WA Twitchathon 2010 Wayne's World

WA TWITCHATHON 11/12 December 2010 WAYNE’S WORLD (Frank O’Connor, Wayne Merritt, Maris Lauva, Josan Moss)

Overall Summary

The final total of 145 was an excellent total. A week before the event I thought that we would be struggling to find 120 to 130 species. The final estimate was 135 to 140 species. The total for the previous year was 142. So 145 certainly exceeded expectations.

However, we missed easily gettable species at Dryandra and Halls Head plus Little Eagle at Bold Park, and we hardly added anything in the last two hours. So it could easily have been more.

Despite missing at least six species we could have easily got, we saw 132 species on the Sunday which would have easily won the 12 Hour Twitch by 17 species. We missed Chestnut Teal (Alfred Cove), Black-shouldered Kite (Floreat Beach), Little Eagle (Bibra Lake and Bold Park), Common Sandpiper (Erskine), Grey-tailed Tattler (Coodanup) and Common Tern (Erskine) that were seen by other teams at sites that we visited. We also missed Little Penguin, Australasian Gannet, Western Corella (feral seen by another team at Lake Monger) and White-winged Fairy-wren that were gettable. And we effectively had two hours spare in which to do this. I believe that 140 species is possible on the Sunday.

The final list is at the end of this document. It was coloured coded as blue for species we should certainly get (although a few were not put in bold to indicate that they might be missed); red for species seen during the recconoitering or thought to be possible (bold for those we had sites for); and black for those that we did not think we had a chance of seeing.

We saw 127 of the 131 species listed as blue. We missed White-browed Babbler which was planned to be the first species to be seen (and we saw two at 16:57 while we were watching a Short-beaked Echidna, but we could not relocate them after 17:00) . We missed Little Eagle at Bold Park which we saw as we got together at Bold Park on the Saturday morning. We missed Jacky Winter which I always get at the north end of Marri Road (and had seen there twice in the previous couple of months). In retrospect, I should have looked later for a pair that I know near the Old Mill Dam at Dryandra. We missed Blue-breasted Fairy-wren which again should have been one of the first birds that we saw, but we could not find it at Marri Road, and we quickly tried in about four other likely places but failed.

We saw only 7 of the 16 species marked as bold red. I had hoped that we would see half to two thirds (8 to 12) of these species. We saw White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Yangebup Lake – upgraded to bold on the Saturday morning), Brown Goshawk (found outside Peregrine House on the Saturday morning and probably should been bold), Whiskered Tern (Lake Goegrup), White-winged Black Tern (Bibra Lake) and Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Lane Poole Reserve) at sites we had found them during the previous week. We found White-fronted Chat (Greenlands Road and Paulls Road instead of Mills Road) and Scarlet Robin (Nanga Mill instead of Dwellingup B&B) at other sites than we had found them during the previous week. We missed Chestnut Teal (seen on Friday at Alfred Cove and seen by other teams on the day), Little Penguin (ten seen on Friday at Halls Head, but the sea breeze was in early on the coast; I think that I briefly saw the head of one near a raft of shearwaters but it dived and I could not relocate it), Australasian Gannet (Halls Head – should have been around since the sea breeze was in), Banded Stilt (seen on Friday at Nairns), Common Tern (seen on Friday at Halls Head but was not with the roosting flock of terns – seen by Alan Collins team at Erskine), Fan-tailed Cuckoo (five seen the previous Sunday at Lane Poole Reserve and Nanga Mill), Chestnut-rumped Thornbill (resident at Congelin at Dryandra but most bird activity had died by about 17:50), Red- capped Robin (resident at Congelin at Dryandra and seen there at 15:00) and Hooded Robin (resident at Marri Road at Dryandra). A bonus was that we saw 7 of the 22 birds marked simply as red. I had hoped that maybe we could see three to five of these. We saw Brush Bronzewing (three seen at the north end of Marri Road and one at the Kawana Road Dam – I have only previously seen three or four at Dryandra over 20 years), Wedge-tailed Eagle (at a known site on Anketell Road but we failed to find it on two occasions during the previous week; I thought it would a chance at Marri Road at Dryandra), Regent Parrot (Lake McLarty where we had not planned to visit but we were 15 minutes ahead of schedule and we went there also looking for Sacred Kingfisher which we found – this species would have been in bold if we had planned to visit Lake McLarty), Southern Boobook (no stakeout this year but we were lucky to spotlight one on Gura Road at Dryandra), White-eared Honeyeater (thought it could be possible to hear at Marri Road but we saw it along Patonga Road and at the Kawana Road Dam while looking unsuccessfully for Blue-breasted Fairy-wren), Restless Flycatcher (again thought to be a chance at the north end of Marri Road but we heard one at 16:30 at the south end of Marri Road as we were heading there; we marked the spot and sure enough we heard it again as we headed back past the site an hour later) and Red-eared Firetail (heard at Lane Poole Reserve and one seen by some on the way out – this probably should have been marked as bold as we heard it at the same site the previous year).

