Dowd's Morass.
On the day after the OBP count, I spent an interesting day at Dowd's Morass with Waterwatch, G and J did the water testing, and I checked out the bird life. After the previous day's bleak conditions it was good to have sunshine, blue skies, and spectacular cloud formations. The first three sites were just across the water from the Ibis breeding colonies, and what activity there was! After wading out to the sampling sites, the rookeries were about seventy five yards away across the water in the Swamp Paperbarks, the first seemed to be mainly White Ibis, the second mainly Straw-necked, plus a few Little Black Cormorants, and the third once again mainly Whites. It was quite an experience to stand and take in the sights and sounds, as skeins of Ibis were constantly coming and going, and the never ending cacophony of their calls filled the air. I was also interested to see solitary male Superb Blue Wrens in isolated paperbarks well out in the water, I couldn't work out their reason for being there, maybe they were just patrolling the boundaries of their respective territories.
We saw and heard quite a good selection of birds as we moved from site to site, Crimson and Eastern Rosellas, Brown Thornbill, Eastern Whipbird, Grey Thrush, Grey Butcherbird, Grey Currawong, White-eared Honeyeater etc, and overhead, Whistling Kites were always floating in the air currents.
The last site in this section was at a large lagoon, where we counted well over one hundred Black Swans, some Chestnut Teal and Wood Duck in the distance, and a pair of Black-fronted Plovers feeding along the edge. I was surprised at the general scarcity of ducks right across Dowd's, the water level was very high, maybe this has interfered with their food supply and they have moved elsewhere. This lagoon adjoins private grazing land, and there are some old Redgums still surviving on the higher ground up from the water's edge. After morning tea I looked around and counted six Whistling Kites' nests in the nearest trees, underneath one I found several bird's breastbones, and a Magpie's skull, broken open to extract the brains. There were plenty of black feathers showing up over the sides of the nest, it seemed that birds were the main prey, and I wondered if perhaps a Goshawk had taken over this nest. I couldn't find any fish frames under the nest, you'd think that carp would be one of the main food items for Kites down there. A good number of Tree Martins were busy carrying nesting material to one of the trees, there were plenty of suitable nesting hollows in the old veteran.
While driving back to the next sampling sites we passed a gap in the waterside vegetation, and I spotted a bird on the muddy margin. Backing up, I stopped and focused the glasses on an immaculate Buff-banded Rail, less than twenty feet away. It completely ignored the vehicle and casually pecked its way along the shore, giving me just the best view of this elegant and beautiful species. It just goes to show how much luck is involved in birding, if we'd spent five more minutes at morning tea we'd have missed it completely!
To get to the water at the next sites we had to walk through tall Phragmites, or Common Reed, and at last we heard Australian Reed Warblers, a summer breeding migrant to S E Australia. I was also pleased to hear the plaintive three note call of the Little Grassbird, these days my hearing is not good enough to pick up this type of call unless it is very close. Out on the water we at last saw some nice ducks, about thirty five Chestnut-breasted Shelduck taking it easy on the calm water.
Looking out across the morass to the north we saw a Sea Eagle, and then the best raptor sighting for the day, a pair of Swamp Harriers, with the male performing the mating season aerobatics so well described by the late Graham Pizzey in his indispensable Field Guide. After a while they came over our way, and the male started to spiral upwards with something that looked like a stick in his talons, and when we drove off he was just a speck up in the sky.
The final testing location for the day was at the Latrobe River. When I was there twelve months ago there were Common Greenshanks in the lagoons on the private property on the other side, and it didn't take long to find some there again on this occasion. Last year I also saw Whiskered Terns dipping and diving in the distance, but this time there was no sign of them. Lagoons like these are numerous in the country on that side of the river, and are favourite places for Greenshanks, and other waders including Pacific Golden Plovers. When G arrived that morning, he told me he had seen what he described as a short legged black and white wader, roughly the size of a Magpie Lark. Pied Oystercatcher wasn't an option for the location, and you certainly couldn't call Black-winged Stilt short legged!
I remembered that a few years ago I had seen a Pacific Golden Plover in breeding plumage at Victoria Lagoon, and I thought that this was possibly what he had seen. Another possibility would be Grey Plover in breeding plumage, less likely, but you couldn't rule it out.
