Australia in Retrospect

Having been home from Oz now for two weeks and with Christmas finished and out of the way I have finally got chance to catch my breath and think about what a great time I had, not just with birds but with all walks of the wildlife in this fantastically vast and varied Continent. I now aim to share with you my wildlife highlights and places I would recommend, should you embark on a similar trip.

1) Cairns Esplanade, Queensland: What a place! For all those wader enthusiasts out there, this is the place to go. Find out the high tide times and forget the telescope. Bring the bins and the camera and you are laughing!
People not of the bird watching persuasion apparently moan about the lack of a beach in what is a massive tourist haven, but should you lose this massive expanse of mud then you would lose Whimbrels, Eastern Curlews, Pacific Golden Plovers, Pelicans, Mudskippers and ruddy great crabs.



Whimbrel @ Cairns Esplanade


Pacific Golden Plover @ Cairns Esplanade

This list barely scratches the surface of the birds I saw in the two visits that found me wandering along the 1km or so of elevated boardwalk. Forget trying to identify tiny little specks in full zoom on your scope, some of these little beauties were merely twenty feet away whilst on the grass on the opposite side to the sea, Bush Stone Curlew would happily roam around the picnic tables and holiday makers in the evening.

At the end of the mud flats you can walk along the edge of the mangroves, here I witnessed a Willie Wagtail dive bombing a particularly nonplussed dog! Something that will stay with me for a long time, I fancy! The stars of this area were my first Collared Kingfisher and Varied Honeyeater
Other birds of note here included,Gull Billed Tern, Sharp Tailed Sandpiper,Terek Sandpiper, Greater Sand Plover,Bar Shouldered Dove,Pied Imperial Pigeon.


Gull Billed Tern @ Cairns Esplanade

2) Mount Lewis, Queensland:Now this place could probably be regarded as the most productive place I went during my whole trip. This maybe slightly biased due to the fact it produced my "holy grail" bird. Buff-Breasted Paradise Kingfisher, now this bad-boy is every bit as exotic as the name suggests. As we wend our way up this small mountain from the rain forest to the right, like a bright white arrow fired through the trees across the track and back into the thick jungle and out of my life forever. Maybe two seconds were all I got of this superstar bird and really whetted my appetite for more. Sadly it wasn't to be, but I would have happily traded any of the other birds on the trip for those two seconds which are now implanted in my memory! Before I left Blighty this location was not that high on the agenda but my travelling companion "Uncle Paul" said after one of our prior excursions "shall we give this Mount Lewis a try?"
He will from now on go down in the light "Good plan that man!" Once we got to the top of the mountain and went for a little mosey and we soon had lifers coming out of our ears. Firstly we had a Bassian Thrush hopping around in the leaf litter, that reminded me of a Song Thrush in the woods back home. Then we saw Grey Fantail, Atherton Scrubwren, Fernwren, Bower's Shrike-Thrush, and the brilliantly Charismatic Chowchilla, of which i saw a troop of eight. This bird wore a similar costume as our Dipper and has a side sweeping action of sifting through the humous in search of food.


Chowchilla @ Mount Lewis

This was all in an the space of about 30 minutes. The latter four of these species are only to be found in a small pocket of Northern Queensland and nowhere else in the world. Now in my eyes I think that it is pretty cool to see something that is so localised.


Grey Fantail @ Mount Lewis
Please accept my apologies for the slightly lacklustre photography as it was very dark and i am yet to invest in a flash gun!

3)Long Reef & Wariewood Wetlands, New South Wales:Once back in Sydney I arranged to meet fellow bird blogger Mark Young. He told me that he would pick me up at 5.30am and we would head to Long Reef golf course as our first port of call. When we left the car we headed to a little swampy area where Mark thought I could pick up a few new birds. We were soon surrounded by a large flock of Little Corellas and Galahs we both managed to get some nice snaps before we spied upon a Black Tailed Native-Hen having an early morning stroll down the ninth fairway, whether or not it was mid-round I shall never know?


Little Corella @ Long Reef Golf Course
We then noticed a Baillon's Crake walking in and around the reeds on the foreshore, I got particularly excited about seeing birds that can also be found in Europe or would be a massive twitch should it have been in England. This little chap definitely fell into this category!


Baillons Crake @ Long Reef Golf Course

Once we were finished on the golf course we made haste for the reef itself. Mark enlightened me on the way that we would be wading out in almost thigh high water to ensure that we would get a close as possible to the roosting waders before they dispersed once the tide was fully out, Mark also assured me that this wasn't just a plan to leave a hapless Pommie stranded out in the sea after Australia's unfortunate Ashes result! So, with some trepidation, I followed Mark out into the waves and onto the reef.
Once out on the reef we were rewarded with close up views of Red Necked Stint, Great Crested Tern and Double Banded Plover as well as another of my star birds Sooty Oystercatcher. We remained on the reef for a couple of hours, watching the coming and going waders, gulls and terns. We also had good views of close in Wedge Tailed Shearwaters through the bins and when my socks were dry enough to resume place back on my feet we headed back to the car and on to Wariewood Wetlands.


