COG does ANZAC Weekend at Mallacoota

The Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) are spending the ANZAC Day long weekend in Mallacoota, and I will use this blog to record happenings on the trip.

Some members of the group started their birding on the way down, with a call in to Black Lake at Bibbenluke.  This gave (inter alia) a huge number (estimated as 800) of Grey Teal, 18 Australian Shelduck and 45 Pied Stilt.

Heading a little further South a Cattle Egret was observed in a paddock at Paddy's Flat, just before the forest started.  There will be more reports of this species later.

The team gathered for welcome drinks and introductions, at Angophora Drive.

The next morning our first walk was the beach starting at Bastion Point.   The Google Earth image shows an old version of the Mouth: it is now 100m North of our turn point, and is definitely wide open and flowing strongly.  

A lovely sunny morning ..

.. with some nice waves.

A few telescopes were available for checking the sandbars across sundry stretches of water.

This revealed the expected species of waders, with some Bar-tailed Godwits in breeding plumage and one of the Red-necked Stints moving towards justifying its name.  Double-banded Plovers were evident (albeit without much band)- image by Sandra.

The usual large flock of Crested Terns were evident, and despite careful scanning no other species of Tern was seen.

The highlight of this walk occurred when a Collared Sparrowhawk was seen flying next to caravan park along Develings Inlet.  This is a nice record on its own, but this got bumped up by the bird being followed by 2 Grey Goshawks (one of each morph).  Image by Sandra.

On getting back to the steps we went a little up the beach to check the rocks for Sooty Oystercatchers.  (We had already ticked an Eastern Reef Egret in the Inlet).  Sorry about the crap photo: not easy firing into the sun looking for a black bird against dark rocks!

Victor has provided a far better image of a Sooty Oystercatcher...

... and the Eastern Reef Egret.

All up we scored 39 bird species on this walk.  2 Bottle-nosed Dolphins were seen near the rocks: our only marine mammal.

We then toured the town to end up on the correct side of Lakeside and walked along the path checking the birds on Seagull Island along to the Marsh near Fisheries Jetty.

A few Royal Spoonbills were lurking in the Lagoon and 5 White-fronted Chats perched on the usual branch in the Marsh.  (Neither Emuwrens nor Lewin's Rail obliged.)  We saw 31, mainly common, species in the area.

After lunch we headed off to the Wastewater Treatment Plant.  Although no forestry work was being undertaken on the Saturday we entered by the back road (as cleared with the tree fellers in the past).  A stepladder had been brought along to allow crossing the (very tightly strung) fence.

We ended scoring 43 species on this walk.  As we arrived 2 Sea Eagles were seen: one was a quite dark juvenile and the other a very spiffy adult.

The other raptor highlights were a group of 5 Whistling Kites towards the end of the walk (they appeared to be harassing potential prey, possibly a Musk Duck, in the last pond) and a Peregrine Falcon which scared off a small flock of Common Starlings.  Victor has provided an image of one of the Kites.

As always with this site the surrounding woodland provided quite a good list of bush birds to supplement those on the ponds.  The number of mosquitos possibly explained the range of insectivores seen including Restless Flycatcher (image by Sandra) ...

... Jacky Winter and Dusky Woodswallow.  Image of Duskies by Sandra

I was quite surprised to see an Olive-backed Oriole (there are eBird records in all months except July but the number of observations is much lower from March to August).

Waterbirds are the main reason for visiting the site, which is the only regular location in the area for Hardhead, Australian Shelduck, Australasian Shoveler, Australasian Grebe  and Musk Duck.

The sunset in the evening was rather spiffy.

After dining at Lucie's Noodle House in town the next morning saw us head off to Shipwreck Creek along about 8 kilometres of good dirt road and 7 kilometres of ungraded, potholed track.  Our first walk was to the East of the campground.

The initial walk through the regenerating woodland was very disappointing for birds.  A couple of Grey Fantails was all we logged in the first wooded section.

Margaret captured the team on the march!

On getting in to the heathland the Grass Tree (mainly Xanthorrhoea resinosa) remnant flower spikes provided useful perches for several Jacky Winters.  

It was interesting that the heath to the North of the track was densely populated with the flower spikes, but hardly any were on the Southern side.  Looking out to the sea good numbers of Crested Terns and a few Australian Gannets were observed.    A little further along some members of the group - not including the author - saw a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater moving through the woodland canopy,  An unusual bird in the area, with most sightings in late Spring to early Autumn.  

After taking a side track to the clifftops... 

