6. Herons, egrets and ibises in Australia

The number of species that we saw in this group was quite amazing, either that or we were extremely lucky. Some of these we saw seldom, others more often and also in New Zealand, such as the White-faced Heron. We saw only 1 Brolga, a species of crane. Of especial note is the colouration of Australian Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage where the head and neck colouration is an incredibly rich reddish-orange, much more so than the birds we see in Europe, so that one might be forgiven for thinking that they are a separate species. We saw a total out of 14 species out of the 18 recorded for southern Queensland and which also includes 3 species of bitterns. I don't think that I can complain at that! The
Black-necked Stork photograph is included as it seems to more or less qualify within this group.

Black-necked Stork

Intermediate Egret - head

Intermediate Egret

Striated / Green Heron

Royal Spoonbill (L),  White Ibis (R)

Royal Spoonbills

White-faced Heron

White-necked Heron

Straw-necked Ibises (above & below)

5. Seabirds note; Rails & Crakes

Firstly, a brief note on seabirds. The lack of a variety of gulls is very visible, there is only the Silver Gull but there is a variety of terns, all too far off to photograph and those seen included Caspian, the splendid Crested Tern and then Little, Common (slightly different to ours in Europe), Gull-billed and Whiskered, all seen from shore-based observation or over fresh water lakes and ponds.

Silver Gulls

But if there was a general lack of gulls, this was more than compensated for by the luck that we had with rails and although out of phase but because it frequents the same habitat, the Comb-crested Jacana.

Comb-crested Jacana

Baillon's Crake

Buff-banded Rail

Spotless Crake

Dusky Moorhen

Purple Swamphen (a.k.a Boghen) with chick

4. Ducks in Australia

I actually saw more ducks, geese and swans than I thought that I would and, in fact was very very lucky. David knows all the places to go and we did! Places of especial interest included the University of Brisbane Agricultural  College which has a very good and highly productive lake. Apart from the ducks photographed and shown below, other species seen included Plumed Whistling Duck, Australian Wood Duck, Australasian Shoveler and Chestnut Teal, giving a total of no less than 14 species of Anatidae. The usual problem was distance and on one day the lack of decent light, very grey, whilst on one or two more it was the heat haze, the strictures also applying to the next section of this series of blogs which will be devoted to crakes, herons and ibises with one or two other loosely related species thrown in, which is why I make no apologies for starting with the White Pelican.

White Pelican

Black Swans

Magpie Goose

Magpie Geese with goslings

Pacific Black Duck

Australian Wood Duck

Grey Teal

Hardhead

Wandering Whistling Duck

Pink-eared Ducks (2 photos)

Whilst quite a few of the ducks were new species, if I had to choose I think that the Pink-eared Ducks shown above, along with the Wandering Whistling Ducks, were the stars in this group.

3. Waders in New Zealand

There was some good wader watching in New Zealand, particularly at Miranda (North Island), the shorebird (wader) centre where a wide, flat estuary floods with the rising tide and forces the waders up on to the banks. It is a stunning place and famous for its concentrations of Bar-tailed Godwits which winter there from Siberia and Alaska and numbers are colour ringed as well as bearing telemetry. One of these birds holds the record flight from Alaska to Miranda, covering some 11.000 kms nonstop over a period of 5 days thanks to GPS plots. The numbers of Barwits and other waders such as large numbers of Knot, Pacific Golden Plover, Double-banded Plover, New Zealand Dotterel, Black-winged / Pied Stilts, both Black and Variable Oystercatchers, Red-necked Stints, Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpipers  and a single Marsh Sandpiper. There is also a speciality which was one of the species which I really wanted to see, the Wrybill. This little plover has its bill twisted slightly upwards and to one side, always to the right. It is a superb place although seeing all these waders many kms from home and hearing an introduced Skylark singing overhead seems rather an anomaly.
Please note that this blog is in two parts and there is more text and photos after that.

MIRANDA

Bar-tailed Godwits (Miranda)

Bar-tailed Godwits and Knot (Miranda)

Bar-tails, Knot and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers

Barwits and Knot (find the marked bird)

Wrybill (Miranda) + 2 photos below

 

high tide flock of Wrybills

Now, on to other shorebirds. There are two species of Oystercatcher, the Black and the Variable (which is), and they are often found together. The same occurs with the stilts as there is Pied Stilt and the Black Stilt. The Black Stilt is in a precarious state and most birds are reared in large breeding aviaries, colour ringed for tracking and research purposes but although there is apparently suitable habitat there is no positive change in their numbers and wild bred birds are relatively few. These were found elsewhere as was New Zealand Dotterel. We saw a single Double-banded Plover and many days saw isolated Masked Lapwings where there was suitable habitat.

New Zealand Dotterel (above and below, 2 photos)

 

Black Oystercatcher

Variable Oystercatcher

Black Stilts (above and below, 2 photos)

Pied Stilts

2. Waders around Brisbane

There are some very good wader areas around Brisbane, in particular along the Pine River, Donnybrook, Clontarf and the high tide roost at Brisbane Port high tide wader roost (I guess that these along with directions can be found on Google Earth and other relevant internet sites for directions.The list and names used are from the South Queensland Bird List which David kindly provided. In total, in the two sections of my visit, we saw 26 waders species, of which 16 were new.

