... the light was hard to photograph in!

Same Musk Lorikeet

Some other nice birds seen and heard were White-naped Honeyeater, Yellow-faced and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White-throated Treecreeper, Brown Treecreeper, Jacky Winter and the other usual suspects.

Jacky Winter

As I was walking back to the camp, I heard a Painted Honeyeater call. I whistled back and we had a little conversation! The conversation went on for about 5 minutes, it gets really tiring whistling for such a long period of time, but eventually it paid off. The Painted Honeyeater flew into a tree right in front of me.

My first views of a Painted Honeyeater

Singing

Singing some more

Sitting around

Still sitting around

Overall I got to look at it for about 3 minutes sitting openly on a branch, before it flew off to find some mistletoe to nibble. I headed back to camp, passing a few kangaroos and wallabies on the way, feeling pleased with myself, a good morning's birding was had!

Eastern Grey Kangaroo with joey

Red-necked Wallaby

As I reached the camp, Graham was already up and banding the first batch for the day. A White-throated Treecreeper amongst others was banded, it was great to get close to one of these rather jumpy birds. Various other birds were banded including a pair of Speckled Warbler, some Mistletoebirds and various other woodland birds.

Me with a Mistletoebird - bill-length measurements

Speckled Warbler wing length measurements

Male Mistletoebird in the hand

Speckled Warbler in the hand

A pair of Brown Goshawks and the Little Eagle were seen again on a net run as the day started to heat up. Not too much else turned up except for a beautiful male Rufous Whistler.

Brown Goshawk

Graham with a Rufous Whistler

That was the end of the banding trip for September 2013 and we packed up, said our goodbyes and were on the road again! Numerous Little Eagle, at least 5 individual birds were seen between Mudgee and the town of Capertee which was great to see. Other than that the odd Nankeen Kestrel, Brown Falcon, Black-shouldered Kite and Whistling Kite were seen along the road. A quick stop at Lithgow Poo Ponds produced a few Pink-eared Ducks and Shovelers amongst the usual waterfowl.

Pink-eared Duck yawning

We ascended into the mountains but briefly stopped at Pierces Pass picnic area to see if we could find the apparently abundant and relatively tame Pilotbirds that reside there. (Cheers for the tip off Ashwin!) As I got out of the car, I could hear their distinctive call and it didn't take us long to find one jumping around on the ground. Not long after, looking up into a tree nearby, I noticed a large finch with a bright red bill. A Beautiful Firetail!! Two lifers in under a minute, fantastic!

Pilotbird

Beautiful Firetail

From there we went straight home and that was the end of a fantastic trip... and so it happens, the end of Part 1 of the 2013 Wrap Up!

Thanks specifically to Graham Fry, Jillian Nolan, Katy Wilkins, Andrew Taylor, Ashwin Rudder for allowing me to get out and about, banding, surveying, birding and to see new things! Most importantly however, thank you very much Dad for taking me to and from various sites, especially driving to and from Munghorn Gap and just generally being a good dad!