Australia 9 September – 25 November 2018 Rob Gordijn & Helen Rijkes ([email protected]) - http://www.penguinbirding.com Introduction We spend 2,5 month driving around 2/3ths of Australia to see as many new species as possible. Since we had been in Papua just before this trip we didn’t try for the longest list possible, but we did all right seeing 559 species in total. Because this was quite a long trip and the covered area is huge we tried to give some overview below. We visited 11 birding areas (see image below), skipping the Iron Ranges and Western Australia. We decided to drive the entire trip which meant we could only see some additional species along the way that are otherwise hard to reach. Since we are still traveling this is a preliminary trip report with our main findings and a rough annotated species list (counts are incomplete and subspecies indication is missing). Please send us an email if you are looking for specific information and can’t find it in the report. Because this was a long trip in Australia (and part of even longer trip overal) we had some days with some time off for doing laundry or preparing for the next months of our trip. These days are marked by an asterisk. We tried to give the driving times for the long stretches, but there was quite a lot of driving on most days (26.000 km in total for the trip). Itinerary 1 9-Sep Brisbane (Inskip Point) – Rockhampton 2 10-Sep Rockhampton - Eungella 3 11-Sep Eungella – Mission Beach 4 12-Sep 1. Cairns area Mission Beach – Cairns - Kingfisher Park 5 13-Sep 1. Cairns area Kingfisher Park - Mt. Lewis, Mareeba area 6 14-Sep 1. Cairns area Kingfisher Park - Mt. Lewis, Atherton area inc. Hasties Swamp 7 15-Sep 1. Cairns area Kingfisher Park – Artemis Station 8 16-Sep 1. Cairns area Artemis station - Lakefield NP - Cooktown 9 17-Sep 1. Cairns area Cooktown - 7 hr drive overnight at Ravenshoe 10 18-Sep 4 hr drive - Cumberland dam - Karumba 11 19-Sep Karumba – 7 hr drive overnight at McKinlay roadhouse 12 20-Sep 2. Mt Isa 3 hr drive – Lark Quarry NP - Bladensburg 13 21-Sep 2.Winton Mt Isa Bladensburg NP 14 22-Sep 2.Winton Mt Isa Bladensburg NP – Mt Isa (Lake Moondarra) 15 23-Sep 2.&Winton Mt Isa Mt Isa (Mcnamara rd, Pamela st) 16 24-Sep Winton Mt Isa (Pamela st)- Barkly tablelands 17 25-Sep Barkly tablelands – Katherine (Arnhem highway km 8) 18 26-Sep 3. Top end Katherine - Chinaman Creek, Chainman Creek, Edith Falls rd, Umbrawarra gorge – Pine 19 27-Sep 3.(Darwin) Top end PineCreek Creek – Edith Falls rd – Mary river roadhouse – Nourlangie - Jabiru 20 28-Sep 3.(Darwin) Top end Kakadu NP (Bardejildjd, Ubirr, Nourlangie) 21 29-Sep 3.(Darwin) Top end Kakadu (Nourlangie) - Darwin 22 30-Sep 3.(Darwin) Top end Darwin (Buffalo Creek, East Point, Coconut Grove)* 23 1-Oct 3.(Darwin) Top end Darwin (East Point, Buffalo Creek, Coconut Grove)* 24 2-Oct 3.(Darwin) Top end Darwin (various sites) – Katherine (Chainman Creek, Poo Ponds) 25 3-Oct 3(Darwin). Top end Katherine (Arnhem highway) – Victoria Roadhouse 26 4-Oct (Darwin) Victoria Roadhouse – Timber Creek - Dunmarra Roadhouse 27 5-Oct Dunmarra Roadhouse – Alice Springs (Kenneth Bore) 28 6-Oct 4. Alice Kenneth Bore - Alice Springs (Santa Theresa road) 29 7-Oct 4.Springs Alice Alice Springs (Desert Park) - Kenneth Bore 30 8-Oct 4.Springs Alice Alice Springs (Desert park) - Erldunda 31 9-Oct 4.Springs Alice Erldunda - Yulara 32 10-Oct 4.Springs Alice Yulara - Uluru (all day) 33 11-Oct Springs Yulara to Cooper Pedy 34 12-Oct 5. Outback Cooper Pedy (12km south) - Oodnadatta track to Marree 35 13-Oct 5.Tracks Outback Birdsville track - southern part 36 14-Oct 5.Tracks Outback Birdsville track - northern part 37 15-Oct 5.Tracks Outb ack Birdsville track - back to Lyndhurst 38 16-Oct 5.Tracks Outback Strzelecki track 39 17-Oct Tracks Strzelecki track - Flinders Ranges (Stokes Hill) 40 18-Oct Flinders Ranges (Stokes Hill) - Whyalla (Wild Dog Hill) * 41 19-Oct 6. P Augusta Whyalla - Lake Gilles CP - Ceduna 42 20-Oct 6.Nulla P Augustarbor Ceduna - Nullarbor (roadhouse + NP) 43 21-Oct 6.Nullarbor P Augusta Nullarbor NP - Mount Ive Station 44 22-Oct 6.Nullarbor P Augusta Mount Ive Station - Port Lincoln 45 23-Oct 6.Nullarbor P Augusta Port Lincoln * Nullarbor 46 24-Oct Port Lincoln - Crystal Brook 47 25-Oct 7. Mallee area Crystal Brook - Berri 48 26-Oct 7. Mallee area Berri - Murray Sunset - Hattah Kulkyne 49 27-Oct 7. Mallee area Hattah Kulkyne - Little Desert - Mount Arapiles 50 28-Oct Mount Arapiles - Lake Colac - Anglesea area 51 29-Oct 8. Melbourne Anglesea area 52 30-Oct 8.area Melbourne Anglesea - Werribee - Melbourne - Toolangi State