The unexpected bonus was seeing four species that were marked as black. We saw Northern Mallard (hard to find normally coloured individuals but we made an unplanned stop on the Murray River at Pinjarra to look for Sacred Kingfisher and found two Northern Mallard males), Terek Sandpiper (totally unexpected at Samphire Cove), Ruff (a major surprise at Nairns) and Brown- headed Honeyeater (at Marri Road at Dryandra; this would be marked in red at Dryandra if there was more time on the Saturday afternoon but it was a welcome surprise at Marri Road where we missed several species that we had expected).

We missed the following 18 species from 2009. Stubble Quail (Lake McLarty), Little Eagle (Bold Park), Australian Spotted Crake (Lake McLarty), Spotless Crake (Lake McLarty), Black-tailed Native- hen (Herdsman Lake), Banded Stilt (Lake McLarty), Pacific Golden Plover (Alfred Cove), Little Curlew (Lake McLarty), Wood Sandpiper (Lake McLarty), Broad-billed Sandpiper (Lake McLarty), Painted Button-quail (Dryandra), Blue-breasted Fairy-wren (Dryandra), White-browed Babbler (Dryandra), Varied Sittella (North Lake), White-winged Triller (Greenlands Road), Crested Shrike-tit (Dryandra), Jacky Winter (Dryandra) and Hooded Robin (Dryandra).

We found 21 extra species. Brush Bronzewing (Dryandra), Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Halls Head), Glossy Ibis (Bibra Lake), White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Yangebup Lake), Wedge-tailed Eagle (Anketell Road), Little Egret (Samphire Cove and Lake Goegrup), Red-kneed Dotterel (Herdsman Lake), Whimbrel (Samphire Cove), Eastern Curlew (Samphire Cove), Terek Sandpiper (Samphire Cove), Marsh Sandpiper (Lake Goegrup and Bibra Lake), Caspian Tern (Nairns and Alfred Cove), Whiskered Tern (Lake Goegrup), White-winged Black Tern (Bibra Lake), Regent Parrot (Lake McLarty), Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Lane Poole Reserve), White-eared Honeyeater (Dryandra), White-fronted Chat (Greenlands Road and Paulls Road), Tawny-crowned Honeyeater (Dryandra and Wireless Hill), Brown-headed Honeyeater (Dryandra) and Restless Flycatcher (Dryandra).

In two years, we have recorded 163 species. On the recces we have also seen Chestnut Teal, Little Penguin, Australasian Gannet, White-necked Heron, Black-shouldered Kite, Pectoral Sandpiper, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, Red-capped Robin, Rufous Songlark and Brown Songlark. Royal Spoonbill, Western Corella, Common Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler, Ruddy Turnstone and White-winged Fairy-wren have also been seen by others either at places we have been or could have visited. That is a total of 180 species.

Twitchathon Summary We started at Dryandra at the north end of Marri Road. The plan was to stake out the White-browed Babblers and mark it off as the first bird as we did last year. We had trouble locating them which is unusual. Then at about 16:55 we found a Short-beaked Echidna, and while watching the echidna we saw two babblers about 50 metres away. We never located them again in about the 25 minutes we were there. In fact we missed White-browed Babbler, Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, Jacky Winter, Hooded Robin and Crested Shrike-tit that I saw at this site last year (and in late September this year). But looking for the wrens we wandered into an area of gastrolobium and found Brush Bronzewing (3), Brown-headed Honeyeater (1), Tawny-crowned Honeyeater (6) and Western Spinebill (1). The first two we hadn't expected to find anywhere in the time available.

We were fortunate to hear a Restless Flycatcher at the south end of Marri Road at about 16:30 and it was still there an hour later. This was another unplanned species. It used to be common at Dryandra but is becoming much harder to find.