Bush Stone-curlew, The Gap

Latham's Snipe

Masked Lapwing (seen various sites)

Curlew Sandpipers (Pine River)

Eastern Curlews (Pine River)

Greenshanks & Bar-tailed Godwits (Pine River)

Grey-tailed Tattler (Scarborough, OZ, not UK)

Red-kneed Dotterel (several sites)

Pacific Golden Plover (several sites)

 Waders seen around Brisbane periods 21-25 January and 21-24 February: Bush Stone-curlew, Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Sooty Oystercatcher, Black-winged Stilt, Red-necked Avocet, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Greater Sand Plover, Black-fronted Dotterel, Red-kneed Dotterel, Banded Lapwing, Masked Lapwing, Latham's Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Grey-tailed Tattler, Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Great Knot, Sanderling, Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper.

1. January-February 2014,Australia and New Zealand - logistics:

As time goes by (sounds like a cue for a well known song) I seem to get no nearer to writing up a full set of blogs on various birding aspects of my trip to Australia and New Zealand earlier on this year, with only one on the parrots so far. I have, therefore, decided to them in a photographic format, with little text, giving only the names in English and Latin and place of photograph. At the moment there will be, I think about eight or nine offerings in order that none be too long, and will start off with the waders in Australia and then follow on with waders in New Zealand. After that there may well be a digression into the land birds (with more text very probably) and again split into Australia and New Zealand blogs, then one on skulking little beasts such as rails, herons and allies, together with some passerines (all probably rather varied) and then the seabirds of which there will certainly two and very possibly three blogs, the last being the albatrosses. I want to get all these done before the end of June as I shall be totally out of action in July.
This is the first and covers logistics and what I planned. I can't tell you what it cost because I have never fully worked it out but I shall certainly not die the richest person in the cemetery!
I planned to be away about 6 weeks, in fact it came in at a little under, and first visit Brisbane to see old friends from college days who are also birders and take up their invite to stay with them on the way out and back from New Zealand (henceforth NZ and Australia will be Oz).

Travel
Flights: Booked with a local agency here in Torremolinos, I flew with Emirates to Australia both ways, Madrid-Dubai (about 6h 30m), 2 hour layover, then Dubai-Singapore (7h) plus 2 hour layover then another 7 hours to Brisbane. Return was 13h 50m Brisbane-Dubai, very long and boring, then 3hour layover for Madrid. Madrid-Torremolinos was done in the Ave as I didn't want to see another aircraft for a while! Brisbane-Auckland and return Christchurch-Brisbane was with Hobbit Airlines (Air NewZealand - see their ads on youtube). The flights worked out at just under 1.900 euros and booked by a local travel agency.
In Brisbane, after landing at 01.00 on the Tuesday morning (left Madrid at 14.30 local on the Sunday I stayedwith my friends and David, Florence and I were out birding by just gone 08h the same morning. All birding was done within about a 60km radius of Brisbane, both the 5 days on the way out and the 4 on the return leg.
I had originally planned to do New Zealand on my own then, fortuitously, came across an ad. by Wrybill Tours www.wrybill-tours.com. for a 21 day birding trip. The itinerary looked great, David in Brisbane said it was great as they have birded New Zealand and that Wrybill would know where the birds were so, taking the advice of my daughter, which basically implied that I wasn't as young as I used to be, I booked with them and didn't regret it one bit. The leader, Brent Richardson, co-author of the recently published Birds of New Zealand : a photographic guide, was fantastic, the seabirding was everything I hoped for and then some and after the trip finished I went back up to Kaikoura (South island) for more five more pelagics in three days.
We were also very fortunate in having the additional help of Matt Jones, who actually lives on Stewart Island, for several days www.mattjoneswildlifeimages.com and who guides there. Also from Stewart Island is Ty Jenkinson of Aurora Charters from whose boat we had the most fabulous views of albatrosses www.auroracharters.co.nz (wait until you see the last two photos of all in the final blog). Find out where Stewart Island is by looking at Google Earth!
In Okarito, Ian Cooper gave us great views of kiwis www.okaritokiwitours.co.nz
In Kaikoura, we all stayed at the Alpine View Motel www.alpineviewkaikoura.co.nz and I stayed there for the extra nights after the big tour finished and was very comfortable. Of course, Kaikoura is for both whale watching, swimming with dolphins and especially the seabirds and for these one should contact www.albatrossencounter.co.nz and my thanks to the skipper, Gary Melville, for the extra days out with him.
Car hire is essential.
So, all that said, I shall now start on putting all together and hopefully by Friday the first bits of the blogs will be online, but bear with me as these are also being done for simultaneous publication in Spanish.
Statistics :  Nearly forgot this, in Australia I saw a total of 168 species in the 9 days of which 148 were new, and in New Zealand  a total of 153 species of which 99 were new (some had already been seen in Australia) with a trip total of 247 new species! Can't complain.