Tour de Victoria

Spring is in the air, and how else does one celebrate spring but by going birdwatching? My cousin's 21st birthday party in Melbourne provided me with the necessary motive for a birding trip covering 3 key areas of Victoria - Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, Melbourne, and Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. Here is a long trip report detailing the trip. Feel free to read it if you have the time!

At Albury, we quickly pulled off the highway for a spot of birding. We pulled up in the Bunnings carpark and, as promised, a single Eurasian Tree Sparrow was sitting on the wall above the nursery. After a bit more driving, we arrived at Chiltern - a lovely town with some great birds. After leaving the family at the caravan park, I headed up to Bartley's Block in search of my elusive bogey, the Painted Honeyeater. Just after pulling up at Bartley's, another car pulled up beside mine, and out hopped a pair of birders from the US, who informed me of a Painted Honeyeater they had just seen up the road. After thanking them and giving them directions to Turquoise Parrots, I headed up Mount Pleasent Road, and went 500m past the "gravelly section", before stopping. Good birds were around, including Red-capped Robin, Black-chinned Honeyeater, Brown Treecreeper, Little Lorikeet... but no Painted Honeyeater. Eventually, after just over an hour, I heard the unmistakable call of the Painted Honeyeater. It eluded me for another 30 minutes, but eventually I saw a bird on a dead stick at the top of a tree, and after raising my binoculars, sure enough, there sat a magnificent Painted Honeyeater.

Bunnings Tree Sparrow

After a while, I decided to try my luck at some of the other areas around Chiltern, and did a spot of birding around the No.1 and No.2 dams (highlights: Restless Flycatcher, Pink-eared Duck) as well as Honeyeater Picnic Ground in the evening (highlights: not a single bird). Dinner passed, and mum and I headed down to Mt Pilot National Park (on dwindling petrol) in the hope of a Barking Owl. Despite my best barking, only a single Tawny Frogmouth was spotlighted, and an Owlet Nightjar the only other bird heard. A bit further down the track, we realised we had no idea where we were, as none of the intersections matched up with my map. Luckily we made it out with enough petrol left to get us back. Just. In the morning, I headed back to the Painted Honeyeater site, and managed to locate another 4 birds, plus another 2 calling.

Painted Honeyeater

Painted Honeyeater(s)

The next two days were strictly family days, but the food at my cousin's birthday party made up for the lack of birds. On Sunday, I woke my loving father up at 5:00 to drive me to Owen's house (there aren't many of us birders under the age of 18, so we always make an effort to meet each other), and together with Owen's dad, headed up to Toolangi. At the Wirrawilla carpark, in the cold and partially windy weather, we ventured into the forest understorey, and walked to the end of the track before eventually hearing our main target - the Pink Robin. We had a brief glimpse of the male before it flitted away. A quick scramble towards the call along a decaying log resulted in very wet and muddy pants, but that was forgotten when, from right next to our heads, the robin called, and we had views so close that we literally could not raise out binoculars. Pilotbird were heard, but lived up to their skulking nature.

We finished up on the Wirrawilla walk, and after nice views of a male Rose Robin back at the car, decided to try our luck along Quarry Road, which started off well with a female lyrebird right next to us. Further up, we realised that there was an Olvie Whistler calling from right next to the track. Of course it dissappeared as we approached, but soon enough, as if by magic, it came back! (magic in this sense is an iPod and a speaker). The Pilotbirds remained elusive, but overall it was a very successful morning.

Obliging Olive Whistler

Monday arrived, and much to the surprise of my cousins, I elected to spend the day not with them, but at Werribee. Owen and Sonja picked me up early, and we headed straight to the literal toilet of Melbourne, where we met up with John. Today's target? What else but the "resident" Oriental Pratincole. After a quick detour for Glossy Ibis (found right next to Beach Road, bathed in early morning sunshine), we headed to W-Section, where we scanned the muddy islands for our quarry, but alas, in vain. A tricky Masked Lapwing on a nest plus various sticks and rocks in the mud funny angles proved that anything can be a pratincole if you have enough hope. Red-necked Stints, Curlew and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers were all seen, and also many White-fronted Chats and a moulting male Brown Sonlark (one of about 7 recorded throughout the day).

