Nik in Oz

Oriental Pratincole over-load !

2010-03-12T22:15:00.000-08:00

After coming back from a wader count at 80 Mile beach, where 500,000 Oriental Pratincole had been counted, the team encountered 60,000 on Roebuck Plains. So a few days later i went to have a look and arriving on the plains we easily picked up the flocks wheeling around in the sky some incredibly high but starting to come down closer and finally coming in low to land.

With a few raptors around the flocks gathered into tight groups and circled around and around in huge numbers.

Grasshoppers that the Oriental Pratincole were feeding on in plague proportions.

The pratincole after hawking insects high, and avoiding predators started coming into roost and landing in the tussocky grasslands of Roebuck Plains.

A closer shot of the thousands of pratincole coming into roost

Once the sun was setting the birds left what we thought would be the roost site and heded out low over the grassland hawking for insects like nightjar.

The kids are in Town !

2010-03-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Nest site of Australasian pipit out on the plains

Australiasian Pipit chick- there are three in there honest !

Bnading three Australiasin Pipit chicks

Nik ringing a Paperbark Flycatcher chick

Paperbark Flycatcher chick in its delicate nest woven from spiders webs and grass decorated with bits of leaves.

Paperbark Flycatcher nest quite exposed but blends in perfectly with the branches of the Mother-in-law tree.

And there is the little fella - all head and no tail yet !

All the chicks are really showing up around the site now, this Rurouf Whistler juvenile turned up in the nets.

As did the Rufous Throated Honey eater juvenile - no rufous throat although some adults do not have a coloured throat either, but this is in lovely soft fresh plumage and has a beautiful grey head.

Rufous Throated Honeyeater chicks in the nest

Incredible nest of a Rufous Throated Honeyeater suspended at the end of a spindly branch.

A week in South West Australia seeking skulkers!

2010-02-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

Matt and i decided that we would go to South Australia to see if we could catch up with three impossible to see birds!
Noisy Scrub bird
Western Bristlebird
Western Whipbird

Matt had already left the obs so i flew down to Perth to meet him and joined up at Perry and Alma Reberia's to borrow their camper van and drive South down the Albany highway to Cheynes beach camp site.

Soon after settling in with a cup of tea at Cheynes Beach, we heard Noisy Scrub bird singing in the scrub not just on the other side of the camp sire boundary ! A quick dash and we could pin point where it was singing but could we see the bird??!! it took over half an hour before Matt caught a glimpse and another quarter hour before the bird in question hopped across the track into the low open branches of a young eucalyptus give reasonable views. Great one of the three under our belt within a couple of hours of arriving, the others must surely fall tomorrow!

Was i wrong! despite hearing many singing both bristlebird and whipbird remain invisible in the dense heathland and scrubby area. Chasing them didn't help they just moved low in the scrub to a new position and sang at us !

While waiting not all was lost, we saw Southern Emu Wren with incredibly long fluffy tails, Red Winged Fairy Wren, Spotted and Swamp Harrier, tons of White-Cheeked and New Holland Honeyeater, Purple-Crowned Lorikeet but not a flick of a wing of the target species!

Finally, after two days listening to scrub singing, we left and went to Little beach car park at Two Peoples Bay which is where Noisy Scrub bird was rediscovered after it was thought to be extinct in the late 1800's. We didn't see scrub bird here but we did manage to get Western Bristlebird after a struggle in rain and wind, one eventually obliged by half flying flopping across the road to the traffic island, sang on one side and flopped across to the scrub again. So that was that, we decided we wouldn't get better views and decided to give up on whipbird as the weather was deteriorating and we were due to drive up to Dryandra National Park which would be a good few hours away with a detour to see Western Corrella.

White-cheeked Honeyeater

Driving out of Cheynes Beach up onto the plateau, the scene is open heath with these strange Tree ferns/sedges?

Another stunning flower but no idea what it is yet !

Southern Bandicoot visited us in the campsite and showed no fear at all as it rooted through our rubbish and almost ran up my leg !

Another common marsupial, Western Grey Kangaroo where in the coastal heath and also around the campsites.

Arriving at Dryandra National Park, we camped at the official campsite and found we had parked up under a Brush tailed possum nest. Two climbed down the tree at dusk and wandered around us looking for food.

Another night creature came to visit, a Short-beaked Echidna, which as soon as approached either run away or roll up so you can't see a thing of them apart from spines !