We moved to Congelin to look for Red-capped Robin (seen at 15:00) and Chestnut-rumped Thornbill (resident). But the bird activity seemed to die at about 17:50 and we dipped on both. We struggled hard to find birds after this. We kept looking for Blue-breasted Fairy-wren that is widepsread at Dryandra but failed. We did find White-eared Honeyeater which was not planned. We found Red- tailed Black-Cockatoos at the Kawana Road Dam (my first sighting at Dryandra although there is a flock in Narrogin this year) but this is very simple to find at Dwellingup. And Carnaby's Black- Cockatoo came in again before dark to the Old Mill Dam. We spotlighted for Tawny Frogmouth and saw Southern Boobook as a bonus.

We left Dryandra with 35 species, on par with last year but missing six species from 2009, but partially offset by four species that were not seen in 2009.

We stayed overnight at Dwellingup. We found almost all the desired species where we stayed at the Dwellingup B&B, Lane Poole Reserve, Nanga Mill and Nanga Road. Western Yellow Robin, Golden Whistler, Red-winged Fairy-wren, Emu, Western Rosella, White-naped Honeyeater, Spotted Pardalote, Red-eared Firetail, White-breasted Robin, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Baudin's Black- Cockatoo and Western Thornbill. Western Wattlebird proved to be a bonus as we did not record it at Wireless Hill. Scarlet Robin was another bird we were not certain of and found. We missed Fan- tailed Cuckoo which we had seen five the previous Sunday. We also missed Sacred Kingfisher but we still had other chances for this.

We moved into the farmland between Pinjarra and Lake McLarty. We fairly easily found our targets of Crested Pigeon, Australasian Pipit, Nankeen Kestrel, Banded Lapwing and White-fronted Chat. We amazingly missed Black-faced Woodswallow. We were ahead of schedule so we went to Lake McLarty to get Regent Parrot (success and not a bird we had planned for) and we also found Sacred Kingfisher on the way out.

The next stop was Nairns and Coodanup on the north of the Harvey Peel Estuary. We knocked off the waders we were expecting, plus the terns and the cormorants, and Little Grassbird. We missed Banded Stilt (seen on Friday) and amazingly Grey Plover. But a major find was a Ruff at Nairns. We missed Pacific Golden Plover (which I had seen a couple of weeks earlier but we did not find in our two recces and so did not expect). Apparently we also missed Grey-tailed Tattler seen there by The Big Twits.

Then to Erskine and Samphire Cove. We found the Whimbrel and Eastern Curlew we expected. The bonus was a Terek Sandpiper. We chose to skip Erskine as there were kayakers in the cove. A mistake as The Big Twits found Common Tern and Common Sandpiper there (which we had not found in our two recces). PS : It actually wasn’t at Erskine that the birds were seen, but at Erskine Quays, and a Royal Spoonbill was also seen by another team.

Halls Head was disappointing. We found Long-billed Corella on the way as expected. But we only found Wedge-tailed Shearwater at Halls Head. We missed Little Penguin, Australasian Gannet and Common Tern that we had seen on the recces. The sea breeze was just coming in making conditions slightly choppy, and making it difficult to spot a penguin on the surface. The breeze was forecast for the afternoon, but it was early and only on the coast.

Then across to Lake Goegrup where we caught up with Splendid Fairy-wren and found the Whiskered Terns we had seen on the recces. Also Red-necked Avocet.

Then a quiet period as we relocated closer to Perth. We again failed to find Black-faced Woodswallow on St Alban's Road. We were heading to the Armadale Golf Course. We checked the Wedge-tailed Eagle nests on Anketell Road. One bird was flying in to join a second just as we arrived. We had missed them on both recces, so this was an unexpected bonus.

Yellow-throated Miner was easy as expected at the Armadale Golf Course, and we found one Black- faced Woodswallow as we left on Forrest Road.

Then to Yangebup Lake where we saw most of the ducks, plus White-bellied Sea-Eagle (thanks Martin Cake). Also Buff-banded Rail.

At Bibra Lake we easily found the Glossy Ibis and White-winged Black Tern we reported on the Friday.

Then to Alfred Cove. The Black-tailed Godwit was easy, and we caught up with Grey Plover and Great Knot. But we missed the Chestnut Teal we found on Friday, and which was seen by Robyn's team.

Then to Wireless Hill where it took a bit longer than expected to find White-cheeked Honeyeater in the heat. No Rainbow Lorikeets. We already had Western Wattlebird (none), Tawny-crowned Honeyeater (2 seen), Rainbow Bee-eater (1) and the doves.

We were now on 131 and it was only 14:05. Three hours to go. I made a list of what we expected to find. 15 more species plus a chance of at least three more.