Great Crested Tern @ Long Reef Marine Reserve

When we arrived at Wariewood Wetlands we started the search for a roosting Powerful Owl that Mark had seen on a few occasions, we wandered through the trees to the locations where he had seen it before but to no avail. Then we crossed a small ditch and Mark turned, put his finger to his lips, gave a shhhing motion and "Disco". There in front of us was a bird that looked like it would be more than capable of taking a small child should it be struggling for possums! The magnificent beast then aroused from its sleep, sized us up and realised that we posed no threat and were simply in awe of it. We fashioned a makeshift tripod from a big stick, had our fill and took our photographs and left it to return to its slumber.


Powerful Owl @ Wariewood Wetlands

Here is just a sample of the highlights that I was treated to, and I hope it hepls if anyone is planning a similar trip in the future. I went to many more sites that you may be thinking of visiting. So if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will am to help in any way that I can.
Many thanks for reading and Bon Voyage!

Tai Po Kau & Mai Po 13th November

Had another heavily jetlagged nights sleep, it seems my body requires me top wake up at midnight and have a 4 hour session of awake time followed but 2 more hours kip before the six o'clock alarm call goes off!!

Jumped on the KCR at the nearest stop and paid a whopping 80p for it to take me to Tai Po Kau, now i had read about all of the stuff that can be found here but also read that it can be hard going to find stuff, and tricky it was I started of with the what seem like the longest staircase in the world that just kept winding up this mountain hearing birds but i just couldn't find them. After about 45 mins i saw my first bird a Chestnut Bulbul which was perching out on a branch in the mistle filled sky luckily for me it stayed long enough for me to id it before it lost itself in the trees again. then on with the hill climbing, i followed the Red route through the reserve and the same annoying hearing but can't find situation was occuring the only joy was a flock of about 5 Silver Eared Mesia got in range for a minute or so before moving through so 2 lifers and many steps conquered i saw a couple of Great tit of a new subspecies and a flock of Japanese white-eyes before i got back to the road and i thought time to catch ataxi for Mai Po. Once on the road walk down to the Taxi place the action picked up big time, the trees were a lot thinner and sighting came round alot easier, i picked up 3 Pallas Warblers which i could comfortably i.d now they were out in the open (alot smaller than yesterdays y.b.warbler) then i got Fork tailed Sunbird in one of the flowering bushes which i was really pleased with as this was on the todo list before i came and a solitary pipit which i think was of the Olive backed persuasion before i got to the Taxi rank and on to Mai Po. I managed to get some photos for retrospect identification when i get the time.

I wouldn't say to people not to go there because the walk was a nice walk (if a little tiring) and i did see a couple of monkeys which was also cool but from the birds the book say are there it is hard for a novice to find them!!

Now Mai Po on the other hand was a whole differant Animal, what a place. As soon as rocked up through wardens gate i had a flock of Asian Azure winged Magpies really close then went into the first hide and had Long Tailed Shrike, which was real beauty perhing up and giving me great views. There were also Lt, Gt, & Int Egret, Purple, Grey and Chinese Pond Heron and more Cormorants than you could imagine every tree was covered in them.

On the walk to the next hide i had Daurian the first of 4 Daurian Redstart shaking her tail at me then fly off before i could get the camera on her. in this hide i had Black Winged Stilt, Siberian Stonechat and a flyover Black Faced Spoonbill and an accipter which i think was a Besra

The whole place was just littered with cool new birds i struck lucky in Gary Lineker Right place, right time fashion as i got onto the mangrove boardwalk and flushed a bird that i thought was a large Kungfisher before i got the bins on it and it turned out to be a Yellow Bittern which i never imagined to see before i came here. it was tiny and from the pattern of it in flight was also easy to id before it dropped back into the mangroves on the other side of the water

Then i got onto raptors in a big way, I had Osprey just sitting on a mud bank in the water, loads of Common Buzzards (Japonicus) and Black kites which are everywhere.
Then the first of the big whammy birds i noticed two massive birds sitting on two trees in the distance probably about 150 yards away and after some consoltation with a couple i was walking around with we identified them as Imperial Eagles i got a very distant photo which confirms this with the Golden Nape and white patches on the shoulder telling me they were both adult birds. Wowser a you cant go wrong with a massive Eagle! a hour or so later i got onto another Perched raptor which i ummed and arred over Black Kite of Juv Great Spotted Eagle then it took off and confirmed the latter as it flew next to the comparitivly puny Kite next too it.

