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.

Sacred Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfisher, Todiramphus sanctus.

This week the bird in the picture arrives with a swag of mythological associations. This is the Sacred Kingfisher. The shimmering blue-green of the plumage and the buff coloured eyebrow separate him from the more common, Red-backed Kingfisher. This bird has been referred to as “sacred” as far back as the 16^th century when early ornithologists noticed the great reverence the bird was held in through much of the Pacific.

Its previous generic name, Halcyon, was a reference to ancient Greek mythology. Ceyx, the King of Thessaly, drowned during a long sea voyage. On hearing of his death, his wife Halcyone, turned into a kingfisher. Hearing the kingfisher’s loud lamentations, the gods brought her drowned husband back from the dead as another kingfisher and the couple were reunited. They created a floating nest for their eggs out on the sea, and Halcyone’s father Aeolus, the god of wind, kept the sea calm so as not to tip his daughter’s eggs into the sea. This is where we get the term “halcyon days” referring to a time of calm and peace. The name Ceyx, is also now used as a scientific name for a different group of kingfishers.

You should keep an eye out for the Sacred Kingfishers as they arrive back from their northerly migration in the coming weeks. Another bird which is on its way back from spending winter in the warmer climes up north is the Rainbow Bee-eater. Mark Carter has reported the first of these birds returning this week to add a splash of colour as we head towards warmer weather.

A bit of maintenance occurring at the sewage ponds will mean a few changes to water levels, but no changes to birding access.

As always, send your sightings to- comebirdwatching@gmail.com

…And happy Birding!

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Coracina novaehollandiae.

Kyah Gillen, at 12 years old, could be one of Alice Springs’ youngest birders. Kyah reported the bird in the picture this week, a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike. These birds are fairly common around most of the suburbs of Alice but seem to be particularly abundant around northside this year.

Some people know this bird as a “Shufflewing”, owing to its habit of shuffling its wing feathers back into position every time it lands. Some folks have suggested that it looks like it’s performing “The Macarena”, for those of us unfortunate enough to recall that particular pop monstrosity. You might find Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes nesting this year in a shallow saucer nest which looks much too small for a bird of this size.

Kyah had some other interesting sightings this week, including an unfortunate White-plumed Honeyeater which had been caught by a Collared Sparrowhawk.

Feral Spotted Turtle-doves continue to run rampant over the town, but genuinely intriguing this week was a report of two Brown Cuckoo-doves around Plumbago Crescent. This is a species more at home along the east coast and would be the first record for the NT if confirmed.

The first of the returning migrants has been sighted, fittingly, by the president of the Field Nats, Barb Gilfedder. Barb and some friends found a lone Common Sandpiper at the poo ponds after its epic journey from distant parts of far eastern Asia.

Lastly, I had a great encounter with a small flock of Varied Sitellas along the eastern boundary of the AZRI block during the week. These frenetic little birds are never common to bump into, but always fun to watch as they land on a tree trunk and spiral their way downwards, feeding as they go. Great stuff!

Happy Birding!

Grey-headed Honeyeater

Grey-headed Honeyeater, Lichenostomus keartlandi.

It’s been another big week for birding in The Centre. The Alice Springs Field Naturalists Club conducted their quarterly wader count at the poo ponds on Sunday. Thanks to all who turned out to help, and that data will be forwarded on to the Shorebirds 2020 project by the tireless Barb Gilfedder, who also organised the whole shebang.

On the weekend I caught up with some sizeable flocks of Grey-headed Honeyeaters feasting on blooming hakeas atop Mt. Gillen. If you ever wondered why we don’t have hummingbirds here in Australia, then the answer is in the photo this week.

Honeyeaters have evolved to fill a similar niche in our ecosystem as hummingbirds in other parts of the world – pollinating plants. These blokes are high-octane nectar feeders, but aren’t averse to taking the occasional insect or two. The slightly powdery effect on the forehead of this bird is the pollen from the hakea that it has picked up in its travels and will transport all around the neighbourhood.

Honeyeaters are the largest group of Australian birds by a fair margin, and many of them can be found here in The Centre. Just recently, there has been a report of a Yellow-tinted Honeyeater in the area around Tnorala. This northerly species would be an interesting addition to the list of Centralian vagrants in this season of plenty.

Another interesting report of an albino Brown Falcon came from Mark Carter while birding out on Deep Well Road earlier in the week. That’s one bird that should certainly stand out so keep your camera handy if you’re birding out that way.

Other sightings of note; a much-beleaguered Barn Owl has been roosting in the Ghost Gum behind Office National despite the best efforts of local Butcherbirds, and some huge flocks of Spinifex Pigeons frolicking in the thick spinifex atop the Heavitree Range. The Peregrine Falcons continue to entertain early commuters passing through Heavitree Gap.

Send your sightings to- comebirdwatching@gmail.com

Happy Birding!