We knocked off Rock Dove and Rainbow Lorikeet as we drove past Lake Monger. Apparently there was a feral Western Corella in the flock of corellas which was seen by another team. Six more species were easy at the north end of Herdsman Lake including Australian Hobby, Red-kneed Dotterel and Black-fronted Dotterel. Another four easy birds at the Wildlife Centre at the south end of Herdsman Lake. We were on 143 species, one more than last year and it wasn't even 15:00.

But the last two hours were non productive. I think the heat was getting to us. We easily found the Brown Goshawks nesting outside Peregrine House, and it took a while to get the Variegated Fairy- wrens at Bold Park. 145 species at 15:45. We struck out for the last 75 minutes. No Little Eagle at Bold Park. No bonus Varied Sittellas. We drove along Challenger Drive to look for a Black- shouldered Kite reported by another team but failed. No White-winged Fairy-wren. WA TWITCHATHON 11/12 December 2010 Checklist (South-west) TEAM NAME: WAYNE’S WORLD (Frank O’Connor, Wayne Merritt, Maris Lauva, Josan Moss)

 Emu □ Soft-plumaged Petrel  Australian Pied □ Malleefowl □ White-headed Petrel Oystercatcher □ Stubble Quail □ Great-winged Petrel □ Sooty Oystercatcher □ Brown Quail □ Little Penguin  Black-winged Stilt □ Indian Peafowl* □ Australasian Gannet  Red-necked Avocet □ Common Pheasant*  Australasian Darter □ Banded Stilt □ Plumed Whistling-Duck  Little Pied Cormorant □ Pacific Golden Plover  Musk Duck  Great Cormorant  Grey Plover □ Freckled Duck  Little Black Cormorant  Red-capped Plover □ Cape Barren Goose  Australian Pied Cormorant □ Lesser Sand Plover  Black Swan □ Black-faced Cormorant □ Greater Sand Plover □ Mute Swan*  Australian Pelican □ Inland Dotterel  Australian Shelduck □ Australasian Bittern  Black-fronted Dotterel  Australian Wood Duck □ Australian Little Bittern □ Hooded Plover  Pink-eared Duck □ Black Bittern  Red-kneed Dotterel  Australasian Shoveler □ White-necked Heron  Banded Lapwing  Grey Teal  Eastern Great Egret □ Masked Lapwing □ Chestnut Teal □ Cattle Egret □ Australian Painted Snipe  Northern Mallard*  White-faced Heron  Black-tailed Godwit  Pacific Black Duck  Little Egret  Bar-tailed Godwit  Hardhead □ Eastern Reef Egret  Whimbrel  Blue-billed Duck  Nankeen Night-Heron  Eastern Curlew □ Red-tailed Tropicbird  Glossy Ibis  Terek Sandpiper  Australasian Grebe  Australian White Ibis □ Common Sandpiper  Hoary-headed Grebe  Straw-necked Ibis □ Grey-tailed Tattler  Great Crested Grebe □ Royal Spoonbill  Common Greenshank  Rock Dove*  Yellow-billed Spoonbill  Marsh Sandpiper  Laughing Dove*  Eastern Osprey □ Wood Sandpiper  Spotted Dove* □ Black-shouldered Kite □ Ruddy Turnstone  Common Bronzewing □ Square-tailed Kite  Great Knot  Brush Bronzewing □ Black-breasted Buzzard  Red Knot  Crested Pigeon  White-bellied Sea-Eagle □ Sanderling □ Diamond Dove  Whistling Kite  Red-necked Stint □ Peaceful Dove □ Black Kite □ Long-toed Stint  Tawny Frogmouth  Brown Goshawk □ Pectoral Sandpiper □ Spotted Nightjar □ Collared Sparrowhawk  Sharp-tailed Sandpiper □ Australian Owlet-nightjar □ Spotted Harrier  Curlew Sandpiper □ Fork-tailed Swift  Swamp Harrier □ Broad-billed Sandpiper □ Wilson's Storm-Petrel  Wedge-tailed Eagle  Ruff □ White-faced Storm-Petrel □ Little Eagle □ Red-necked Phalarope □ Wandering Albatross  Nankeen Kestrel □ Painted Button-quail □ Black-browed Albatross □ Brown Falcon □ Little Button-quail □ Shy Albatross  Australian Hobby □ Brown Skua □ Yellow-nosed Albatross □ Peregrine Falcon □ Pomarine Jaeger □ Southern Giant-Petrel  Purple Swamphen □ Arctic Jaeger □ Northern Giant-Petrel  Buff-banded Rail □ Common Noddy □ Cape Petrel □ Baillon's Crake □ Lesser Noddy □ Blue Petrel □ Australian Spotted Crake □ Bridled Tern  Wedge-tailed Shearwater □ Spotless Crake □ Sooty Tern □ Flesh-footed Shearwater □ Black-tailed Native-hen  Fairy Tern □ Short-tailed Shearwater  Dusky Moorhen □ Gull-billed Tern □ Hutton's Shearwater  Eurasian Coot  Caspian Tern □ Little Shearwater □ Australian Bustard  Whiskered Tern □ Kerguelen Petrel  Bush Stone-curlew  White-winged Black Tern □ Roseate Tern  Red-winged Fairy-wren □ Ground Cuckoo-shrike □ Common Tern □ Southern Emu-wren  Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike  Crested Tern □ Western Bristlebird □ White-winged Triller □ Pacific Gull  White-browed Scrubwren □ Crested Shrike-tit □ Kelp Gull □ Shy Heathwren □ Gilbert's Whistler  Silver Gull □ Rufous Fieldwren  Golden Whistler  Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo □ Redthroat  Rufous Whistler  Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo  Weebill  Grey Shrike-thrush  Baudin's Black-Cockatoo  Western Gerygone □ Crested Bellbird □ Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo □ Slaty-backed Thornbill □ Masked Woodswallow  Galah  Yellow-rumped Thornbill  Black-faced Woodswallow  Long-billed Corella* □ Chestnut-rumped Thornbill  Dusky Woodswallow □ Western Corella  Western Thornbill □ Little Woodswallow  Little Corella*  Inland Thornbill  Grey Butcherbird □ Sulphur-crested Cockatoo* □ Southern Whiteface □ Pied Butcherbird □ Cockatiel  Spotted Pardalote  Australian Magpie  Rainbow Lorikeet*  Striated Pardalote  Grey Currawong  Purple-crowned Lorikeet  Western Spinebill  Grey Fantail  Regent Parrot □ Pied Honeyeater  Willie Wagtail  Western Rosella  Singing Honeyeater  Australian Raven  Australian Ringneck  White-eared Honeyeater □ Little Crow  Red-capped Parrot □ Purple-gaped Honeyeater □ Torresian Crow □ Mulga Parrot  Yellow-plumed Honeyeater  Restless Flycatcher □ Budgerigar □ Grey-fronted Honeyeater  Magpie-lark □ Bourke's Parrot □ White-plumed Honeyeater □ Jacky Winter  Elegant Parrot □ White-fronted Honeyeater  Scarlet Robin □ Rock Parrot  Yellow-throated Miner □ Red-capped Robin □ Ground Parrot □ Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater □ Hooded Robin □ Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo  Western Wattlebird  Western Yellow Robin □ Black-eared Cuckoo  Red Wattlebird  White-breasted Robin  Shining Bronze-Cuckoo □ Grey Honeyeater □ Southern Scrub-robin □ Pallid Cuckoo □ Crimson Chat  Australian Reed-warbler □ Fan-tailed Cuckoo □ Orange Chat  Little Grassbird □ Barking Owl  White-fronted Chat □ Rufous Songlark  Southern Boobook □ Black Honeyeater □ Brown Songlark □ Masked Owl  Tawny-crowned  Silvereye □ Eastern Barn Owl Honeyeater □ White-backed Swallow  Laughing Kookaburra*  Brown Honeyeater  Welcome Swallow □ Red-backed Kingfisher  New Holland Honeyeater □ Fairy Martin  Sacred Kingfisher  White-cheeked Honeyeater  Tree Martin  Rainbow Bee-eater  Brown-headed Honeyeater □ Common Starling* □ Noisy Scrub-bird  White-naped Honeyeater □ Mistletoebird □ White-browed Treecreeper □ Grey-crowned Babbler □ Zebra Finch  Rufous Treecreeper □ White-browed Babbler □ Red-browed Finch* □ Western Bowerbird □ Chestnut Quail-thrush  Red-eared Firetail  Splendid Fairy-wren □ Chestnut-breasted Quail- □ Chestnut-breasted Mannikin* □ White-winged Fairy-wren thrush  Australasian Pipit  Variegated Fairy-wren □ Western Whipbird □ European Goldfinch* □ Blue-breasted Fairy-wren □ Chiming Wedgebill □ Varied Sittella * Introduced

TOTAL SPECIES RECORDED: 145

BEST SIGHTINGS: 1 – Ruff at Nairns

2 – Terek Sandpiper at Samphire Cove

WORST DIP – White-browed Babbler seen at about 16:57 while watching an Echidna