After G and J finished testing and writing up the data it was time to leave, I'd had a good day and that Buff-banded Rail was the icing on the cake. On the way out we stopped briefly while G waded out to check on the success of a paperbark planting project, the shallow water was absolutely teeming with mosquito larvae, I must remember to buy another king sized can of mosquito repellent before I go down there again!
We saw and heard quite a good selection of birds as we moved from site to site, Crimson and Eastern Rosellas, Brown Thornbill, Eastern Whipbird, Grey Thrush, Grey Butcherbird, Grey Currawong, White-eared Honeyeater etc, and overhead, Whistling Kites were always floating in the air currents.
The last site in this section was at a large lagoon, where we counted well over one hundred Black Swans, some Chestnut Teal and Wood Duck in the distance, and a pair of Black-fronted Plovers feeding along the edge. I was surprised at the general scarcity of ducks right across Dowd's, the water level was very high, maybe this has interfered with their food supply and they have moved elsewhere. This lagoon adjoins private grazing land, and there are some old Redgums still surviving on the higher ground up from the water's edge. After morning tea I looked around and counted six Whistling Kites' nests in the nearest trees, underneath one I found several bird's breastbones, and a Magpie's skull, broken open to extract the brains. There were plenty of black feathers showing up over the sides of the nest, it seemed that birds were the main prey, and I wondered if perhaps a Goshawk had taken over this nest. I couldn't find any fish frames under the nest, you'd think that carp would be one of the main food items for Kites down there. A good number of Tree Martins were busy carrying nesting material to one of the trees, there were plenty of suitable nesting hollows in the old veteran.
While driving back to the next sampling sites we passed a gap in the waterside vegetation, and I spotted a bird on the muddy margin. Backing up, I stopped and focused the glasses on an immaculate Buff-banded Rail, less than twenty feet away. It completely ignored the vehicle and casually pecked its way along the shore, giving me just the best view of this elegant and beautiful species. It just goes to show how much luck is involved in birding, if we'd spent five more minutes at morning tea we'd have missed it completely!
To get to the water at the next sites we had to walk through tall Phragmites, or Common Reed, and at last we heard Australian Reed Warblers, a summer breeding migrant to S E Australia. I was also pleased to hear the plaintive three note call of the Little Grassbird, these days my hearing is not good enough to pick up this type of call unless it is very close. Out on the water we at last saw some nice ducks, about thirty five Chestnut-breasted Shelduck taking it easy on the calm water.
Looking out across the morass to the north we saw a Sea Eagle, and then the best raptor sighting for the day, a pair of Swamp Harriers, with the male performing the mating season aerobatics so well described by the late Graham Pizzey in his indispensable Field Guide. After a while they came over our way, and the male started to spiral upwards with something that looked like a stick in his talons, and when we drove off he was just a speck up in the sky.
The final testing location for the day was at the Latrobe River. When I was there twelve months ago there were Common Greenshanks in the lagoons on the private property on the other side, and it didn't take long to find some there again on this occasion. Last year I also saw Whiskered Terns dipping and diving in the distance, but this time there was no sign of them. Lagoons like these are numerous in the country on that side of the river, and are favourite places for Greenshanks, and other waders including Pacific Golden Plovers. When G arrived that morning, he told me he had seen what he described as a short legged black and white wader, roughly the size of a Magpie Lark. Pied Oystercatcher wasn't an option for the location, and you certainly couldn't call Black-winged Stilt short legged!
I remembered that a few years ago I had seen a Pacific Golden Plover in breeding plumage at Victoria Lagoon, and I thought that this was possibly what he had seen. Another possibility would be Grey Plover in breeding plumage, less likely, but you couldn't rule it out.
After G and J finished testing and writing up the data it was time to leave, I'd had a good day and that Buff-banded Rail was the icing on the cake. On the way out we stopped briefly while G waded out to check on the success of a paperbark planting project, the shallow water was absolutely teeming with mosquito larvae, I must remember to buy another king sized can of mosquito repellent before I go down there again!
posted by Duncan at
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