Having only ever birded in Western Australia, I had a few birds on my life list that were a little dodgy.  A recent trip with Martin Cake to Queensland (SE QLD in particular) cleaned a few of these up:

• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo – a small population exists near Lake McLarty and a single bird hangs around the river near Midland;
• Rainbow Lorikeet – common in the Perth metropolitan area (and spreading, unfortunately);
• Red-browed Finch – there are established groups of these in the hills area.

After a fairly good start to the birding year, here is an updated 2012 birding target list:

• Freckled Duck (Stictonetta naevosa);
• Chestnut Teal (Anas castanea), I’m still checking all the Grey Teals I see (in reality I should have been checking my photo library);
• Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia), beginning to think these are fictitious;
• Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus);
• Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) – crippling views on a pelagic;
• Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii);
• Mulga Parrot (Psephotus varius);
• Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus), not sure how I’ve managed to avoid this one;
• Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus);
• Redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus);
• Gilbert’s Whistler (Pachycephala inornata);
• Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus), a somewhat embarrassing hole in my list;
• Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis), got to go check out that feral population in the hills..
• * Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata), a remote chance near the site I work at;
• * Inland Dotterel (Charadrius australis);
• * Painted Button-quail (Turnix varius);
• * Southern Scrub-robin (Drymodes brunneopygia).

After numerous attempts I finally saw the Freckled Ducks at Lake Monger this evening.  They have been hanging around for a few weeks now and steadily increasing in number (five were present).  It turns out I had confused east and west and had been checking the wrong area of the lake.

As an added bonus John Graff’s expert Little Grassbird mimicry yielded good views of a specimen just before dusk.  These two birds are numbers 267 and 268 on my life-list.

A bird that had been conspicuously absent from my list was the Chestnut Teal.  Or so I thought.  I recently purchased Apple’s Aperture application and imported in all of my digital photographs (nearly 7,300 photographs from the Canon 350D alone).  I was cycling through the old photos and something caught my eye.  A Chestnut Teal.  Full plumage male no less.  Refer to the photograph below…

The worst bit is I remember the day I took the photograph clearly, I was looking for Hoary-headed Grebes at a lake in Joondalup and thought this particular bird was a manky farm duck.  So the Chestnut Teal becomes bird number 266 on my list.

The recent Hillarys Pelagic netted me three new birds for my list:

• Streaked Shearwater (many seen, easily the highlight of the trip);
• Wilson’s Storm Petrel (a brilliant little bird but almost impossible to photograph);
• Bridled Tern (great views near the boat).

These two birds are the latest additions to my life list, taking it to 262:

• 261: White Wagtail (Lake Joondalup, WA, 23/03/2012);
• 262: Red-browed Finch (Carmel, WA, 24/03/2012).

Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata, Karratha, WA, Australia).  Successfully framed inside the mesh fence (and cropped).

At the prompting of Alan, here is a list of the birds that I am looking for at the moment.  I have included some species that are possible if I go to site with my new job.

• Freckled Duck (Stictonetta naevosa);
• Chestnut Teal (Anas castanea), I’m still checking all the Grey Teals I see;
• Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia), beginning to think these are fictitious;
• Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus);
• Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus);
• Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii);
• Mulga Parrot (Psephotus varius);
• Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus), not sure how I’ve managed to avoid this one;
• Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus);
• Redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus);
• Gilbert’s Whistler (Pachycephala inornata);
• Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus), a somewhat embarrassing hole in my list;
• Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis), got to go check out that feral population in the hills…