It's been a long time since we've been out to sea. In fact our last pelagic trip was way back in August. We picked up two year ticks on that trip and to this day seabirds still give us the most opportunities for improving our year lists. There are still a number of species we have a chance of seeing with the majority of them being seabirds plus some of the rarer shorebirds and the far south-east has a handful of potential bush birds as well It's been a slightly frustrating couple of months since August with the trip scheduled for September cancelled due to bad weather and the October one cancelled due to the boat being in need of repair, but finally we got the green light for November. We had the Friday off for this trip so we were able to do some birding on our way down to Port MacDonnell.
Sue is still in need of Pectoral Sandpiper to level up with my list total so we made an effort to try to find the bird that had been reported from Tolderol Game Reserve on the northern shore of Lake Alexandrina. Tolderol has undergone a massive transformation in the last two years since involvement from the local community and the efforts of several key individuals to drive the restoration project. There is more water in more ponds this season than ever before and the place is looking really good for this summer. Shorebirds have already returned in good numbers and in amongst them is a male Pectoral Sandpiper that was photographed by Sue Lee midweek and seen by others the previous weekend. We arrived early morning in light drizzle which quickly cleared but the tracks were all quite damp as we drove around trying to come to grips with the birds that were spread out over the ponds.
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| Scanning one of the main ponds for shorebirds |
There were good numbers of Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpipers with a few Red-necked Stints thrown in for good measure, but try as we might we couldn't locate the reported Pectoral Sandpiper. We drove around to most of the ponds and saw some nice birds but time is always pressing when you need to get down the far south-east, so with more opportunities for Pecs still open to us during the rest of this year we opted to give up on this one and carry on.
We drove for three hours straight through to Bangham Conservation Park where we traversed the tracks, stopping every now and again to scan and listen for birds. We'd heard that White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes and an Olive-backed Oriole had been seen recently but they didn't reveal themselves to us. The northern boundary still had good numbers of White-browed Woodswallows, Rufous Songlarks and up to five male White-winged Trillers, all good birds of local interest. We also paid particular attention for Scarlet Honeyeaters. There has been a big western movement through central Victoria in recent weeks and there was a possibility this species had made it to South Australia for the very first time but it was not to be. Leaving Bangham we drove out to Geegeela CP to see what was around, which turned out to be not much! As it was getting late we had prearranged to meet up with Bob Green at a local Heritage block down the road. He was there camping with other birders doing some local survey work. We'd been invited to camp also but we had experienced low cloud and drizzle for most of the day and despite the weather clearing somewhat we're not set up for wet weather camping so we opted not to camp in favour of a motel in Naracoorte.
The next morning we headed down the road towards Nangwarry Native Forest Reserve south of Penola. I hadn't been in here for over thirty five years but remember seeing White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes as well as some other nice birds. Driving down some forest tracks we explored the area but failed to find any Cuckoo-shrikes at all or indeed anything new for our year lists. A really nice mornings birding though and we came across Blue-winged Parrots, Crested Shrike-tits, Shining Bronze-cuckoos and five Red-tailed Black Cockatoos quietly feeding in a Stringybark tree in the forest.
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| Beautiful forest in Nangwarry NFR full of birds |
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| The only female Red-tailed Black-cockatoo amongst four males quietly feeding |
One of the tracks opened out in to a patch of Swamp Gum with a bit of a heathy understorey in amongst the taller forest and it was here we came across a lovely pair of Southern Emu-wrens, a species I dont remember seeing here before.........nice.
From here it was a short drive down the road to Telford Scrub just north of Mt Gambier. A nice forest block that has harboured breeding Satin Flycatchers and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes over recent years but despite spending quite some time here we failed yet again to locate either of these species. I fear that the Flycatchers will not return this summer and were missing from here last summer as well. Walking down the western boundary track Sue literally leapt straight up in the air nearly landing on my shoulders. A Copperhead Snake in your path is likely to do that to a person!!!
