I saw the following birds for the first time on the recent WA Twitchathon:

• Western Bristlebird (Dasyornis longirostris);
• Redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus);
• Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus).

A November update to my birding targets 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 – finally saw these on the QLD trip;
• 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).

Here is a list of new birds I saw on the south-east QLD trip with Martin Cake (with links to my photos from the trip):

• Australian Brush-turkey: ubiquitous in the rain forest areas;
• Black-breasted Button-Quail: the platelets gave away their presence;
• Magpie Goose: seen on a metropolitan lake (and if Martin hadn’t pointed them out I would have written them off as manky farm ducks…);
• Wandering Whistling-Duck;
• Cotton Pygmy-goose;
• Royal Spoonbill: finally found one, beginning to think they were mythical;
• Wandering Tattler;
• Comb-crested Jacana;
• Pacific Baza: a wonderful surprise;
• Topknot Pigeon;
• Brown Cuckoo-Dove;
• Wonga Pigeon;
• Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo;
• Scaly-breasted Lorikeet: good views high in a tree;
• Australian King-Parrot;
• Pale-headed Rosella: probably my favourite new parrot of the trip;
• Crimson Rosella;
• Noisy Pitta: a wonderful bird, seen at three different locations (sorry John);
• Albert’s Lyrebird: brief but spectacular sighting;
• Brown Thornbill;
• Superb Fairy-wren;
• Red-backed Fairy-wren: a really spectacular Fairy-wren;
• Large-billed Scrubwren;
• Yellow-throated Scrubwren;
• Fairy Gerygone;
• Brown Gerygone;
• Little Wattlebird;
• Noisy Friarbird;
• Little Friarbird;
• Blue-faced Honeyeater;
• Noisy Miner;
• Bell Miner: surprisingly hard to get good views of;
• Lewin’s Honeyeater;
• Mangrove Honeyeater: seen in mangroves (as expected?);
• Fuscous Honeyeater;
• Eastern Spinebill;
• Scarlet Honeyeater;
• Eastern Whipbird: heard more often than seen, but we had great views as well;
• Logrunner: seen running along logs (as expected?);
• Eastern Yellow Robin;
• Pale-yellow Robin;
• Rufous Fantail: a really neat little bird;
• Leaden Flycatcher;
• Spectacled Monarch;
• White-eared Monarch;
• Spangled Drongo;
• Olive-backed Oriole;
• Australian Figbird;
• Paradise Riflebird: a brilliant bird we saw high in the rainforest canopy;
• Green Catbird: a very weird call;
• Regent Bowerbird: seen at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat;
• Satin Bowerbird: seen at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat;
• Varied Triller: an unexpected surprise, we initially thought it was a White-winged Triller;
• Pied Currawong;
• Double-barred Finch: my only new finch for the trip;
• Bassian Thrush;
• Russet-tailed Thrush;
• Common Miner.

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).