These engaging birds were literally everywhere and a favorite of mine - Rufous Treecreeper, more like a Nuthatch in behaviour but they were quite happy foraging on the ground as well as on dead fallen tree trunks as well as upright trees.

This is the kind of forest that occurs at Dryandra, but there are also plantations of trees for tanin, but when the market fell out of tanin the plantations were just left to mature and now provide a reasonable habitat in the total forest area.

A fantastic flower in the forest, but again not identification.

From dryandra we drove back up to Perry and Alma to join then for an Australia Day BBQ with Elanor Rowley and a neighbour.

Had a great time food and drink what more could you want !

Alma tending the lamb chops !

Throw yet another shrimp on the Barbie !

Some more photos of wildlife

2010-02-20T04:07:00.000-08:00

As I'm not a moth expert, i don't know the names of these moths but don't they look pretty ??!!

Lightning at night from the myhouse

Agile Wallaby from my house

White Gaped Honeyeater

Female Variagated Fairy Wren

Male Variegated Fairy Wren

Mangrove Gerygone

..and the tail feather with that clear white band which Dusky Gerygone don't have.

Frill Neck Lizard unfortunatley not showing its frills !

Yellow wagtail race simillima

Mangroves and Martins

2010-02-06T23:06:00.000-08:00

The mangroves at Crab Creek have provide a few good birds over the months we have been carrying out the Constant effort Site there. One morning having seen only the one Kimberley Flycatcher at Entrance Point an adult and a juvenile turned up in the netting area and were instantly attracted to the tape by the net once turned on !

Kimberley Flycatcher a juvenile showing pale tips to the coverts and also moulting out the streaky juv plumage in the mantle and underparts.

Kimberley Flycatcher a beautifully subtle adult showing the olive grey mantle, restricted white in the outer web of the outer tail feathers. The bird was very worn and going through post breeding moult.

The Brown Honeyeater by its name is quite dull but they are beginning to attain breeding plumage and this lovely male has a silvery grey head and black gape line and spot behind the eye. Can you see its tongue? feathery at the tip to get the nectar from flowers.

Flowering Grey Mangrove Avicennia marina provides a good feed for honeyeaters and Yellow white eye and the insects attracted will keep the flycatchers, gerygone and fantails happy !

During December the Tree Martin roost in the mangroves increased to an estimate of 200,000 birds an incredible sight and many hundred Barn Swallow were involved too. This was too good an opportunity to miss and so we tried tape luring, but windy conditions really didn't help and we could have caught more in the van than in the nets !

Martins around the van

Tree Martin showing the pale off white rump.

Tree martin and adult showing the streaked throat and in need of moulting out its flight feathers !

a juvenile Tree Martin in active moult, presumable to return to breeding grounds in goo condition.

A by-catch while waiting for the martins to come in were a few brilliantly coloured Rainbow bee eater. This fresh juvenile was a real treat to be able to handle. It has no long central tail spike which adults have even if very worn.

Rainbow Bee eater

Cyclone weather photos and good birding

2010-02-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

Tropical Cyclone Laurence narrowly missed Broome in December 2009, by passing about 150km North of Broome sweeping out to sea, gathering speed and heading down the coast and coming in some 250km south of Broome. Having seen the devastation it caused when it came back in, i think we were rather lucky to have been spared. There was major flooding events around the 80 Mile beach area, which considering the area has had little rain in the last few years, wasn't such a bad thing, except that over a 1000 cattle died in the floods, mainly from walking into the wind and out to sea and getting trapped in the mudbanks.

We had 150mm of rain over two days which was torrential at times and left the road closed with some major puddles ! 4 wheel driving skills came in again as we had to forge the long lakes of water on the road many knee deep often coming over the bonnet of the Landcruiser to get in and out of Broome.

Normally the sea off Broome is calm, however the rain and winds made for a choppy sea although looking at the photos now it looks nothing worse than a heavy sea in UK, ideal for a sea watch ! We did see a good number of Brown Booby, Bridled Tern (20), a Pomarine Jaeger (skua) and a Common Noddy.