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| A rather docile Copperhead caused Sue some anxiety....especially when she nearly stepped on it! |
A morning well spent despite not adding anything to our year lists but it was time to carry on as we were due to catch up with the other boat trip participants at the Hotel in Port MacDonnell. After checking in to the lodge at the caravan park we headed off to explore the coastline between Port MacDonnell and the border. There are some nice reefs along here that harbour good numbers of interesting shorebirds. A Pectoral Sandpiper had been reported from one of them the weekend before so we headed straight to Danger Point to try and find it. On arrival at the bird hide that is strategically placed here we discovered the tide was a fair way out and still dropping meaning most of the birds were a little distant. Despite that we scanned through lots of birds finding good numbers of Sanderlings in particular. Other birds here included Turnstones, Bar-tailed Godwits three Red Knot and lots of Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpipers as well as loafing Kelp Gulls, various Terns and Chestnut Teal. Unfortunately no sign of the Pec!!. Sue managed to pick out an interesting bird while scanning with the the scope she called as a Sand Plover, but it frustratingly kept disappearing on her until she lost it all together. A little later I refound presumably the same bird. Conscious of the fact we still need Lesser Sand Plover I grilled the bird until it turned its head and revealed a massive bill.......another Greater......bugger. Still a very good bird locally.
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| The track to Danger Point. Sadly the locals continue to ignore these signs |
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| Tucked in to the vegetation of Danger Point this bird hide is well placed for good views over the high tide roost |
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| Angled scopes aren't for the vertically challenged!!!! |
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| The view from the hide enjoyed by Sue. Good numbers of Sanderling on the shore. |
We checked out French Point as well closer to Port MacDonnell and with the tide quite low the reefs were fully exposed. This gives some shorebird species the ideal conditions for feeding and it was here we found eighteen Pacific Golden Plovers and three Grey-tailed Tattlers as well as some Turnstone amongst others. At this point a low cloud base rolled in from the south-east causing the temperature to drop and so we retreated to the Caravan park in preparation for catching up with the others. We enjoyed a meal in the hotel that evening and its always nice getting to meet new people and having a chat about what we might see on the boat. Spirits were high and we were quite hopeful of a good trip. All week the prevailing winds had been from the south-east which can sometimes influence what species we might see and the previous weekend had seen some very impressive movements of "Cookilaria type" Petrels off the east coast and Tasmania. The corresponding trip for November last year was also a cracker. We went to bed with high expectations.
Stuart the organiser had called for an early start at the wharf with daylight savings in full effect sunrise would be somewhere around 6:00am so we were ready and waiting in the predawn light. Unfortunately the skipper wasn't!!!! He was running late and we had to stand by and watch boat after boat heading out from the harbour in to a rather innocuous looking sea.
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| The crew patiently awaiting the arrival of our skipper as the sun rises higher in the sky |
An hour later we were heading out past the breakwater on a rather becalmed sea. Half an hour out on our way to the shelf the calm conditions provided the perfect opportunity to see cetaceans and the skipper slowed down as we had whales blowing off the starboard side. Although not very close we got good definitive looks of what proved to be several Blue Whales, the largest living mammal on the planet.....fantastic. I've been lucky enough to have seen these before but for the majority on board it was a new species for them.
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| Thar she blows. Blue Whale near the boat |
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| Looking quite dark overall in the harsh sunlight the blowhole guard gives the identity of this Cetacean away as Blue Whale |
A large pod of Common Dolphin also came to investigate the boat and not to be outdone by them I picked up a pod of Pilot Whales but they didn't allow a close approach. They disappeared quickly before giving me an opportunity to get any photos so we couldn't identify them to species.
