Birds South East Number 81 April 2018 Enjoying lunch at the WTP. Photographer Bob Green Brolgas using multiple wetlands within their Australasian breeding ranges. 25 years of studying the Barn Owl – a fantastic Ornithological plenary by Alex Roulin from the University of Lausanne. Conference Helmeted Honeyeaters and inbreeding depression. Measuring resource availability for ground foraging GEELONG 8-11 NOVEMBER 2017 insectivores. The use of perches by birds in the restoration of a degraded coastal environment. Diamond Firetails under pressure. I attended the recent biennial Australasian Ornithological Conference (AOC) in Geelong, it was Birds in Black Box: Community drivers in floodplain a great venue, was well attended with just over 260 wetlands. delegates and had a number of excellent talks on Strategic revegetation. the program. This was my sixth AOC and the quality of talks still amazes me, there was a great cross section of Contents students, researchers and academics spread across 1. Australasian Ornithological Conference the three days with two sessions running concurrently, giving you a choice of talks to pick 2. Shorebird Notes from. 3. 2017 Twitchathon & Quiz. 2018 AGM A few of the highlights for me were talks on 4. Banded birds. Social Outing. 2018 Cross Border Camp Cost benefits of acoustic recorders on cryptic 5. Port MacDonnell Wader Outing species.Understanding and detecting the Night 6. 2018 Program Parrot. 7. Contacts Managing habitat for 100,000 waterfowl at the 8 – 11. Recent Sightings Western Treatment Plant. Birds South East As you can see from my highlights it is a really and some produced chicks. In the section of beach varied three days of talks, with plenty of from Port MacDonnell to Danger Point alone I found opportunities to mingle, discuss more in depth some nine Red-capped Plover nests in November and of the topics, network and discuss ideas with December 2017. We have also had quite a lot of various researchers and of course enable the Hooded Plover breeding activity, with several chicks occasional drop of red wine to be consumed. hatching in various locations. Two Hooded Plover Another highlight for me at these conferences is nests, quite close to each other and producing a along with BirdLife Australia and Les Moore, we co- total of five chicks, were located on the highly sponsor a student prize, The Gavin Jackson popular Woolwash Beach in Port MacDonnell. This Memorial Prize. This year the recipient was Tom beach is used by many Port MacDonnell residents Hunt from the University of Adelaide. We feel it’s a for regular walks, often with unleashed dogs so nice way to honour and remember a good mate who would seem an unlikely area for two nests. was taken far too early. Tom receives Unfortunately, none of these chicks survived to reimbursement of his registration fees and a two- fledgling age. There has been some success year BirdLife Australia membership including EMU. elsewhere however, including two Little Tern chicks I had been joined for the trip by two friends from fledged at Danger Point. Our annual April/May Adelaide, and so we had planned instead of taking fledged Hooded Plover count will hopefully tell us the organised AOC outing we would create our own more about that species breeding success. day out, so we arranged to show a couple of visitors The first few months of 2018 have been very busy around as well. Starting out our early Saturday ones for the Friends of Shorebirds SE. We ran three morning at the You Yangs, there were a good very well attended and successful Dog’s Breakfast variety of bush birds on offer, including a very days; at Port MacDonnell, Kingston and Robe in cooperative Pallid Cuckoo showing nicely. Red- January. The scheduled attendance at Beachport capped and Scarlet Robins were seen in the same Market was cancelled due to predicted fire and wind location on a hilltop, a quite large Brown Snake was conditions. Our biannual Shorebirds 2020 counts sunning beside the track, which was great for our were carried out in January, covering our two usual New Zealand guest (from the land of no snakes). coastal zones and some of the coastal lakes. The Grabbing some Subway on the way we next went to Victorian Wader Study Group made their usual the Western Treatment Plant, birds were seemingly catching and banding visit in March/April and we everywhere and at the crake ponds in T Section also conducted a shorebird identification training Lagoons we had unbelievably close views of both session for Nelson Coast Care in early April. This Australian Spotted and Baillon’s Crakes, as well as was well received and attended by more than 20 an almost tame Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. interested Coast Care members. A quick trip to Port Fairy was also undertaken in January