Night time ringing

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

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!

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!!!

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 !!

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 !!!!!!