I could harp on about this place for hours but i won't as i have a plabe to catch!!
but it's crowning glory were the 4 Species of Kingfisher that i bagged Common, Always nice, White throated again nice but not a lifer as i had seen these in Sri Lanka but the best were Black Capped which saw out on the Mud Flats after i had crossed the border fence into Frontier China!! and then Bird of the day for me was the Pied Kingfisher opf which i saw 3 of flying around and doing its little hovering bit. brilliant, what a day just to cap it all off on the 2nd to last Gei Wai there were 37 Black faced Spoonbill.

If you ever get the chance to go here then do it is brilliant, roll on Austrlaia for some more Kingfisher action i reckon........

Hello from Hong Kong

Arrived yesterday into Hong Kong after a very long but good flight, got on the minibus on the way to the Hotel and was keen to put my field guide research into practice. but there was barly a dicky bird all i had was a 50/50 black collared starling so i couldn't claim that as my first tick. but as we arrived into the Harbour area lifer #1 was a definate as the were several Black Kites (lineatus) floating around in the slightly failing light. not a bad start in my eyes you cant go wrong with a ruddy great bird of prey!!

Went to bed early hoping to tackle jetlag head-on and get up early in the morning to get to Kowloon park..... i took jeylag on and came in a convincing 2nd place awoke at midnight and stayed so until 4.00am. Never mind the alarm was set for six and i wasn't changing ut for the loss of a little sleep.

got a taxi down to Kowloon park and the were Tree Sparrows, Red Whiskered bulbuls and people doing Tai Chi everywhere. it was brilliant now i knew i was on holiday if i was to be walking around london at 6.30 in the morning with Camera and Bins out i would probably been ridiculed and maybe even set upon by some bad boy yardies! but here it is the complete opposite you feel completly safe here..... Chinese people are all right!!

Continuing through the park i picked up more lifers in the forms of Masked Laughingthrush, Crested Myna, Chinese Bulbul, Japanese White-eye, and Black Collared Starling could be made official here. but my two favourite new ones were Yellow browed Warbler (that saves a twitch for me at home)and the star was Orange headed Thrush which i chanced upon as two other fellas were lurking in the shrubbery photographing it. a good morning i reckon. other birds here included loads of Black Crowned Night Heron, Alexandrine Parakeet, Oriental Magpie Robin, and loads more Black Kites

Went out with the family in the afternoon to Hong Kong Park, the Peak and the Botanical Gardens here the star attraction here were the feral flock of Yellow Crested Cockatoos, It is apparently the biggest flock of this critically endangered species living ferally in the world. So i'm counting it, if Rose Ring Parakeet counts in London this Bad Boy Counts here. my list, my rules!!!

The only other new tick was a Common Tailorbird in the Zoological gardens, this one goes to show that the hours put in on the field guide paid off as i new what it was as soon as i saw it.... Well done Karl

Back in the taxi to the hotel i saw what must have been between 50 and 80 Black Kites circling around the Skyscrapers they must be filling the job of gulls and crows as i havent seen any here yet.

Pip Pip i'm all done now the list stands at 19 Species, 10 Lifers, 1 Subspecies
Mai Po and Tai Po Kau tommorow.

Karl

p.s some chinese words can be fun i saw these signs on shops today, Wanko fashion, Lube and Pakie Babie!!! Tittering ensued by me!

Great Northern Diver @ Grafham water

Just popped down the road to Grafham to give the old bins a quick once over before i set off for Hong Kong on Tuesday, and hopefully chance upon one of the 2 diver species that have been seen over the last few days.
We had to walk a few hundred yards to where there were a few more birders on a headland of sorts and started scanning the open water. It wasn't long before we were rewarded we good views of one of the great northern divers about 100 yards off shore. More birders turned up and everybody started searching for the Black throated diver and in the mean time the g.n.diver slipped beneath the radar and possibly to the far shore and out of view.

Time ran out in the b.t.diver search as an appointment for lunch at Costa coffee crept nearer but on the walk back to the car we did get great views of a Black Necked Grebe loafing around with a few Gadwall quite close to the shore.

The other highlight was a Marsh tit that was flitting about in the bushes nearby where the diver search was taking place, this little chap was well cool, and i hardly ever see them so that was a nice bonus alternative to the usual blue and great varieties that is the norm.

Anyroad one life tick this week and hopefully many more once i get to H.K. Later this week fingers crossed!!!

Lets go!!

Just learning how to use this new contraption before my holiday
So hello.
I have added a few of my favourite snaps

Karl

11 days to go!!