in an attempt All up a total of 28 lifers for our NZ guest, lifers for to catch a Sooty Oystercatcher with an injured leg. three of the five in the car and a fantastic day out Unfortunately, after finally locating the bird was had by all, ending another wonderful AOC following much walking and searching, it flew off experience. and was not able to be relocated. Heads up that the next AOC is scheduled for July Jeff Campbell, Friends of Shorebirds SE. 2019 in DARWIN, woohoo!!! Bob Green Shorebird Notes Local shorebird enthusiasts have been very busy over the previous few months, with much happening in the region. As noted in the last notes beach nesting birds are in full breeding mode, with lots of nests on the beaches bringing mixed results. Very high tides combined with a storm event in early November last year unfortunately washed away several nests right along the coast. Even some nests high on the beach, including those in rocky banks, were destroyed. Fortunately, most of these Sarah Campbell nests and eggs were replaced soon after the storm, 2 Birds South East April 2018 Birds South East Twitchathon 2017. The Feather Busters - The 2017 Quiz Peter and Linda Johns, Noel and Sheila Well done to Linda and Peter Johns, the winners of Boyle the 2017 BirdLife South East Quiz. It was a tight result, with only a few points separating all We spent the night in a Motel at Keith and at 5.30 participants. Special mention goes to John and a.m. we drove to Mount Monster and were on the Moira for a hand delivered answer sheet, and to road leading to the park before 6 a.m. On the dot of Jean Haywood who was alone in knowing that 6 a.m. a Southern Scrub Robin whistled his heart Jerome the circus parrot was owned by Millicent and out on the top of a dead tree. Turning the bend to Flossie. the park we sighted 2 Zebra finches. Things were looking good. We ended up sighting 29 birds here – Good to see rat cunning being used to gain an the breeze was a bit harsh but the sun was out - advantage. Borrow the relevant library books early eventually. We did have a rather strict timetable – on, hang on to them, and leave the opposition in which we blew and ended up staying an extra half your wake. hour. On to Bool Lagoon -we had not sighted the Thanks for the kind comments about the fun you water with waves before! – Very blustery and wet. had. Black- winged Stilt and Eurasian Coot were the only observations on the water and you can forget Sue Black Cisticola and Southern Emu -wren! Noel luckily spotted 4 Magpie Geese that flew over our car just as we were leaving. Further down the road we Annual General Meeting 24 March 2018 spotted a considerable amount of water close to the road where we picked up quite a lot of ducks – Pick Swamp Shearing Shed thank goodness! We decided because of the Here’s a rundown of the outcomes of our AGM, 18 weather we would give Penola Conservation Park people turned up following our wader outing. the flick and head straight to Carpenter Rocks. Well- we had a slight detour to Brooksbys Lane to see a Minutes from the AGM and our General Meeting will Brolga. Carpenter Rocks – no rocks and just a tiny be emailed out soon. bit of stone and seaweed right near where we parked the car – a bit jammy. Mind you we could Your committee for the next year is as follows. hardly stand up with the wind and pelting rain let alone hold binoculars steady. Shorebirds were all Convenor: Bob Green sitting on one tiny spot – this also included 2 Deputy Convenor: Wayne Bigg pelican. The previous week we had seen lots of birds along the causeway to Canunda – so headed Secretary: Angela Jones there- not a White- fronted Chat, Cisticola, Fairy Treasurer: Bryan Haywood Martin, Bushlark anywhere to be seen. We decided Committee members: Jeff Campbell, Cassie Hlava, the beach would not be any better either so headed Abigail Goodman, Sue Black. to Rivoli Wetland -out of Rendelsham hoping for Spoonbills, maybe Glossy Ibis. We did manage Red- kneed Dotterel. Of course Lake McIntyre would Non-elected roles: have all the birds we still wanted to include on our Conservation Officer: Bob Green list – we were up to 98 birds – the only 2 we managed there was a Blue-billed Duck and Great Newsletter Editor: Jeff Campbell Crested Grebe. By this stage we were all freezing Sightings Database: Bob Green cold and wet. It was undeniably a GREAT DAY. Monitoring Officer: Cassie Hlava KBA Coordinator: Cassie Hlava OH&S Officer: Wayne Bigg Noel Boyle Birds South East April 2018 3 Birds South East Banded Birds at Lake McIntyre 2018 BIRDLIFE CROSS BORDER CAMPOUT In 1997 Adrian Boyle started a project banding birds On behalf of the 2018 host branch, Birdlife Nhill, I am to look at movements and populations at Lake pleased to invite you to the fourth Birdlife Cross McIntyre- Millicent.