Brown booby's sat on a rock.

and a close up of a Brown Booby

Entrance point early on the 21st December was a bit of a birding highlight. It was the first time i felt like i was at a top migration spot in UK anticipating a good find and we weren't disappointed. The first bird I looked at was a swiftlet!!!!!!!!!! Great excitement!! Small short winged swift with stiff wing beats. All dark brown above except for a narrow rump band and a dusky pale belly. Short tail square when closed but notch very noticeable when tail opened slightly. They are notoriously difficult to identify with the choice coming down between Black nest-swiftlet and Edible nest-swiftlet, the former being favorite on the narrow pale rump band and pale collar, and dusky belly. However, it will probably just have to go down as a swiftlet in the end. Never the less an exciting morning with back up birds including a beautiful male Crimson chat, a dozen White winged triller (mostly all males and normally in wooded bush) three Black honeyeater (2 male, 1 female) 3 Fork Tailed Swift, 50+ Rufous Throated Honeyeater and a host of Brown Honeyeater.

The next day we went back for more, but only found the chat, a few trillers, but also a bird we have not been able to get to grips with a Kimberley Flycatcher! normally found in the mangroves and reputed by locals to be 'everywhere' we had trouble finding them. They are in fact a sub-species/race of Lemon Bellied Flycatcher and you may note that they don't have a Lemon Belly which separates the

Kimberley Flycatcher an adult identified by the plain dull features with no blotching or tipping to greater or median coverts.

A shot of Entrance Point habitat. This place would be crawling with birders in the UK spring and autumn. Migrants are moving down teh coast and end up here as it a big rocky/sand dune outcrop where the land then turns west into Roebuck Bay. the birds reach the end of the land effectivley and have to re-orientate to find where to go next.

Male Crimson Chat

Male White Winged Triller

Night time ringing

2010-02-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

At an undisclosed site somewhere in the vacinity of Broome, we decided to try to catch the snipe that have been lurking between there and the sewage works !

A motly crew gathered to put nets up around a small sludgy pool and waited for dusk.

In the mean time the Masked lapwings threw themselves in the nets depsite being clear as day, perhaps they have bad eye sight ??!!

However as night fell, a Little curlew; one of the few left in Broome as ther rest have headed out to the plains after the rains, was taken out of a net and duly fitted with a metal band and an engraved yellow flag, signifying that it was part of the NW Australian Wader study group project.

The biggest surprise of the night went to the Buff Breasted Rail, three of which were dazzled and caught a hand net. No one had any idea that they occurred there and so it was a nice surprise ! especially as they are such beautiful birds and not much data has been collected on them for the Kimberley area.

Ah, one of the species we were trying to ring. There are potentially three species of snipe that can occur in Oz all of which are extremely difficult to identify unless you have them in the hand or have close detailed views. This snipe turned out to be Swinhoe's Snipe, the commonest of the three and most likely to occur. The other two are Pin-tailed and Latham's snipe neither of which we caught ! All three are migrants to Australia and will return to Arctic/ Boreal Russia / East Japanese breeding grounds. the tail pattern is diagnostic between the species.

A nice surpise also was a Pectoral Sandpiper which had been seen a few days earlier as again, not many have been ringed in the NW Australia.

The photo below shows the distinctly mottled breast which cuts off so distinctly giving way to the white belly and underparts.

I think the biggest surprise was supplied by this small wader, a Little Stint ! Given away by an odd moult taking pace in the primaries, which Red-necked Stint shouldn't be doing at that time of year. Also the 1st primary pattern was good for Little stint.

Aerial shots from Broome to Perth

2010-01-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Take off at Broome airport

Just off the ground

Roebuck Bay, part of it at least

Dampier Creek that runs behind China Town, Broome

Clouds over teh Great Sandy Desert

Clay pans in a sea of regulated land divides

You think our land scape is bad but this is so regulated! Just like the middle of England I suppose after the 18th Centuray Enclosure Act

There is some water here, but mostly in dams the further South you travel down teh Western side of Oz. The North West is supploed by under ground aquifers and although may appear very dry above ground, below its a different story, with vast stores of water.

Arrival at Perth and i managed to catch this image of a Ray of light shining up from the Perth Central Business District ! OK it was a reflection on the window !!

Cuckoo bonanza!

2010-01-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

Just after the cyclone there seemed to be a lot of cuckoos around probably a response by the birds moving out of the way of the worst of the weather. Up to 50 Horsfield's bronze cuckoo were reported at the recreation grounds in Broome and there were several Black eared cuckoo, Little bronze cuckoo and Brush cuckoo around the general area s well.

One morning at the observatory, we decided to do some mist netting and to try to lure some cuckoos in by playing recordings of thier songs underneath the nets.

It worked very well and we were soon we were changing the recordings from one species to the next. Unfortunatley the only species that didn't respond was Little bronze cuckoo but they are still around so chances are on for another day!

