Flock Bronzewing

Flock Bronzewing Phaps histrionica, Old Andado Homestead.

The Old Andado Track (south-east of Alice) was the destination for my birding efforts this weekend. Along with a bumpy old ride, my companions and I found some spectacular bird life including this Flock Bronzewing who sat on the road very obligingly for a picture. Normally a bit tricky to find, these birds are currently common around Indinda Swamp near the Old Andado Homestead. During our stay there were often flocks of up to 100 birds circling around our heads. Other common birds in the region were Eyrean Grasswren, Banded Whiteface, Chiming Wedgebill, Orange Chat, and Cinnamon Quail-thrush; a great trip!

There have been a couple of impressive reports this week. Local birder Richard Waring took some great photos of White-browed Treecreeper out on Larapinta Drive. This species is right on the northern edge of its distribution here and is notoriously difficult to find.

Gilbert Swamp, just south of Tennant Creek, has had two reports of Painted Honeyeater this week. This is an exciting find as this bird is usually found considerably east of here. Not commonly reported in the NT at all, it is exciting to hear some reports coming through.

A few different cormorants have been seen at the poo ponds this week, but the highlight was perhaps an Australasian Darter that chose to stop over for a few days and hang out with the ducks.

More ominously, I found a few feral Spotted Turtle-doves during a walk along Ragonesi Rd on the south side of The Gap – they’re spreading. Residents in Eastside have reported a small flock of Rainbow Lorikeets in the area over the past few weeks which would be another unwelcome invader.

 Happy Birding ‘til next week!

comebirdwatching@gmail.com

Southern Boobook

Southern Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae. Photographed by Matt LeFeuvre.

Fires, controlled and otherwise, have continued this week making Alice a smoky old town. Many might sympathise with this Southern Boobook, snapped by marine biologist Matt Le Feuvre near town last week. Matt has caught this beautiful little owl at its daytime roost, and the smoke seems to be playing havoc with his eyes.

There have been some interesting sightings from near and far this week. A visiting photographer friend turned up with some spectacular shots of 20,000 Flock Bronzewings near the Queensland border on the Plenty Highway. Alice Springs expats Terry and Jo Brennan-Kuss were up from Coober Pedy for the weekend and reported hundreds of Inland Dotterels and more Flock Bronzewings along the road to William Creek. 

A Curlew Sandpiper was identified by Barb Gilfedder among other waders at the Alice Springs sewage ponds. This is a common migrant visitor from the Arctic region, but not seen too often in Central Australia.

The big question for the week is – who has lost a Princess Parrot? Birdwatchers around Central Australia are waiting for confirmation that one of these scarce (in the wild) parrots seen on Northside, was indeed a wild bird and not an escaped aviary pet. If anyone is missing one of these birds I’d love to hear from you.

Lastly, Centralian birdos are crossing their fingers and hoping that fires to the south-east of town along the Deep Well Road haven’t pushed into a well-known population of Rufous-crowned Emu-wrens. The fires came perilously close to this area and these tiny birds are not safe yet.

A big thank you to all the regular and volunteer fire-fighters who have been working so hard in the last few weeks to protect not just people and property, but valuable habitat for our birds and other unique wildlife.   

Happy birding!

Weebill



Weebill Smicrornis brevirostris.



Welcome to the week of birds in Central Australia. Our bird this time around is perhaps the smallest in Australia. At between 4 and 5 grams the Weebill (pictured) has few rivals in the super-lightweight division of the Australian bird list. This tiny yellow bird may go unnoticed by many, but its garrulous call will be familiar to most. This is a common bird anywhere there are eucalypts that might house the lerps and other small insects which make up so much of its diet. The old telegraph station is a favourite haunt, as is the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens.    

There’ve been some interesting reports from far and wide this week. Big Trav up in Tennant Creek saw 5 Pheasant Coucals down on Peko road – a spectacular, and unusual sighting this far south.

A bit further up the highway, folks at Banka Banka Station have seen plenty of Brolga passing through the area, most likely dispersing from a frenzy of waterbird activity up at Lake Woods at the moment.

Visitors to Ininda Swamp near Old Andado report plenty of water still around those parts and a few Letter-winged Kites still in the area.

Closer to home, water birds have been the order of the day in Alice Springs with Little Pied and Little Black Cormorant both reported along with Australasian Darter this week. Also at the sewage ponds have been Straw-necked Ibis, Common Greenshank, Intermediate and Eastern Great Egret.

Birds of prey nesting around town at the moment include, Brown Goshawks, Collared Sparrowhawks, Black-breasted Buzzards, Peregrine Falcons, and Wedge-tailed Eagles; it should be an exciting time ahead as these youngsters get airborne.

The Budgies seem to be coming back strongly also, and several decent flocks of these uber nomads have been spotted around town over the past week.

Happy birding!

Tawny Frogmouth

Tawny Frogmouth Podargus strigoides.

The Tawny Frogmouth is a rare example of a bird which is both iconic and frequently overlooked. It is found throughout Australia and has close relatives right through south-east Asia.

It is an amazingly successful bird across a wide variety of habitats and climates. Not often observed due to its impressively cryptic habits, it’s more common than many of us might believe. The chances are that you are rarely more than a few hundred metres from one of these birds – even right in the middle of town. Frogmouths have demonstrated a remarkable capacity for adapting to life in urban environments – and they’re sneaky.

