One spinoff from searching for nocturnal birds
is that you often see other fauna especially mammals. The only drawback
is that you can’t add them to the tally. We had great views of a
Long-nosed Potoroo at the base of the Gibraltar Range and two Rufous Bettongs
between the Range and Grafton. A young Parma Wallaby in the Washpool and
a third Rufous Bettong on the way to the coast were others seen. Dodging
large alpha male Eastern Grey Kangaroos on the road was also an entertaining
pastime which kept us on our guard. It was still dark when we left the
house on the coast north-west of Grafton the next morning. As we climbed
into the Land Cruiser we heard a Brush Cuckoo, our first bird of the day.
Off to the coastal heath where it was still very dark due to heavy cloud
cover. It wasn’t long though until we heard a Ground Parrot and also
ticked off White-cheeked and Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. Then to the
estuary where we were welcomed by a vociferous Leaden Flycatcher as we were
trying to identify a flock of small terns that weren’t right to be Little or
Common Terns. It turned out that they were Whiskered Terns, more common
in freshwater wetlands than estuaries in our area. A grey morp Eastern
Reef Egret, a Striated Heron and a diversity of shorebirds were added to the
list. Two small plump shorebirds took some time to identify as the
overcast weather made them look darker than normal. They were
Sanderlings, a species not usually found in this estuary. As we left the
estuary an Eastern Osprey flew over the road and brought the total to 141 at
6.17 am. At a small lake nearby a Swamp Harrier was observed and a pair
of Pied Oystercatchers was at their nest and at a rock platform two
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers were the first seen by us for the season. A
large raft of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were foraging off the rocks but the
Australasian Gannet was nowhere to be seen. Four Coastal Emus were in a
cane paddock on the trip back to the Pacific Highway. As we disembarked
from the vehicle at the Iluka Nature Reserve we heard a monarch. Someone
called out Spectacled Monarch and we all agreed at first but then I the
realised that it was a White-eared Monarch and not a Spectacled Monarch.
We did add Spectacled Monarch as well as Regent Bowerbird and Large-billed
Scrubwren before leaving the rainforest for the estuary. At an inlet we
heard Mangrove Honeyeater and then on to Woody Head. The extremely high
tide meant that all of the shorebirds and terns were clustered together on rocks,
making it relatively easy to check them off. There were Greater and
Lesser Sand Plovers and Little and Common Terns, making 180 species at 9.39
am. To be continued.
Greg Clancy
Head Stalker
Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon Team
No comments:
Post a Comment