This is an immature Brush cuckoo , they have this incredible manic call which rises and is incessant !

The next species to come to the tape was an immature and an adult Horsefield's bronze cuckoo
Note the immature has no dullgrey eye and the adult with a darker reddish brown eye. Also the adult has strong barring on teh underparts whereas the immature does not.

Immature Horsefiled's bronze cuckoo above, below An adult with nice chestnut outer tail feathers.

Finally came the Black eared cuckoo again immatures although there was a slendid adult around we didn't ring it.

Although we didn't ring them we also saw Pallid cuckoo at several places, and Oriental cuckoo at the sewage works and at One Tree, and while we were ringing a Channel billed cuckoo went by honking chased by a Torresian crow one of its preferred species to target.

Oriental cuckoo above

Little bronze cuckoo female above and male below note red eye ring and open face pattern. This male was collecting food and feeding the female.

An very immature Pallid cucko

March of the crabs!!!

2010-01-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

It happens just once a year and no its not Christmas !!

i happened to go for a quick stroll along the Spinifex trail and when i joined the Malurus trail found that the Land crabs Neosarmatium meinerti) from the salt marsh had decided to up sticks and move ! it happens once a year where the adult crabs head for the sea to lay and fertislise eggs for the next generation. How fortunate was i to find this happening right here right now ! I'm not sure what triggers them but i suspect the heavy rain might have had something to do with it. they normally live in burrows in the saltmarsh which despite dry conditions, are so deep they reach fresh water to keep thier gills wet.

Unfortunatley, many get disorientated and head inland into the Pindan forest where they dessicate and die.

A trip to the Eastern side !!

2009-12-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

This King parrot flew in staying briefly in the shade before careering noisily off through the forest.

One of the only flowers i saw was this lovely orchid, and have yet to find out what it is.

There were lots of butterflies all of the same species they are a Common brown and the females are quite a bit bigger than the males.

After Armidale, I hitched a lift up to Brisbane where i met up with Jon Coleman and his banding team at a place near Imbril, 2.5 hours north of Brisbane. He has a banding site in remnant rainforest and eucalypt woodland as well.

There are net rides in the forest on both sides of the track and some of the first animals caught were some Long eared bats luckily Paul Barden is a bat handler and well prepared !

Over the morning a range of species were caught including the following:

Painted button-quail

Eastern yellow robin

Eastern whipbird

Little shrike thrush

A net ride through the rainforest

Azure kingfisher not disimilar to Common kingfisher except the blue ranges from a bluey purple to a slivery blue depending how the sun light catches it.

The stunning view from the balcony of the house we were centered around with Channel billed cuckoo flying around.

The banding team enjoying a well deserved rest after a 3:30 am start ! BBQ all round!!

After banding i headed back to Brisbane to stay with friend Wendy (i worked with her 15 years ago on Fair Isle) and her family. She has just had a house built so i helped her move in which was great fun ! One morning i was given a lift out to Eagleby wetlands by Wendy's dad Graeme. Its a nice nature park of re-claimed wetland areas around a waste water treatment on the River Albert. There are a range of habitats which attract a good range of species from Brown quail, Tawny grassbird, Figbird, Olive backed oriole, Red backed fairy wren to shorebirds on the muddy edges of the pool including Sharp tailed sandpiper, Red necked stint and Black necked stork (see photo below).

My flight was out of Sydeny so i decided togo down there a few days before to see the sites! Having been to Sydney before i wanted to do something esle than just the botanical gardens which are good for Buff brested rail wandering about on the lawns as well as a range of other species and for seeing Black Flying foxes, there are hundreds in the park very active all day. Wanting to do someting else i decided to visit Tagorana Zoo a 15 minute ferry ride across the harbour.

The zoo itself is like most others and i was disapointed to see single speciemens of species i would regard as social animals like gibbons on thier own, maybe there was a reason but none made clear. Anyhow, a species i have always wanted to see is the Komodo dragon and it was to my surprise that they had one in an enclosure. A fantastic animal and i would love to see one in the wild....provided there is some distance between me and it !

You can se the drool hanging out of its mouth in this shot and you can see why they simply make a small bite which infects the poor prey item with a mixture of bacteria enough to kill, but very slowly ! The dragon follows the prey item as it slowly dies over a few days or so...what a way to go !

Well, it wouldn't be Sydney without a shot of the Opera house, pity some bloke got in the way !!!!!!