Unfortunately, many of these birds have been showing up dead on our roads in recent months, the victim of unavoidable collisions with late night motorists and the debilitating effects of accumulated rodent poisons.

This week has seen some exciting reports across town. The big news was a flock of 50 pelicans that was circling over town late last Thursday afternoon – are they here for a fishing trip out in the West Macs?

Orange Chats (a lifer!) have been reported at the poo ponds by Moses Waring – at 7 years of age one of the youngest birders doing the rounds at the sewage ponds this season. Among the migrant birds, Sharp-tailed, Wood, and Common Sandpipers have all been passing through and there has been a single Common Greenshank at the poo ponds as well this week.

Going back to nocturnal birds, have you worked out your team for the annual Tiwest Nightstalk yet? This national hunt for the nocturnal wildlife treasures of Australia begins on the 1^st of September, so it is time to get scheming! Check the website below for details and keep on sending me your interesting bird reports from wherever your binoculars take you this week.

http://www.perthzoo.wa.gov.au/act/tiwest-night-stalk/

comebirdwatching@gmail.com

Happy birding!

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola.

It’s an exciting time of year for bird lovers in the southern hemisphere. Most of our local birds are either sitting on eggs or have recently hatched a brood of squawking youngsters. While resident birds are busy breeding there is one group of birds who have no interest in such activities; for now.

Migrant birds have started to arrive from their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere and among them is our bird of the week, the Wood Sandpiper. At around 55g, it is astonishing that such a tiny frame can sustain all the requisite bits and pieces for sustaining life. Add to this that this delicate-looking creature has just flown here all the way from the Russian Far East and it boggles the mind.

The Wood Sandpiper has been shown to be capable of making this trip in just a few hops of up to 4,500km stopping for just a few days along the way to rest and feed. With few exceptions it will make this staggering round trip every year of its life and may live well beyond 15 years. That’s not bad on a diet of insect larvae and molluscs!

Over the summer you can marvel at these amazing birds at the Alice Springs Sewage Ponds where they spend their holiday season loafing with other migrant species. A few other migrants have been spotted lately including Common Sandpipers and Red-necked Stints, all of whom have completed a similar ultra-marathon flight to get here.

Lots of people have been emailing me their stories of nesting birds in the back yard. Have you got an interesting or unidentified bird nesting in a tree at your house? Send me your pictures and stories and that’ll be the topic for next week’s ditty.

birdscentral@gmail.com

Happy birding!

Australian Pelican

Australian Pelican Pelecanus conspicillatus.

There can be few more majestic birds than the pelican. With their huge bills and broad wingspan an airborne flock can look like a squadron of bombers as they fly in formation across outback skies. Pelicans have fascinated me ever since Mr. Ponder, Mr. Percival, and Mr. Proud first waddled into my imagination from Colin Thiele’s masterpiece, Stormboy; if you’ve never read it, you’re missing out.

It’s not a bird that you would instantly associate with the desert but pelicans are fond of breeding in our inland waterways. Lake Eyre in 1994 saw one of the largest pelican breeding events ever recorded and ecologists estimated that in the following years 3 out of every 4 pelicans anywhere in Australia had been born at Lake Eyre.

In Central Australia pelicans can often be encountered at significant bodies of water like Mary Ann Dam and Lake Woods to the north and Boggy Hole closer to Alice Springs – I’ve even had a report of a bird found resting atop a sand dune out on the Sandover Highway.

You may see them in small flocks flying high overhead. While they often do breed inland, pelicans tend to spend more of their time in coastal regions where there is a more reliable supply of fish. It has been suggested that the small flocks we sometimes see, are actually scouting parties. It’s theorised that they come from coastal colonies to inspect the state of inland waterways. If the rains have arrived and the conditions are right they will spread the word and the colonies duly arrive at places like Lake Eyre for the massive breeding events that we have witnessed in the past.

The highlights of Alice Springs birding this week has been 3 Freckled Ducks, 2 Baillon’s Crake, and the first Wood Sandpipers on their return migration from the Arctic all at the sewage ponds at Ilparpa.

Happy birding until next week.

Australian Ringneck

Australian Ringneck, Barnardius zonarius.

The Australian Ringneck, pictured, could fall into the same category as the Galah as one of our most underrated birds. Common throughout most of Australia except the wet tropics and Tasmania, these colourful, brash birds are never far away. Here in Alice Springs you are rarely more than a stone’s throw from a group of Ringnecks. They’re common up and down Todd Mall, and the Todd River, usually obvious by their clattering calls.

It’s a bird that exhibits a great amount of regional variation which has earned it different names around the country. Folks in WA call them Twenty-eight Parrots in reference to the way the birds sound in the south-west. There’s the Mallee Ringneck down further south which has much more green and turquoise about the head. Then to our east you will find the Cloncurry Ringneck which is much paler overall. The variety that we see around Alice Springs is known as the Port Lincoln Ringneck and can be found all the way down to that part of SA. Despite all these regional colours and different names, genetic research has shown that all of these parrots are the same species.

This week I managed to track down a bird which is more familiar from south of the border, the Cinnamon Quail-thrush. These birds are showing up in increasing numbers along the Maryvale Rd, Deepwell Rd, and the Old Andado Track. The Orange Chats have now well and truly colonised the sewage ponds and this week we had a visit from a pair of White-necked Herons as well. Richard Waring had success tracking down last week’s bird, the Sacred Kingfisher, in the Hugh River west of town.

Happy birding until next week.