Phillip Island Sunday

Phillip Island is about an hour and a half south of Melbourne … which raises an interesting thought: I tend to measure travel distance in hours and minutes these days, rather than kilometres or miles. Hmm, I still use metres and kilometres for directions to birds though, for instance “1 km down that road take a left and stop 50 metres past the creek crossing”. Anyway, Phillip Island was perfect for a Sunday birding trip. The fog lifted, the sun came out and there was no wind. And all the rain we have had over the last year or so has changed it so much from when I was last there in ……. , heavens, my records say 2006 but surely it hasn’t been that long!

Rhyll foreshore at low tide

Anyway we arrived at Rhyll beach at absolute low tide and opened the thermos for a cup of tea, as you do. There was not much happening apart from a couple of Red-capped Plover, a few White-faced Herons and, of course, the Silver Gulls and people out for a Sunday walk, so we finished our cuppa and made for the lookout over Rhyll Inlet. This was much better with a few Eastern Curlew to watch, but sadly no Whimbrels. Then some more wakers appeared down on the sand-spit so we moved on.

Rhyll inlet from the lookout. The trees are slowly blocking the view

Next stop was the lookout at Conservation Hill Reserve where we found that the view over the top end of Rhyll Inlet and the swamps in the reserve had been improved with the unfortunate death of some of the trees at the lookout.

Then it was on to the cemetery where there is another wetland and a wooded hill. The best bird there was a Grey Currawong, but on the “cute meter” the winner was a beautiful Swamp Wallaby and her well-grown joey. The joey bolted for the bush as soon as we stopped but mum sat around and posed for photos, for which we thanked her before driving on.

Swamp Wallaby beside road to the cemetery

As it was now nearing lunchtime we pulled into the Swan Lake car park and wandered out to the hides before we ate. Now this was a major change. The lake is full and all the mud flats that we used to watch waders on are well under water. It was a beautiful sight and so wonderful to think that down here the drought is over, at least for this year.

Swan Lake with a Welcome Swallow checking for a nesting site

Swan Lake full of water, for a change

The Banksia are in bloom and the Little Wattlebirds where noisy, and everywhere.

Little Wattlebird

As we watched one bird feeding high on the outer edge of the tree a raptor called from above and the response from the Wattlebird was instant and very interesting. It “froze” in a twisted pose with all its feathers fluffed out. I wonder if it was a cryptic pose with the bird trying to mimic a dry Banksia flower? The colour of the bird, grey-brown with white flecking, and the shape it assumed made it look somewhat like one, and maybe just enough like one to fool a distant raptor?

I considered the possibility that the bird had just decided to warm itself in the sun but it didn't move slowly into the pose and shuffle its feathers as a bird starting to "sun" usually does. At the sound of the raptor cry the bird "snapped" to the position and froze. After about 3 minutes in the pose, and with no further raptor calls heard during this time, the bird flew down and into an adjoining Banksia.

Little Wattlebird "frozen" after the raptor called

From here we drove out to the Penguin colony and tourist complex at the end of the road and joined the hordes on the boardwalk. The penguins were nowhere to be seen but way out there was a raft of gulls feeding on a dead something, with one very large brown bird in the centre of the flock. After taking a bunch of photo and blowing them up as far as possible we could see that it was a Southern Giant Petrel, a nice addition to the day’s list. As we watched a Silver Gull started getting very upset with a passing juvenile Pacific Gull. It’s just a shame they were so far off because the Silver Gull was twisting itself into some very intricate poses.

Southern Giant Petrel feeding on dead something

Silver Gull in a heated dispute with an immature Pacific Gull

Even in calm weather the waves hitting the rock shelf are spectacular

All the old houses in the penguin colony area of the headland have now gone and in their place man-made penguin nesting boxes have been installed. There was no sign of penguins but the squatters have definitely moved in.

Man-made nesting boxes at an old house site with a "squatter"

Nest site with a view

With all the regular stops ticked off we turned and headed for home. We had one last pleasure in store though because beside the roundabout at the entry to the Penguin Parade building we came across these gorgeous young things, and they sent the “cute meter” to new levels.

Five fluff balls in a puddle

Just so cute with their little bandit masks

The family group

The Cape Barren Geese appear to have had a good few seasons as it seemed that every farm dam and every wetland had a resident pair. In fact all the birds were in good numbers and, without chasing numbers, we saw a total of 65 species on the island. There was nothing unexpected but the list included a nice flock of Common Greenfinch, calling and courting Swamp Harriers, Nankeen Kestrels in bright new plumage and Kelp Gulls along the cliffs.

Kelp Gull

Newhaven part 2 – The rest of the trip

After seeing the Princess Parrots the rest of our stay at Newhaven should have been an anticlimax, but it wasn’t. The days were clear and calm and the temp got up to a shirt-sleeve 26ºC. The volunteers were friendly and helpful, the campground was well laid out and the stars in the clear night sky were the stuff dreams are made of. We had been told that the birds were few and far between but even though they didn’t exactly run all over our toes we had no trouble building a respectable bird list. Then each evening when we lit the campfire, Lorna bought out the wine and Janine brought out a bottle of Scotch. It was a glorious week of good birds, good weather, good friends and good food.

Relaxing around the campfire

Even getting to Alice Springs was pleasant. QANTAS excelled itself and on a full flight I somehow had the good fortune to have the only empty seat right next to me. One joy of flying, for me, is to have a window seat so I can gaze out and dream about the birds we might be flying over, the other is to have an empty seat next to me so I can spread out. I can’t imagine why people sit in a window seat and don’t look out. They miss so much, the hills, the desert, the remoteness and the beauty.

