Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscata. Dazed and confused.

While Tropical Cyclone Yasi didn’t deliver all the rain some of us were expecting this weekend, we got a delivery nonetheless – and what a delivery!

Danny Gillies called me late on Sunday afternoon to inform me that he’d found a strange-looking bird that seemed injured. This was in a transport depot in Ghan Rd and Danny said, “it looks like a sea bird”.

            Well Danny, you were spot on. You found an undisputed first for Alice Springs in the form of an exhausted and starving Sooty Tern. It boggles the mind to consider for a moment what this bird must have been through.

            We regularly get inland varieties of terns here in Alice; Whiskered and Gull-billed Terns are fairly frequent visitors to the poo ponds. The Sooty Tern however is a dedicated oceanic bird. It is only an occasional visitor to the coast of the mainland, spending most of its time at sea or on island colonies well offshore.

            Yet this bird, barely the size of a skinny pigeon, has been buffeted by category 5 winds and hurled smack dab into the centre of the continent and local bird watching history. Now in the hands of talented carers, we hope he will put on some weight and be strong enough for the flight home to Queensland – of course we won’t make him fly back himself. Befitting such a distinguished visitor he will have a place reserved for him in the cargo hold of a plane in the near future. I’ll keep you up to date with his progress.

Sightings this week: 

-          Latham’s Snipe, there were three birds allowing some crippling views in the horse paddock opposite the poo ponds.

-          Ruff a single bird present at the Poo Ponds on Monday.

Feral - Spotted Turtle-dove

Spotted Turtle-dove, Streptopelia chinensis.

G’day bird lovers, this week, instead of the usual bulletin, we are looking at invasive pests with a particular focus on the bird above – the Feral Spotted Turtle-dove. This is an introduced species which bullies our smaller native doves out of their own habitats.

            Land For Wildlife are continuing their program of feral dove monitoring and trapping, with a special effort on counting the birds throughout February. With the size and distribution of the population established, trapping efforts can be targeted in March to the feral dove ‘hotspots’.

            We’re asking for community involvement with this program. All through February surveys will be conducted on Saturday mornings at 8am, and here’s the best part - you can help by staying at home! Just count all the feral spotted turtle-doves you can find on your property in the 10 minutes from 8am each Saturday, starting tomorrow. Anyone can participate and the more people who get involved the more accurate our picture of the feral dove population will be.

            Our month of monitoring will culminate with a dove trapping workshop on the 26^th of February at Bloomin’ Deserts Nursery on Hele Crescent at 10am.  We’ll show you how to build a trap and start catching feral doves on your property, and specialist animal keepers from Alice Springs Desert Park will be on hand to explain how important the trapped doves become as part of the diet of captive and rehabilitated animals. 

            So get out and start counting tomorrow. All you need to do is email your total feral dove count for each Saturday morning, along with your address, to lfw@lowecol.com.au

Remember, if you don’t find any feral doves you can still send us an email – this is good news that we need to hear as well.

            For more identification tips and information about Land For Wildlife’s feral Spotted Turtle-dove trapping program you can visit www.lowecol.com.au and follow the links to Land For Wildlife.

Happy counting!

Red-necked Avocet

Red-necked Avocets, Recurvirostra novaehollandiae.

G’day Centralian bird lovers and welcome to what might be one of the most interesting seasons of birdwatching for many years. I’ve been working down in Tasmania for a few weeks and couldn’t wait to check the sewage ponds as soon as I returned. This juvenile Avocet which was newly hatched when I left has grown up now and is looking almost as dazzling as its parents on the left. It’s been an exciting month in my absence.

Shortly before Christmas, Mark Carter made one of the finds of the season with a lone Great Crested Grebe at the Sewage Ponds.

A few sharp-eyed birdos have managed to pick out some Banded Lapwings at the poo ponds lurking amongst the flocks of their more common cousin the Masked Lapwing.

Shortly after returning to Alice, I stumbled on a Ruff at the sewage ponds. This is one of the very infrequent visitors to this part of the world. It spends much of its time in Siberia, so it was great that a few local birders managed to get down and have a look during his brief stay in the desert.

A small flock of Australian Pelicans continues to reside at Mary-Ann Dam in Tennant Creek. Closer to home, several birders have reported that Ilparpa Swamp is still bursting with life and sightings of Australian, Spotless and Baillon’s Crake have all been recorded.

Lastly, a reminder that the Central Australian year list competition is now well underway with Red Kangaroo Books in Todd Mall kindly stepping up to sponsor a prize. You can register and get the latest updates on the competition and other Centralian birding news at the Birds Central website - www.comebirdwatching.blogspot.com

Dusky Grasswren

Dusky Grasswren, Amytornis purnelli.

This weeks bird was found on top of Mt Gillen to the west of town, but most of the big bird news has again centred on the swamp.

The Dusky Grasswren pictured is a major drawcard for bird tourism in Alice Springs and is common throughout the Eastern and Western MacDonnell Ranges. Most of the other members of the Grasswren family are very shy and elusive and live in much less accessible parts of the country.

In contrast, our Dusky Grasswren can be seen with minimal fuss, quite close to town. It’s a bird not much bigger than a mouse which often prefers to hop and run around among the rocks rather than fly. For all its drabness, it is a bird full of character and boldness and I’ve seen experienced birdwatchers mesmerised by its antics. Small and unassuming, but clearly one of our iconic local bird species.

