HSC - Hardly Saw Coot...... let alone anything else!

Well, that's a lie. My schooling career officially ended today with the conclusion of the Biology HSC Exam, and I am a free man! I realised today that for this whole year, I have only made 4 blog posts, which is very bad (Max has made none! haha). So here's a quick summary - my survival guide for "How to bird successfully during Year 12" - I'm looking at you, Nathan/Henry/Simon/Julian!

1) DON'T MAKE EXCUSES, GO BIRDING!
Whilst a lot of time must be spent on schoolwork, there are always ways to fit in birding around it. Isn't that right Ashwin? ;)

2) GO ON PELAGICS, THE FRESH SEA AIR IS GOOD FOR YOU
I've been on a few pelagics this year, as they are very good single day breaks from study! I was on both the March and April Sydney Pelagics (in the vain hope of "twitching" New Zealand Storm Petrel, which has been sighted at that time of year over the last few years). No NZSP showed itself, however the April Pelagic was the day before Nathan's and Max's birthday, so I made an obligatory birdday cake which was well received on board.

An Edible (but not Tickable) New Zealand Storm Petrel

Little Penguin

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

It is with great sadness that we learnt last month that the Halicat has been sold, and this era of Sydney Pelagics has come to an end, with a new arrangement needing to be organised at some point in the near future. Thankyou to Hal, Roger, Steve, Nikolas, and all the birders I have enjoyed my time with on board over the last few years - you kickstarted my love of ocean birding, and I hope to see you on the wide blue expanse again some other time!

Indeed, my last year of Halicatting held some fantastic experiences. My last bird tick was the March White-tailed Tropicbird, and while the April Pelagic netted me no new birds, we spotted pods of both Long-snouted Spinner Dolphins and Pantropical Spotted Dolphins, the former one of the first Sydney records, well out of range in the unusually warm Sydney waters. Soon after, we found a huge mass of floating pumice, with a whole marine ecosystem living off it. Steve dove in to grab some samples, and although I have no photos of this once-in-a-lifetime event, we were amazed by the display of spheroid orange, lime and spotted pufferfish, fluoro blue-striped slugs, pelagic sea snails, barnacles, and surface-dwelling crabs.

This is not a Tropicbird, but a White Tern, seen soon 

after the White-tailed Tropicbird disappeared

After a sudden influx of Common Diving Petrel sightings in June, (see SEAWATCHING) and a Blue Petrel of Wollongong, Max, Ashwin and myself quickly booked on an impromptu Swansea Pelagic, which was subsequently cancelled 5 minutes before we left home. A backup July Wollongong SOSSA Pelagic the next week was a milestone for me, first pelagic without a lifer! However we had a great day, with some great views of Buller's Albatross.

Buller's Albatross

3) SEAWATCHING... IT CAN BE ALRIGHT I GUESS
What a terrible idea. Who ever invented this? I've spent a fair few hours on North Head this year in perfect conditions (read raining, windy and cold), with very little to show for it. However, after the influx of Common Diving Petrels off the NSW coast, I decided to try my luck, and for the first time, I actually had some fantastic luck whilst seawatching! After only an hour, I saw a tiny bird right underneath me drop out of the sky and plunge into the water. After a tense minute, I finally relocated it, and had great views of Common Diving Petrel! Throughout the afternoon, I had 5 sightings,  at one point, 3 sitting an diving on the water right in front of me!

Double Common Diving Petrel

4) SYDNEY TICKING - EASIER THAN LIFERS
Max, Ashwin and myself spent a lot of effort this year on getting Sydney ticks, some of the highlights over our various trips to western Sydney being (in chronological order):

Great-crested Grebe
Square-tailed Kite (finally getting my bogey! Circing overhead as we quickly pulled over in Richmond)
Striated Pardalote (everywhere in Sydney this year)
Freckled Duck (everywhere all over Australia this year, with us counting 30 at Pitt Town in April)
Scarlet Robin*
White-naped Honeyeater*
Swift Parrot* (these last three on an exceptional morning at Mulgoa Nature Reserve in winter)
Eastern Barn Owl
Pallid Cuckoo
Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
Whiskered Tern

With a number of notable dips too, namely Australasian Bittern at Pitt Town Lagoon (double dip, one of which involved me wading through muddy thigh-deep water for an hour and bashing through almost impenetrable reeds) and Sooty Owl at Royal with Nathan Ruser, Henry Coleman, and disappointed visiting British birder Ben Jobson! We did get unbeatable views of four Freckled Ducks at Eastlakes though, and found some very cool glowworm colonies off southern Lady Carrington Drive.

Freckled Ducks at Eastlakes

5) TWITCHING AS STUDY BREAKS
One of my favourite pass-times this year was chasing rare birds which turned up at convenient times when I was burnt out from study. I already made a blog post about the Barking Owl, but I also twitched a Satin Flycatcher pair at Sydney Olympic Park with Simon Gorta the week before the HSC began, and a pair of Oriental Plovers at Long Reef with Max during the first week of the HSC (getting very confused by a dodgy Pacific Golden Plover in the process!). But not stopping there, Max and I were at it again two weeks later as we headed out to Pitt Town to twitch Painted Honeyeater and Pectoral Sandpiper, finding two Ruff instead (see previous blog post)!

Barking Owl, Satin Flycatcher, Oriental Plover (and dodgy PGP), Ruff

Also made a trip up to the Central Coast to meet with Alan Morris for a great tour of Pioneer Dairy Wetlands just after my HSC Trials in September, and successfully twitched Pectoral Sandpiper (of course since then, they've shown up everywhere, including the Pitt Town Lagoon birds!), though a host of other great birds were around including Australian Owlet Nightjar peeking out of a nest box.

Pectoral Sandpiper Hiding

Sleepy Afternoon Australian Owlet Nightjar

6) IT'S NOT JUST THE BIRDS
Have also made a few herping/frogging attempts with Nathan Ruser this year around the Northern Beaches, with one particular night being quite successful, with some great frogs, reptile (singular) and insects observed, plus a Tawny Frogmouth. We plan to spend a few more nights getting some more species later this year.

Eastern Stone Gecko

Common Ringtail Possum 

 Eudocima materna

Hemicloea major (Flat Rock or Major Pancake Spider)

Spotted Marsh Frog

Tawny Frogmouth

Also found this Threatening Jumping Spider Helpis minitabunda (I think that ID is correct, not 100%) in my backyard frogpond the other day, which is slowly filling with Striped Marsh Frogs, much to annoyance of the neighbors...

Threatening Jumping Spider

7) LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR FOUR MONTHS OF FREEDOM!
I've spent a lot of time this year organising my post-HSC movements, with three great trips coming up. Lake Cargelligo and Round Hill Nature Reserve with Ashwin and Lachlan Hall in December (it will be extremely hot, but we're looking for reptiles too!), and a month in Borneo with Max starting in late January.

I have had to cancel my previous plans with Max and Ashwin to bird in Northern NSW for schoolies, but only because my next stop is the wide, blue, cold, and windy Southern Ocean, with a huge thanks to Enderby Trust, Rodney Russ, and Heritage Expeditions for awarding me an Enderby Trust Scholarship to participate in the "Birding Down Under" expedition - Macquarie Island here I come!!! 9 days and counting...

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Furthermore, 15,000 blog views and counting, we're going pretty well!!!
Thanks for reading guys

Heading out for a night of celebration,
Joshua Bergmark