More random shots of wildlife around Broome

2009-12-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

The beach at Coconut Wells makes a perfect breeing site for Little Tern and the eggs are not difficult to find as teh birds are so confiding.

A Willy wagtail decided to nest just a meter or so from my bedroome window but unfortunately while i was away on the East coast it was predated.

While driving out on the plains we came across thie Yellow spotted or Gould's monitor
trying to impress us by rearing up on its back legs to make itself bigger and more intimidating !!

Random animals

2009-12-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

Frill neck lizards fighting in the garden

Gilbert's dragon or Ta Ta lizard on account of it habit of running then lifting front legs and alternatively and waving them !

Black fronted dotterel on eggs or small young at the Broome sewage works.

A trip to Cape Leveque, Dampier peninsula

2009-12-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

Broad billed sandpiper bonanza!!

2009-11-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

The Australian Wader study Group are at the observatory for 3 weeks led by Dr Clive Minton to catch shorebirds to place metal bands and engraved yellow flags to allow identification in the field. At a canon netting session we caught over 60 Broad billed sandpipers a fantastic little wader which is not normally sampled in such numbers. The first picture shows the obvious longish bill with a slight droop towards the end.

This bird was a bit of a surprise as the Black over White colour flags means that it was marked in China, we are yet to find the details of this bird.

This photo is of a first winter bird, quite contrasting in the head pattern colour of black and white and this individual shows very well teh 'double' supercillium.

Bush Point again to count shorebirds - Paradise??

2009-11-03T23:59:00.000-08:00

We took the 4WD's across the plains and creeks to get to Bush Point again to do the shorebird counts as part of the Monitoring Yellow Sea Migrants in Australia program.

The beach is totally unspoilt and a fantatic haven for shorebirds both at roost and as a feeding site. The main species involved are Bar-tailed godwit, Great knot, Greater sandplover, Red necked stint, Red capped plover and small numbers of Sanderling, Oriental plover, Red knot, Eastern curlew, Whimbrel..........some 40,000 birds counted ! plus several thousand terns, mostly Whiskered, Gull billed and Little tern, small numbers fo Caspian and Common tern.

Bush fires around the Observatory

2009-10-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

This in fact is not smoke but whats know as a Willie Willie a small whirlwind of dust and anything else that can be picked up. They can last from seconds to minutes and this huge one was around for a good hour on the plain.

The surreal glow of fire in the smoke at night made for a si-fi skyscape !

Australian Owlet Nightjar !! or are they Chinchilla??!!

2009-10-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

We decided to have a go at tape luring at night for owlet nightjar at a site where Matt had heard them calling at the 12 mile cut through.

We put a 12 m net up across a small clearing and set the MP3 playing. Within minutes a bird started calling and after about 5 mins it started flying around calling. After another few minutes it went straight into the net!

While we were processing the bird another started calling and we manged to net that one also.

The plumage on the birds is amazingly cryptic and its no wonder they are so well camaflaged when sitting around in trees.

Some invertebrates and Glossy Ibis

2009-10-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

Cable Beach Sunsets

2009-10-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Random wader shots

2009-09-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

A trip to Cable beach was worth it to retrap the Red capped plover chick we banded some 4 km south of where we now found it and to see the Pacific golden plover which has apparently wintered there for several years now...assuming its the same bird !

Of course the ones paying attention will notice that the firts bird is in fact an Oriental plover, one of 213 which have been feeding on the over grazed area of the paddock behind the observatory...well they do like short grass to feed in !

Two shots of the Pacific golden plover above and below showing the long legs an dthe delicate shape of the bird.

and here is the long distance runner ! the Red capped plover chick orginally ringed about 4 km down the beach taken all the way up the beach by its parents who were still buzzing us several 100 meters away.

You all thought i was going to call this an adult Red capped plover didn't you??!! In fact its a Greater sand plover, one of several hundred running around on teh beach at high tide.

Another visit to the Mangroves !! this time for Brahminy Kite

2009-09-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

A trip to the mangroves for Striated heron

2009-09-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

Marine animals on the Coconut Wells reef

2009-09-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Whale watching off Cable Beach

2009-09-13T05:27:00.000-07:00

Hump backed whales come to the Kimberley coast to calve and is now know to be one of the largest nursery areas in the world.

Boat trips out into the bay go almost daily in the season April to October but peak time is around June to August when adult males are cavorting and females are about to calf.