Birds were present in very small numbers and we passed a few Shy Albatross quite close inshore. A pair of Fluttering Shearwaters cut in front of the boat followed by a single Huttons but very little else. Maintaining a cruising speed of eighteen knots we were making good time in getting towards our berlying point when a cloud of steam or smoke came belching up from the back of the boat 2Nm short of the shelf break in conjunction with a loud audible alarm emanating from the cabin. We immediately stopped! While the skipper and his deckhand investigated what was going on with the boat Stuart decided we might as well start getting a slick going to see what we could attract. With little wind and virtually no swell things started off very slowly and birds seemed reluctant to come to the back of the boat to feed preferring to sit on the water at a distance. There were several Shy Albatross of the local breeding race and we started to see both Great-winged and Grey-faced Petrels, the latter outnumbering the former three to one. Not long after the call went up..... White-chinned Petrel and sure enough one glided past the boat on long out stretched wings. This was a species that was highly anticipated at this time of the year and it came as no surprise. Had we have gotten out in February at the start of the year we most likely would have already had it, but here it was finally. Numbers of them built up during the day to a high of about fifteen or so and some came close to the boat.
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| The tiny white chin spot coupled with the ivory bill identifies this bird as a White-chinned Petrel |
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| Quite large compared to other Shearwaters and Petrels that occur of South Australias coastline |
There wasn't much else on offer and things were really slow before we had four Giant-petrels sitting on the water occasionally picking at the berley on the slick. All four birds turned out to be Northerns unfortunately as we still needed Southern, a species that we don't normally see this late in the year so interesting in itself. We had a fly past Wandering type Albatross and eventually one did come in and sit way back on the slick.
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| A Northern Giant-petrel whizzes past the boat. Sadly none of the birds we saw on the day proved to be the Southern that we still need. |
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| Always difficult to identify but this appears to possibly be a male gibsoni?? |
Another call went out for "Skua" and a distant small Jaeger was tracking around a long way off the back of the boat. Difficult to get any pictures at that range and I didn't manage to get any worth posting, but the views it did give up proved to identify it as an Arctic Jaeger. Unfortunately not a bird we still needed but nice to see all the same. Things at this point went very quiet all the time the skipper and his offsider were investigating the boats issues. After several phone calls it was determined that there was a problem with the water pump and in the end they had to rig up the deck hose as a temporary inlet to the motor to keep it cool. Several false starts later and we could finally get underway but there was no way we were going to get out further so we just cruised back up the slick. At this point there were a number of Albatross sitting on the water now the wind had dropped off and in amongst them I spotted a bird that looked quite different. At a distance it gave the impression of a Grey-headed Albatross but there was something not quite right about it. With binocular views it definitely wasn't a Grey-headed but its marked grey hooded appearance gave me the suspicion that it was a Salvins Albatross. I took a series of photographs and only later after downloading photos at home was I aware that I had indeed photographed this bird earlier in the day. It didn't give definitive views being reluctant to fly but the bill colour and pattern definitely pointed to that species. During the week it was confirmed via e-mail from Jeff Davies, Rohan Clarke and Colin Rogers and so Sue and I were happy to add it to our year lists giving me 371 and Sue 370.
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| A grey hood and solid black wing tips helped to confirm this as Salvins |
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| This and the previous picture I had taken earlier in the day when the birds were still happy to fly around unaware of what it was I'd seen until looking at the pictures later |
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| Later in the day this bird appeared again on the slick. The combination of solid grey hood, white forehead and colour and pattern of the bill confirming its ID as a sub adult Salvins Albatross |
We limped in to port by mid afternoon after what was a slightly disappointing trip. Not only were we late getting out there but the mechanical issues with the boat and the innocuous weather conspired against us in what possibly should have been a great trip. Bird diversity and numbers were way down on what we had expected having not even seen any Storm Petrels for the day. I guess at the end of the day and being so late in the year we were grateful to have gotten any year ticks at all so we have to take what we can get. There is still another scheduled pelagic trip in mid December and a lot hinges on the success or otherwise of that trip. Not only will it be our last opportunity to get out to sea for the year but with three days off again it'll give us our last chance for those missing few species in the south-east. Other than that we'll be restricted to shorebirds closer to home that we can squeeze in between the approaching social engagements that the Xmas period brings. We still have a few days off between Xmas and New Year so that'll be a last minute dash for anything on offer. Till next time thanks for staying with us
