Category Archives: Birding

Birding Lifelist Update

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My Australian lifelist (which is my WA lifelist as I haven’t birded in any other states) is sitting at 239.

I was aiming to hit 250 by the end of this year (and may very well have come close had the Rottnest trip paid off and had I survived the Twitchathon*) but I’m still happy with my progress.
Thanks to Alan I finally got a decent look at a Square-tailed Kite (whilst driving down the hill from Lesmurdie, apparently this is a regular haunt).  Also finally sorted out the three Corellas that inhabit the Perth environs.  I have half decent pictures of all three now.
Some birds that are in my immediate target list:
  • Little Grassbird (heard them a few times but really want a good look);
  • Cattle Egret (they are around, I really need to see them in full breeding plumage);
  • Royal Spoonbill (rapidly becoming a bogey-bird, Mandurah area may be my best bet);
  • Red-browed Finch (I know they are a feral population but I still would like to see them);
  • Chestnut Teal (I’m now double-checking all the Grey Teal I see);
  • Bridled Tern (perhaps a trip to Penguin Island is in order);
  • Masked Lapwing (there seems to be a couple each year that show up in the extended metropolitan area).
* – I retired sick early Sunday morning with a bout of what turned out to be tonsillitis.  It was a shame as The Big Twits went on to see 152 birds in the 24 hour race and claim the title!

Return from intermission

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I have come to the realisation that it has been almost two months since I have posted anything on this blog.  Apologies to my dedicated readers for the unscheduled hiatus.

The last two months have unfortunately been dominated by work.  I had hoped to reduce the amount of site time I was doing but have found it steadily increasing.  In an effort to stay in Perth more often I am taking on more managerial roles, something that I am not too comfortable with to be honest.  I am, however, grateful to have a job.
Computer-wise, not a lot has changed.  Kylie has a “new” iMac G5 (replacing her eMac G4 which was becoming decidedly long in the tooth).  I haven’t added much to the computer collection (I think a complete Apple IIC was the last acquisition).  Recent Apple announcements have been a roller-coaster of emotions for me: the new MacBook Air looks awesome (the 11 inch model in particular) but why oh why have they canned the Xserve?
The model train layout I have been building for the last year or so is progressing nicely.  The under-board wiring has been neatened up and more work on the scenery completed.  I have also started to fix the location of buildings.  Still a very long way to go but I’m not sure I ever want this project to end…

The last few months have been fantastic for me with regards to birding.  The highlight was a trip to Neale Junction with Martin Cake and John Graff.  You can read the trip report here.  It was a fantastic adventure into an area that I have never travelled before.  Already there are plans to go back.  In all I got 17 lifers.

BirdSight Australia has been updated to version 1.8

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The iPhone and iPod Touch application BirdSight Australia has just been updated to version 1.8.

The good news is:
  • The upgrade keeps all of your previous sightings (so don’t stress about upgrading and losing all of your precious sightings that you haven’t backed up because the process is too tedious);
  • The location data entry form allows Google maps (if you have Internet access obviously);
  • You can cache Wikipedia articles locally. This sounds like an awesome feature that I must try out.
The bad news is:
  • The App now has a 17+ rating (why?);
  • The main view of lists of sightings show the same information twice (once in a large black font and the again immediately below in a smaller grey font) EDIT – this behaviour is just for existing sightings made with the previous version – new sightings now show site and date/time on the main page (which is actually good news);
  • The apostrophe bug I mentioned earlier is still present;
  • If you click “Share Data” in an observation and then click “Cancel” the App crashes completely.
There is so much that could be done to improve this App. I guess the underlying good news is that someone is working on it again. Hopefully it’ll get better. This is still the only App I have ever paid for.

Road Trip

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A recent drive from Perth to Karratha yielded four new birds for my lifelist:

  • White-eared Honeyeater (Lichenostomus leucotis);
  • Little Crow (Corvus bennetti);
  • Torresian Crow (Corvus orru);
  • Mangrove Grey Fantail (Rhipidua phasiana).

Separating the two crows required a fair amount of preparation (as far as I can see they look identical). I had located some mp3s of the calls of both of these birds (and also the Australian Raven for good measure) and loaded them onto my iPod touch. This enabled me to compare the live call to a few typical calls on the iPod. Thankfully the crows cooperated and treated me to textbook renditions of their voices.

I did the drive to help my brother-in-law Wes get his car back up to Karratha (he works up there at the moment).


View Larger Map

Google Maps reports this trip as 1,547 kilometres. These four birds take the life list to 215.

Rottnest Island Birding Trip

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On Saturday May 1st 2010 three of us (John Graff, Mark Newman and myself) headed to Fremantle to catch the ferry to Rottnest Island. We departed at 0730 and returned at 1645. The weather was overcast for most of the day. Our targets were the Rottnest specialties (Peafowl, Common Pheasant, Rock Parrot) as well as any waders or seabirds that happened to turn up.

We dipped out on Rock Parrot and Peafowl but had good sightings of both male and female Common Pheasant. We suspect that the Peafowl may have been culled out of existence (or any that are left are hiding really well). Given how common they used (and the fact that they stand out like a sore thumb) this is unusual. The following is my list for the day (Common Pheasant being my only lifer):
  • Common Pheasant;
  • Galah;
  • Welcome Swallow;
  • White-browed Scrubwren;
  • Red-capped Robin;
  • Silver Gull;
  • Silvereye;
  • Crested Tern;
  • Pied Cormorant;
  • Australian Raven;
  • Australian Shelduck;
  • Singing Honeyeater;
  • Brown Skua;
  • Laughing Dove;
  • Spotted Dove;
  • Eastern Osprey;
  • Australian Pelican;
  • Ruddy Turnstone;
  • Australian Magpie;
  • Caspian Tern;
  • White-fronted Chat;
  • Red-necked Stint;
  • Black-winged Stilt;
  • Grey Plover;
  • Banded Lapwing;
  • Pacific Black Duck;
  • Grey Teal;
  • Spotless Crake;
  • Australian Pied Oystercatcher;
  • Nankeen Kestrel;
  • Red-necked Avocet;
  • Australasian Gannet.
The Common Pheasant takes my list to 211 (bird 210 was a Wood Sandpiper that I photographed and needed a second opinion).

Birds #208 and #209

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After the somewhat unsuccessful Cheynes Beach trip I had good birding day on Saturday picking up two new species:

  • On the BAWA walk at Woodman Point we saw Arctic Jaegers (Stercorarius parasiticus) – thanks to the crew that ran this walk! The majority of the jaegers kept very high up but a few passed by at low altitudes offering great views.
  • As the walk finished mid-morning I headed on to Herdsman Lake with John Graff and we located a pair of Red-kneed Dotterels (Erythrogonys cinctus). Thanks John!
I didn’t get any photographs of these – too focused on getting a good view of them. I don’t like my chances of hitting 250 by the end of 2010 (we are in April already) but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

Beach Stone-curlew at Dampier

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IMG_5000, originally uploaded by gjhmac.

Beach Stone-curlew (Esacus neglectus, Dampier, WA, Australia). Now I have seen both the Bush and Beach Stone-curlews at Dampier – another lifer!

I have turned on the image verification security feature for the comments on this blog as I seem to be getting a fair amount of spam posts. At least someone is reading my blog I guess…