We didn't really get much play action, no breaching etc but the animals did come quite close at one point. The set of photos below are random from the afternoon out.

An exciting unexpected bonus was up to 6 Wilson's storm petrel close-ish to the boat but going so fast i never had a chance to get photo ;O((

I have thrown the photos of a Blue tongue lizard in at the end just to add to the aminla collection !

2009-09-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

Me ringing lesser crested terns as part of the wader banding at Roebuck bay. We caught 30 plus a couple of gull billed terns.

A female Mangrove golden whistler in the mangroves at One tree was a nice find.

the young Broad billed flycatchers move out into the wider countryside as do many other mangrove species.

Grey crowned babbler is an uncommon catch at the shadehouse, despite there being serveral around the area.

Little friarbirds are common around the campsite but are rarely caught so this was a nice surprise.

Part of the local ringing team, Wendy, David and Adrian.

Again given how many are around the camp site we really catch Paperbark flycatchers

Mornington and surrounding area

2009-09-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

Well here's a sight you don't see every day at Slapton Ley, in South Devon !! A Fresh water croc lurking just under the surface of the creek! Although they generally wont go for umans, when the water is low its not unknown for freshies to have a go if they cannot get out of the way fast enough !!

Now this was taken at Windjana Gorge, which is pre empting some of these photos !

Some views out over the bush from the foot hills around Windjana Gorge with Baobs scattered thoroughout.

This is Kopak tree which has several properties. The leaves can be eaten and high in vitamin C and the roost of young trees roasted and eaten or pounded to make a medicine for sores. The trees loose thier levaes just before flowering so the hillside is covered by yellow flowers making a beautiful site.

A spider on the rocks but no idea what type!

A female Leaden flycatcher, identifiable from Broad billed flycatcher mainly by the narrow bill.

A bad photo of a Sandstone thrush shrike which was difficult to photograph as it stayed in deepish cover and kept moving !

White bellied cuckoo shrike relatively common around the gorge.

An unexpected find but apparently quite common, Archer fish !!!! i always want to see one and there they were swimming around ! Didn't see any archery but noce to see none the less.

Back to Kopak, and the seed pods which where apparently sown into life savers in World War I

Some fantastic Baob trees are in the Kimberly region

The Devonian Limestone reef of Windjana

The Kimberly Rose, not really a rose but bright red

Australian bustards are fairly common up in the NW region especially where the savanna has been managed appropriately by fire.

Inside the gorge the water flows quietly and provides good habitat for Little pied cormorant and Azure kingfisher......too quick for me to photograph !

A bit of a surprise was the Black fruit bats roosting in the river side trees making a bit of noise scrapping and scratching and fighting !

Another Australian bustard...they are everywhere !

A close up of the rose of the Kimberly

more savahnna views again from the foot hills of the King Leopold range which we had to travel over to reach Mornington Station, owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

This croc must have been in a fight as the front end of its upper jaw has been ripped off....wonder how big the croc it was fighting was??!!

In a cave in the gorge we came across some bats hanging in the crack of the roof space.

Also cave dwelling dragonflies, not sure if they are there all the time or whether they were just seeking out shade from the sun.

Whilst exploring the cave system we spooked a couple of juvenile Boobook owls.

Another freshie in the gorge river

A nice adult Boobook owl seen on the main trail entrance through the gorge.

A hillside of Kopak and termite hills

Now this fella with the crazy hair do is a Spinifex pigeon ! so photogenic i have hundreds of them ! Very common at Mornington but also seen from the road through the King Leopold ranges

In Annie's gorge the North Fantail is common and poses quite well...better that the Purple crowned fairy wrens that i didn't photograph !

White browed robin is another specialist of the area found in the riparian habiat that follows the creeks.

yes, more Spinifex pigeons !

Sir Johns gorge, where the government wanted to dam up but due to environmental pressure groups the plans didn't go ahead.

Lakes tour Aug 09

2009-08-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

Brown Falcon -pale phase

Swamp harrier and a blur of a Glossy ibis

Lake Eda view

Australian white pelican circling over the lakes

Brolga at Lake Campion

Striated pardalote

Long toed stint

Beaches at One Tree

2009-08-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

The beach at One Tree near Crab Creek

2009-08-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

We managed a small catch of Eastern curlew and Australian pied oystercatcher last weekend. Small but valuable as we don't normally catch that many so worthwhile to get more bands on curlew for distribution/movements and on oyks for Clare and her project following breeding birds about the place.