But on to this weeks round up…

-          Mark Carter has had tremendous success at Ilparpa Swamp with 3 Crake species down among the reeds in one afternoon, surely some sort of record for Alice - Spotless Crake and Australian Crake with a more unusual sighting of the tiny Baillon’s Crake.

-          Also at Ilparpa a Long-toed Stint and a Ruff mixing in with other long-distance visitors.

-          The enigmatic Flock Bronzewing have made another appearance, this time well south of town, with a small flock at Salt Creek near Erldunda.

-          A Pheasant Coucal was reported just south of Aileron on the Stuart Highway

Merry Christmas to all in the desert bird watching community and fingers crossed for some special Christmas birds turning up. Thanks again for your input.

Keep those reports coming in! 

Straw-necked Ibis

Straw-necked Ibis, Threskiornis spinicollis.

This week’s bird will be familiar to most, and in fact familiar to many around the world. Varieties of Ibis are found throughout Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe and the Americas, as well as here in Oz. There is the colossal Giant Ibis of South-East Asia growing to over a metre in height.  There is the neon-bright Scarlet Ibis of South America which puts some parrots to shame with its display of outrageous colour. Then there is the Northern Bald Ibis (or Waldrapp) which may be down to as few as 500 birds scattered among its last outposts in Syrian and Moroccan deserts. 

Ibis are well known from ancient Egyptian mythology where the Ibis-headed God known as “Thoth”, acted as intermediary between good and evil, and perfectly mummified Ibis remains have been found in many archaeological diggings. The list of cultures in which the Ibis appears in mythology or scripture is truly amazing; the Egyptians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Mongols, Malays, and countless North American nations all told stories featuring this bird in one of its many forms.

But this is our stunning local, the Straw-necked Ibis, found loafing around Blatherskite Park with his mates this week. This picture makes it abundantly clear why he is so named. With local grasses doing so well this year the Ibis are gathering in good numbers anywhere there is some good open grassland near water.

Sightings this week: 

-          On an evening out Frog-watching in the Western Macs, 3 Eastern Barn Owls in quick succession out on Larapinta Drive

-          Australian Crake seen by the dozen, scurrying around Ilparpa Swamp

-          Also down the swamps, plenty of Stubble Quail splashing about among the reed beds

Willie Wagtail

Willie Wagtail, Rhipidura leucophrys.

A question hitting the inbox in the last few weeks has been about a sweet-sounding bird heard on still nights. It isn’t made by a typically nocturnal bird, but it rings out clearly on moonlit nights, and comes from the Australian Nightingale – well, some people call it that. It’s an apt description, but the rest of us probably know it as a Willie Wagtail.

The fellow pictured in this lucky close-up, was loitering around Commonage Rd earlier in the week. He adopted this curious behaviour of perching and vibration his wings rapidly at his side, while issuing his distinctive ratcheting alarm call.

There are a couple of reasons for this; it alerted his family to my presence. More importantly, it distracted me, for a minute anyway, from his brood of three newly fledged youngsters sitting on a nearby branch.

To the left of his bill you can see silhouetted, the line of stiff rictal bristles that mark this bird as an insectivore. He wags his tail in an effort to stir insects from the undergrowth and then flutters to catch them. The bristles help to funnel the insects into the beak.

Great sightings this week include:  

-          Striated Grasswrens  just south of Barrow Creek

-          Oriental Pratincole at Tennant Creek Sewage Ponds

-          Red-chested Button-quail giving excellent views around Hamburger Creek on the Tanami rd

-          Spotless Crake lurking at Ilparpa and Glen Helen

-          and David Hartland down in Murputja, reports that his APY Lands list has hit 117, including such sought after species as Princess Parrot (couple of times a year), Chestnut-breasted and Banded Whiteface, and Striated and Dusky Grasswrens.

Thanks for the input folks and Happy Birding for another week.

Black Swan

Black Swan, Cygnus atratus.

This week the birds have dragged me halfway across the continent and back again. It’s been all about getting back from Adelaide and tracking down the Australian Painted Snipe which I’m told is still at the sewage ponds. This bird would be, for me, a lifer. The holy grail of any birdwatching outing. A species I have never seen before, making it briefly more special than any other bird.

The mornings have seen me up at 4am to beat the rising sun down to the treatment plant in my failed attempts to lure this bird from its hiding place. As is sometimes the way, my quest began to reach a frantic level of frustration when I had to stop and say to myself, take a deep breath. Look around you.

In the early morning light the ponds were alive with birds of all varieties that I’d been ignoring simply because they weren’t the one I was looking for. Birdwatching often turns into these zen moments of serendipity.

Black Swans trumpeted their welcome to the new morning. As the sun streamed through the white feathers of their wingtips, and they took to flight all around me, it was well worth getting out of bed for. The Snipe will wait another day.

Sightings this week: 

-          4 Swamp Harriers on a drive out to Yuendumu earlier in the week.

-          A Southern Boobook has been calling very persistently at night around the top of Dixon Rd

-          A mysterious Snipe (not the Painted one) lurking at the poo ponds has local pundits still guessing, Latham’s or Pin-tailed?