Male White-fronted Chat

Golden-headed Cisticola

Red-capped Plover standing in Melbourne's toilet

We headed over to T-Section, and a drive around that area resulted in a Lathams Snipe, Horsefield's Bronze Cuckoo, and a few Banded Lapwings. Next, we decided to try Owen's pratincole site, near some rocks next to a large lagoon in a paddock nearby. We walked towards them, flushing a Stubble Quail on the way, and when we were only 10m or so away (I had just begun to think that the pratincole was not there), what flushed from in front of us but the sleek, slender-winged beauty which was our target - the Oriental Pratincole. We tracked it with our binoculars as it flew away from us and landed back in W-Section. After a quick chat to fellow birdwatcher, Martin, we headed back over to W-Section, and in less than a minute we were watching the Oriental Pratincole, happily loafing around on an island. And it had only taken 4.5 hours!!!

ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE!

THE SAME ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE!

With the main target under our belt, we spent the rest of the day having a stress-free look around one of the preimer birding sites in Australia. The next highlight was when we stopped on the coast road to scan a flock of Red-necked Stints for the long-staying Broad-billed Sandpiper. I walked down to within a few metres of the flock, and lifted my binocualrs to begin to long and arduous process of checking every single bird... Naturally, the first bird that I saw in my binoculars (literally, the first bird) was in fact the Broad-billed Sandpiper! Yay!

Easy find - Broad-billed Sandpiper

 At the birdhide, a Spotless Crake and a Spotted Harrier both put in a brief appearance, but not a single Cape Barren Goose were present at Lake Borrie unfortunately. Entering the restricted access area, we checked a small wader in a pond which turned out to be a lovely Marsh Sandpiper, and a bit further along a female Flame Robin sat on the fence. Along the coast, another large flock of stints were sighted, and after a quick scan we noticed one bird with a strange plumage variation, resulting in most of it's back being white!

"White-backed" Red-necked Stint

Near the Borrow Pits, Sonja noted a single Rufous Songlark flew from the road, and John found 7 Australasian Shoveller sat quietly in a pond, with 5 Red-kneed Dotterels nearby. On our way back through the Conservation Ponds, a huge flock of ducks on our right turned out to be comprised of Pink-eared Ducks - well over 500 of them! A sea-eagle sat calmly feeding on something, and after some scanning of a large flock of Avocets in Paradise Lagoon, we eventually made out 10 Banded Stilts. In the end, we had an impressive total of 94 species!

Paradise: Banded Stilts and Red-necked Avocets

With Cape Barren Goose our only major dip, Sonja and Owen decided that it was worth a quick trip out to Serendip Sanctuary. In the carpark, we had amazing views of a couple of Purple-crowned Lorikeets, but I am reluctant to tick the geese, which, despite being free flying, were remarkably fond of people... ;)

It's not often that lorikeets pose nicely like this Purple-crowned Lorikeet

Dusky Woodswallow

An early start on Tuesday saw mum and myself driving the 500km to the states north-west. A quick stop at Lake Tyrrell in search of Rufous Fieldwrens seemed destined to fail. We arrived at noon, and after parking near the saltbush, not a single bird could be heard. A pipit sitting on a bush, despite it's best efforts to impress me, was not a fieldwren, but a large flock of about 20 Blue-winged Parrots was a pleasant, and quite unexpected find. A few White-winged Fairy-wrens were seen, but I had given up on the fieldwren... Until mum told me that she had seen a few "Grasswren like birds other there". Initially, I thought she was talking about the fairy-wrens, but she convinced me to have a look, and of course the birds in question ended up being an obliging party of 4 beautiful Rufous Fieldwrens!

Surprised Blue-winged Parrot

Rufous Fieldwren

The rest of the drive to Hattah was slow (despite the sign that we passed telling us to take the next left to the town of Speed). We arrived at Lake Hattah about 2:30, and decided that there were too many people, so elected to head to Lake Mournpall instead, stopping for a Pink Cockatoo next to the road along the way. Yellow Rosellas and Mallee Ringnecks flew about the campground, but the Regent Parrots seemed to not be around. Note that there is only rainwater available at Lake Mournpall - try to take all your drinking water in with you.

Pink Cockatoo next to the car

After a record time being achieved for setting up the tents, I utilised the 2 hours of reamaing daylight to being my search for the specialist birds of Hattah. We drove along the Konardin Track and emerged about 1km up the Nowingi Track. A small party of Variegated Fairy-wrens got my hopes up, and the numerous Malleefowl tracks going across the road in various places taunted us, but the Mallee Emu-wrens were not found until after the sun had set. In the dwindling light, I had brief views of the male sitting in the middle of a dense bush before it dissappeared. On the way back to camp, a Grey Currawong was heard, but the biggest surprise was just as we went over the crest of a hill near the campground, and a Spotted Nightjar flushed from right in front of us!