There are birds down there, and maybe even Lassiter's lost reef

Desert and the road to Santa Teresa

Newhaven is an old grazing lease that is now owned and managed by Australian Wildlife Conservancy and they and Birds Australia (BirdLife) have given it a secure future as a wildlife reserve. Signs of previous grazing still show but the native bushes and grasses are coming back and this year everything is in flower or seed and looking beautiful.

The "desert" in full health

Mistletoe

View over the campgrounds and out to the east

So many places to explore ... maybe this is where Lassiter's reef is

Desert Oaks, sand dunes and Mt Liebig

On the first two days we watched the Princess Parrots until about 1000 then headed off to explore the property and find other birds and places. The Dunes track was very productive and we had Banded Whiteface along the first few km and then, when the land opened into Spinifex, Triodia scariosa (irritans), covered plains we were amongst the Fairy-wrens, Emu-wrens, larger honeyeaters and raptors.

They are just so beautiful ....

... I couldn't resist just two more photos

Banded Whiteface ...

.... and as we normally saw them

White-winged Fairy-wren

On the side track to Lake Bennett, currently dry, we found Orange Chat, Crimson Chat, thornbills, honeyeaters and, of course, the Zebra Finches that flitted in and out of every bush on the property and had us stopping often in the hope that they were something else. Black-faced Woodswallows were sitting on top of most of the dead trees. Crested Bellbirds could be heard calling whenever we stopped.

Singing Honeyeater

Grey-fronted Honeyeater at the drying dam off the Dunes track

Zebra Finch at the spring, Lake Bennett

One track I would have like to spend more time on was the Cuckoo track. There were no cuckoos but there is a lot of Mallee and as we drove through there were small birds everywhere. At one stop we had White-winged Fairy-wrens, Inland Thornbills, Western Gerygone, Slaty-backed Thornbills and Grey Honeyeaters.

Australian Pipit

Yellow-throated Miner

Red-browed Pardalote. It just did not want to come out and play

We also only had one quick visit to Potato Gorge, in the range behind the homestead, and it would have been nice to explore that more fully. There are so many places to go to that I am sure that you could fill two weeks without seeing everything properly.

Potato Gorge

Apart from the parrots, the bushranger Pied Butcherbirds in the campground that tried to steal food from the table and the Brown Falcons that perched on dead trees and stared at us, all the birds were extremely shy for some reason. It might be because of the number of raptors; we saw 12 species during our visit including Black-breasted Buzzard, Spotted Harrier, Little Eagle and Nankeen Kestrel. My total species count for the 5 days was 56 but I did miss a few such as the Peregrine Falcon as we drove out, the Cockatiels that did a fly-over one morning and the Southern White-faces that were found by another group of birders. Highlights, apart from the parrots, were the pair of Grey Falcons that circled briefly above the car; the Hobby, Brown Goshawk and Brown Falcon having a three-way dispute over hunting rights at the campground; finding Banded White-face and Rufous-crowned Emu-wren, at last, and finding more than one Grey Honeyeater.

One of the bushranger Pied Butcherbirds

Grey Falcon

Grey Falcon

Brown Falcon

Brown Goshawk

Brown Falcon being harassed by an Australian Hobby

Australian Hobby

There are plenty of signs of camel on the property and more than once we came across large bull camels near the road. Their tracks are everywhere and the tops have been eaten off many bushes and droppings surround the few waterholes. Eradication programs are underway but it is going to be hard work.

Bull camel, very majestic but not what we wanted to see

The Princess Parrots seem to be looking for nesting sites so hopefully they will stick around, but even if you don’t see them Newhaven should be on everyone’s must visit list. Joe and the volunteers are doing a wonderful job, the country is in good condition, the birds are plentiful and the scenery is spectacular. Even if you don’t see the parrots Grey Honeyeaters were not overly hard to find, the raptors were everywhere, the emu-wrens were calling all over the place (but VERY hard to see) and there are lots of other desirable arid-land birds like Orange and Scarlet Chats. Do pick up a copy of the Self Guided Tour Notes too as they have lots of information about the property as well as notes on all the tracks.

The Watchers at the (Night Parrot) Pool

Little Crow at the campground

Sigh, having written all this I would go back tomorrow if I could – well maybe I will wait until September when the nights aren’t so cold, but go back I must. There are a whole lot of tracks to the west of Lake Bennett that we didn’t see as well as some to the north and east of the homestead. And then there is Potato Gorge; what a strange name. We only had a quick look but it just calls out to be explored properly. I think there is a new race of grasswren tucked into its farthest back corner, maybe even a new species (smile).

Lake Bennett

The landscape is just so vast

A few slow night-drives would be good too. We missed the Night Parrot at the shallow pool off the Dune track, teeheehee, but in the dying light we did see Common Bronzewing and I am sure another half hour or so would have given us the parrot. We did see a Spotted Nightjar on the way back to camp and as we birded we saw the tracks of many small nocturnal mammals, and one morning there were the tracks of a monitor lizard near the campground.

Budgies

Military Dragon (Ctenophorus isolepsis)

A very brightly coloured grasshoppery thing - is actually a Blistered Pyrgomorph (Monistria pustulifera), thanks Chris for the correct name.

One place on the Tanami track that was recommended to us is from the kilometre marker “Y 220” coming from Alice Springs and for the next 2 kilometres. There is Blue Mulga in flower and both Western Gerygone and Grey Honeyeater have been seen. The reverse side of the sign, coming back, says “AS 70”. If you do stop here pull well off the road as the road trains are wide and travel fast.

At "Y220" on the Tanami Track

Road Train