After the reports of 12 Regent Honeyeaters only 1.5 hours away from home for the last 2 weeks, Max, Nathan, Henry and I were literally bouncing with enthusiasm today, as it was the first free day in 2 weeks available to make the trip north (the perils of being a birder still in school, with exams and such)
After a few issues getting organised (eg; Henry only being able to come on Saturday when I had tennis) we eventually agreed on meeting at midday then getting to Morisset at 1:30. After consulting the finders of the flock, it became apparent that the location was easy to get to, but the birds were often not seen after about 11:00. Of course due to timing issues we weren’t able to get there until 1:30 at the earliest… typical. The promise of late showers also dismayed us. Luckily, weather can never get in the way of a twitch!
Parking at the entrance to the reserve, we walked towards the site frequented by the birds over the last week. After a few tricky obstacles (for example: the muddy-swampy excuse for a track and a river, only crossable by climbing across a water pipe), we made it to the approximate area. I quickly picked up on a sign – footprints in the mud! Birders must have passed this way recently!It only took 100m of walking until Max alerted us to the Regent Honeyeater feeding in the tree above us – what a bird! Throughout the next hour and a bit we were rewarded with views of at least 8 birds, probably more, plus a hoard of other honeyeater species. Unfortunately, it was very overcast with no sun, so photography was insane.
Walking back to the car, we found a flock of Varied Sittellas, and were just watching some White-naped Honeyeaters bathing in a puddle when the sun came out. Excellent. We high-tailed it back a kilometre to the Regents and were rewarded with much better views and photographic opportunities.
The day ended with a very easy Swift Parrot twitch, and we received year-ticks before even getting out of the car!
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