Nesting Mallee Ringneck

The next morning, after a quick look around the lake (only Black-tailed Native Hens, Cormorants and Pelicans), we headed back over to the Nowingi Track, and I armed myself with a pressure bandage, an EPIRB, and a GPS before trecking off into the mallee (I forgot the water though!). One hour and many spinifex jabs later, my deadline was up, and I had to return to mum in the parked car. Of course, Sod's Law came into play, and I found the Striated Grasswrens. I couldn't stay for long, or else mum might have gotten stressed and called in the emergency services to find me, but I used up at least 15 minutes trying to get eyes onto a Grasswren, but their calls always stayed a few metres ahead of me, and in the end, the only views I got was of a single, partially obscured bird hopping from one spinifex clump to another in less than a second. No more Grasswrens were found for the rest of the day, and I quickly came to the conclusion that I am not going to enjoy tracking down the other 10 Grasswrens... Especially the ones that live in spinifex (ie: just about all of them). In conclusion, this sighting was less than ideal, but Striated Grasswren is still a very special bird which has taken place as bird number 800 for my world list!

Back at the camp for breakfast, the Regent Parrots finally put in an appearance. As the wind increased, I decided to give the mallee birds one last shot.

Bird 801 - Regent Parrot

We parked near the start of the Nowingi Track, and I headed back to the spot where the Grasswrens had been an hour ago. No luck, but as I walked back onto the road running north/south through Hattah, I looked right with my binoculars, and what did I see but the head of a Malleefowl poking over the top of a crest of the next hill! The only problem was, this hill was 500m away. Needless to say, if I had been timing myself, I would have recorded my PB for the 500m sprint. Despite my best effort however, by the time I got to the top of the hill, that bloody chicken had dissappeared into the bush...

It was now 11:30, and the wind was quite strong, so I decided to give the Nowingi Track one last go before we headed off to Balaranald for the night. Not wanting to again get brutally stabbed by the spinifex, I stuck to the road. At 12:00 exactly, I finally heard the call of an Emu-wren through the wind (a real Emu-wren this time, not a fairy-wren or a weebill or a thornbill doing an impersonation), and subsequently had fantastic views of both the male and a few females as they responded to my pishing and sat out in the open - excellent!

Due to a slight miss-communication with my mum, I kept walking along the road expecting her to drive along and pick me up at any moment. As it turned out, I kept walking, and walking some more, and eventually had walked 5km up the Nowingi Track before she found me at 1:30. Not many birds were seen in this time interval, but a huge flock of White-browed and Masked Woodswallows erupting from a few trees next to the track was a spectacle to behold! Also more Malleefowl tracks and a single Grey Currawong.

The leisurely 12 hour drive back to Sydney was largely uneventful, but there were a few definite highlights. At the camping ground in Yanga State Conservation Area, a male Emu with chicks and a Red-backed Kingfisher kept both my mum and myself entertained, and the masses of raptors seen while traversing the Hay Plain was amazing (literally a new raptor ever 100m - mostly comprised of Black, Whistling and Black-shouldered Kites, Kestrels and Brown Falcons - we must have passed hundreds of them!). The definitive highlight though was about 10km north of Hay, when I spotted two small brown birds walking in the middle of the highway. As we approached, they took off, and I realised that it was a pair of Australian Pratincoles! We subsequently got some great views of these excellent birds, and I was extremely happy - it's not often that you see both Pratincole species in a single trip unless you're in Broome during the wet season!

Red-backed Kingfisher

At Grenfell, we stopped briefly at the sewage ponds, and had a chat with a worker there about birds (he was a bit of a birder himself), and he told us of various sightings from the past year, including two Magpie Geese and a young bird which stayed at the ponds during Febuary! In the trees out the back of the sewage ponds, a large flock of Superb Parrots were flying around, and on that note, I shall end this report!

Superb Pair

In total, I had 13 lifers, and the trip list totalled at exactly 189 species (just short of the 200 mark! Damn! Should've gone to Gluepot for those Scarlet-chested Parrots... if I didn't find out about that after arriving back in Sydney....)

A few thankyous are in order now! Firstly, to all the replies I had on birding-aus on finding Painted Honeyeaters - that was really helpful, so thank you very much! Secondly, to Owen, his dad, and Sonja, for agreeing to take me birding around Melbourne - I wouldn't have been able to go without them, and would have missed some of my key targets! Last, (but not least!), my lovely mother who made the 1000km detour with me in search of those elusive wrens at Hattah.