The curlew proved extremely difficult to age in the field due to the fact that so few have been caught in the past. Thay also seemed to be doing some strange moults. Some at 5 to the 10 and others at 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, O:4, V:3, possibly arrested and started agin??. We took photos of all wings and flags and recorded moults so hopefully Clive Minton and Chris Hassell can sort them out soon.

A few nice shots of Red necked avocet that have taken up residency in the bay with the Black winged stilts.

2009-08-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

Well here we have a great piece of Austtalian planning in process. A new waste water treatment plant is going being built. Where ?? right in the middle of the bush! yes thats right in the bush so what are we going to gdo about it?? bring in a bull dozer and just trash the lot ! No wait we are going to leave the trees we find, but they will probably have to come down later to fit in with the plans.

To be fair, the site will be old style open ponds with large areas of grassland over which the dirty water will trickle to loose nutrients before it eventually soaks away into to the soil. So quite good for birds that don't like the bush!!! The grass is going to be some forgeign South African grass which will be taken as a silage ccrop so that it will never flower and set seed.......yeah right ! They also have no requirement to mitigate for the loss of habitats and don't have to do any preparation works like reptile removal, a planners dream it would seem !

Here we have the site being cleared with no pre-work having taken place, but its OK because the site has been over grazed and is poor quality. So what are you going to do to improve whats left...nothing...what are you going to do to improve the environemnt?? nothing will you allow public access to this lovely new freshwater environment you are creating....no. I am not impressed with the Australian way at all !!!

Changing teh subject totally, here are some dinosaur foot prints a three toed Cassowary type bird. You need to use your imagination a bit with the photos but they are there honest !!!

Another day in paradise !!!

2009-08-06T06:01:00.000-07:00

Well this morning saw us go up to cuckoo corner along the Malurus trail to do a bit of ringing. We hadn't been there before but as there are quite a few flowering trees up there we thought it would be worth a go. It was very quiet to start with but soon livened up at about 9 am.

We were treated to a superb pair of Red backed fairy wren, the male in stuning breeding plumage whilst the female was in dull brown....so much so we didn't even take a photo !

Singing honeyeaters although common around the obs are not caught often so it was nice to net a few to get to grips with the condition of the plumage and ageing this species

Again, whilst relativley common, we have yet to ring many Rufous whistler, but today saw us catch pair so we could compare the plumage wear and difference in greater covert colour to attempt to age them.

Another CES session in the mangroves

2009-07-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

Up at 4:15 to go and set the nets at the mangrove constant effort site in the mangroves. Six nets produced 48 birds from 6 :oo until 9:30 when the nets were closed due to windy conditions.

Caught some nice birds including the following:

White breatsed whistler - a nice female

Sacred Kingfisher a nice immature bird with an amazingly big bill ! Similar useful comments on sexing in the Ozzie banders manual as the British manual !

Broad billed flycatcher - an immature showing the pale tips to the greater coverts and contrast between lesser coverts and greater coverts

A great morning but yet to catch a male White breasted whistler !

Wader banding at Roebuck bay

2009-07-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Wader ringing at wader beach. We caught a good number of red knot, great knot, Bar Tailed godwit and Black tailed godwit.

To avoid releasing birds indiviually that might be targetted by birds of prey we let them all go together from the keeping cages.

Black Tailed Godwit sporting breeding plumage but hwy is it still here when it should be breeding in the Arctic?

Red Knot in beautiful breeding plumage and the same applies, why is it still here??

As well as a yellow flag to identify the bird as having been ringed in the NW of Australia it has also been fitted with colour bands to identify it as an individual in the field.

The trip to Bush Point counting waders

2009-07-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

As part of the Monitoring Yellow Sea M A counts a group of intrepid wader counters went out to Bush Point which is at the western end of Roebuck Bay (beyond the Mangroves). Two 4W drives went, Chris Hassell's and BBO vehicle with Matt, Clare and Grant, Maurice Chris and me.

Bush point is remote. You get to it by leaving the highway and taking a dirt track following the fenceline until you hit the open floodplains. Then you need to know where your going! there is a track of sorts but it isn't used very much. I can't get over the fact that in the UK peopel would pay an outward bound company to do what we are doing for real !

Winding our way through the floodplain we eventually come out to a creek and white sandy beaches which look heavenly and very tropical !

A pair of Caspian Tern

There were some 28000 birds seen that day including 4 Lesser Frigate birds hanging around the mouth of the creek which gave it acertain Juassic park feel !!!