... we recorded the most unexpected bird with 3 Brown Quail flushing immediately behind us.  There are only 12 previous records of the species in the area, but as they are spread though the year I suspect this is due to the species being hard to find rather than absent: there is a lot of suitable habitat with limited tracks.  (Stubble Quail have more records, probably reflecting the ease of recording their call.)

As we turned back towards the campground we could see across the valley of the Creek to the Western Heath (dashed green line) the venue for our next walk.

We then took what I thought was lunch, but I am reliably informed was in fact a late morning tea.  This was interrupted by some members hearing a Scarlet Robin calling.  A search did not reveal it although a member who did not come on the next walk did see the bird very close to the day use area.

We next headed off to the Western Heath.  There were faint hopes of seeing Southern Emuwren, Tawny-crowned Honeyeater and Ground Parrot in this area but these hopes were not realised.  We recorded 14 species (and 1 spuh - Shearwater sp.) on this foray.  It is important to record such low-count walks to show when the birds return after the fire.

Here is Margaret's image of the team heading down to the beach at Shipwreck Creek.

The Heath was almost devoid of birds although a female Flame Robin was seen and photographed along the way.  There are only 6 previous records in the Mallacoota area of which 3 are (different) dates in April. Possibly this reflects the heaths not being visited often in Winter?

The dense vegetation along Shipwreck Creek did not deliver much in the way of birds.  All members made it across the Creek using rocks to keep their feet dry.

The woodland heading back along the main road continued quiet.  The highlight was a Monarch (aka Wanderer) butterfly which is I suspect a bit late.

Back at the cars - for lunch (majority view) or early afternoon tea (leader view) - a further search was made for the Scarlet Robin, which had now been seen just behind the dunny.  No joy.   A bonus was a flock of 5 Black-faced Cuckooshrikes.

Off back towards town, parking at Davis Beach for our final walk for the day.  The anti-clockwise direction was chosen to avoid the 400m uphill walk at the end - climbing ~20 steps from the beach was preferred !

We recorded 24 species on this walk, with Crescent Honeyeater (feeding in Banksia marginata) being the least common species seen.  Our target species was the Hooded Plover family at the mouth of the Betka River.  Three of the species were seen  (2 adults and an immature) none of which were banded/leg-flagged.

The leader pulled the pin on a proposed nightbird hunt (claiming old age and exhaustion) so we next gathered at the caravan park for a drive to Gipsy Point.  While the group was gathering Cattle Egret was seen in a nearby paddock.

The track along the Peninsula at GP had been cleared recently although the most recent storm had blown a couple of trees over.  Hakuna matata.  

We recorded 32 species on this walk. As would be expected most of these had already been seen in the trip with Rose Robin being the "best bird".  Possibly Laughing Kookaburra should be best bird as it posed for a photo!

A Lewin's Honeyeater posed nicely for an image by Victor.

It was intriguing to see an insulator hanging off a tree well into the walk..  This is evidence of where people used to live before the National Park  was created.

We finally drove to Genoa to walk though the village (hamlet?) hoping to record Emu grazing on the Flats.  We recorded 23 species here adding Grey Butcherbird (image by Sandra) ...

... and House Sparrow to the trip list. 

Emus live in the forest at the back of the pasture,  Before the fire, which burnt the woodland (but - I think, judging by the condition of the fences, - not the pasture) in this area, up to 20 might be seen grazing here.  Since the fire there have been few seen, and none were evident today

That walk finished the organised events and most people headed for home.  Overall 97 species and 1 spuh) were recorded according to COG rules which tally taxa seen on group events - regardless of how many of the group see the birds.  

On the Big Weekend we counted every species reported to  the organisers over the weekend - including some reported by members of the community who were not registered participants.  Slightly adapting that protocol to include all birders seen by members of the group in the Mallacoota area, I totaled 108 species!   I think that is a much better measure of how well (hint - VERY WELL) the group contributed to knowledge of the birds in the area at the end of April 2021.

The full list is in this Google Sheet.  The species without  a number are those recorded outside formal events. A second worksheet in that file lists the unrecorded species for which there are more than 10 previous records in April.  I was very surprised that we didn't record Superb Lyrebird or Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo.  (Keeping Mallacoota's creed as the home of Superb Lyrebirds, Victor did photograph one on the day they arrived.   Also Margaret recorded Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo in a walk from Adobe.)

I have started to compare what COG saw with what was observed on the Big Weekend in early March.  The big picture is that 56 species were seen in the Big Weekend but not by COG.  In contrast 12 species were seen by COG but not in the Big Weekend.  I shall add some detail on the reasons for this as they become apparent.