A nice surprise at the Obs

2009-07-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Mist netting again and caught this Red headed honeyeater which was a bit of a surprise ! they are normally found in the mangroves not the pindan bush and don't breed that close by. This is a juvenile bird so i guess its doing some post juvenile disbursal !

Various photos taken during a trip to the lakes

2009-07-10T06:30:00.001-07:00

During a trip to the lakes managed to take some nice photos.
Not sure what some of the things are apst species but hey they look nice !

Dragon fly

Home Sweet Home !!!

2009-07-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested in the domestic side of life, here what the site looks like. The site has the office and accomodation block, the Shadehouse (camp kitchen) and camping areas so it takes quite a bit of maintaining.

This is the Shadehouse and BBQ area which gets its fair share of use. The shadehouse provides kitchen and dining room facilities as well as good views of bush birds coming into drink at the bird baths.

The office and woodside block - the hub of the operations !!!!

Solar panel array which when working provides all the electric for the site. Unfortunatley, the batteries are dead at the moment but due to be replaced any time soon so we can turn the genny off and have some peacful evenings again !!!

No this is really home for me, a steel framed builing with bedroom, study, bathroom and kitchen/diner. Gets boiling hot during the day and cold at night (in the summer) boiling hot during the wets season!

Mist netting continued

2009-07-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

We continued to net that morning and caught more yellow white eye, a brown honey eater, plus a stunning immature Brown Goshawk

Yellow white eye better photos to come!

Me with the Brown goshawk

After the ringing session we posed for a Team photo to go out with teh press ad to let everyone know theres a new warden in town !

First mist netting session at the Mangroves

2009-06-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

Up early to go the mangroves to set up for mist netting. It was thick fog when we got there in the dark and proceeded to put the nets up. 1 x 18m, 2 x 9m, 3 x 12m. Matt organised the event Mavis , Mary, Jingle and Ed came down with Gill one of the guests.

Opened at 6 am. Had an initial rush of birds coming out of roost and then a slow trail off towards 9 am when from then onwards very little was caught.

A total of 50 birds were caught including Dusky gerygone, Mangrove grey fantail, white breasted whistler, and lots of yellow white eye.

Mangrove Grey fantail and adult, broad tail feathers and no white tips to the primary coverts. Also wing feathers worn and brown compared to other immature birds caught.

Dusky gerygone, similar to Mangrove gerygone but identified by the white eye (Mangrove is dark red as well as a lack of white patches in the tail. This is an adult birds again identified on eye colour, juvs are dark yellow in colour.

Setting the scene

2009-06-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all, i promised some bird in the hand but before that, here are some scene setters.

Bush Banding

2009-06-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

Managed to get some banding done with the aid of Mavis Russell a visiting bander and old hand of the Obs so it was a real bonus having her around while i found my feet.

The shade house has bird bathes set up behind it so you can watch the bush birds come in to drink but also provides the perfect mist net site.

The Great bower birds (right) come in to drink mostly in the afternoons, along with Brown goshawks (below) which use the baths to drink, bathe and eat whatever's around !!!!!!!!!!

Brown goshawk a nice male

The shade of the eucalypt cast on the picnic table provides a great banding station where we can band birds and show visitors staying at the observatory.

more photos to follow of birds in the hand.............

Landed at Last !!!!!

2009-06-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Well i guess you've been thinking where the hell is this Blogg he promised us??? Well here tis coming at you from the hot and humid tropics of Broome in Western Australia.

I arrived with great cold which turned into a chest infection and just before i turned myself in for swine fever testing it started to disappear !!! that combined with jet lag made it a rough first week but i've now got my feet firmly under the table and starting to get to grips with all thats going on.

Just to confirm to everyone my freeserve account doesn't like sending from my laptop here so i have reverted to my hotmail address which is re_entree@hotmail.com and a role reversal of kin draw will come up as my name....yes its just backwards for all you sharp eyed people amongst you !!!

Well this is where i am living at the moment Fab Eh?????? A real des res!!

Its basically a tin box which heats up in the day and goes slightly cold in the evening. We have had a couple of mornings at 9 degrees and average day temperatures about 32 degree and most night temperatures 11 to 16 degrees.

We have receieved some unseasonal rain, one night it spotted rain but sounded like a hail storm on the tin roof, and the next really was a good down pour leaving 4.9mm.

Then the sunsets are fantastic ................