Forest 53 31-Oct 8.area Melbourne Toolangi - Bunyip State Forest 54 1-Nov 8.area Melbourne Bunyip State Forest - Dandedong Hills - Heathcote 55 2-Nov 8.area Melbourne Heathcote - Deniliquin 56 3-Nov 8.area Melbourne Deniliquin (Plains Wanderer weekend day 1) 57 4-Nov area Deniliquin (PW weekend day 2) - Wollongong 58 5-Nov 9. Sydney Wollongong Botanical Gardens - Barren Grounds 59 6-Nov 9.area Sydney Barren Grounds - Nowra - Barren Grounds 60 7-Nov 9.area Sydney Barren Grounds – some overnight stop* 61 8-Nov 9.area Sydney Capertee Valley 62 9-Nov 9.area Sydn ey Capertee Valley - Sydney 63 10-Nov 9.area Sydney Sydney Pelagic - Gloucester Tops 64 11-Nov area Gloucester Tops - Old Bar 65 12-Nov Old Bar - Hastings Point 66 13-Nov 10. Brisbane Hastings Point - Lamington 67 14-Nov 10.area Brisbane Lamington - Brisbane (night drive Mount Glorious) 68 15-Nov 10.area Brisbane Brisbane area (Lake Samsonvale - Mt Coot-tha) * 69 16-Nov 10.area Brisbane Brisbane - Yarraman - Southport 70 17-Nov 10.area Brisbane Southport Pelagic - Brisbane 71 18-Nov 10.area Brisbane Brisbane area (Mount Glorious)* 72 19-Nov 10.area Brisbane Brisbane area (Samsonvale - Fisherman's Island, Kedron Brook Wetlands) * 73 20-Nov area Brisbane area - no birding * 74 21-Nov Flight to Tasmania - Hobart (Peter Murrell Conservation Area, night drive) 75 22-Nov 11. Tasmania Hobart (Mount Wellington) - Bruny Island * 76 23-Nov 11. Tasmania Bruny Island * 77 24-Nov 11. Tasmania Bruny Island - Hobart 78 25-Nov Flight Tasmania to Melbourne - onward flight to Santiago de Chili Practicalities Guiding & organised trips. Although most species can be easily found by yourself, there are a few where some help is required. Most of these trips are quite popular, so make sure you book them in advance. About 5 months before our trip we booked a Plains wanderer-weekend with Phil Maher (last seats), a pelagic in Southport (waiting list) and a pelagic in Sydney. We also bought tickets for a trip to Melaleuca for the Orange-bellied Parrot. During our trip we realised It would be very difficult to find Black-eared miners so we organised a guided day birding with Peter Waanders of Bellbirding with some good Malleebirds thrown in as well. Plainswanderer: Phil Maher has been running trips from Deniliquin to see Plains Wanderer since the 80’s, you can for an evening for the Plains Wanderers, or join one or the weekend trips to see some other good species as well. We went along on the weekendtrip and paid 340 dollar per person. See https://www.philipmaher.com for details. Sadly we missed the Plains Wanderers due to the drought, but most people are more lucky.. Pelagics Australia has some worldclass pelagic birding to offer. Regular pelagics are organised from several areas e.g. Southport, Port Stephens, Sydney, Kiama, Eaglehawk Neck, Port Fairy. We used www.sossa-international.com to see an(?) overview of the possible sites and dates of the pelagics. Also note that on the Facebook groups “Seabirds and Pelagics Australia” new trips are advertised and opened spots on full pelagics are shared as well. We were able to fit in two pelegics in our itinerary: one from Sydney and one from Southport (each around 120 dollar pp). Orange-bellied Parrots Orange-bellied parrots winter on the mainland and return to their last breeding site in Melaleuca in the remote South west of Tasmania in October & November. The only way to get there is by plane. Day trips can be booked with www.paravion.com for 599 dollar per person. Make sure you book your trip for your first day on Tasmania as trips are regularly cancelled due to the weather (as we experienced.) In our case it was rescheduled to a time after we left from Tasmania so no Orange-bellied parrots for us. The numbers of wild birds are slowly decreasing, and several release programs and assisted overwintering are being worked on. Black-eared Miner/Mallee specialities. Black-eared Miners are rapidly declining due to hybridization with the more widespread Yellow-throated Miners. A “pure one” (identified by dark moustache-stripe and lack of pale rump) is hard to find these days and requires local knowledge of where still birds hang around. Therefore we contacted Peter Waanders from Bellbirding ([email protected]) who lives in Berri, South Australia close to several Mallee reserves. Peter had already a guest on our preferred date, but luckily, we could join in and split the fee (690 dollar shared among 3 people). Aside from the Black-eared Miner (which we found without difficulty but on a reserve not open to the public) we enjoyed other Mallee specialties such as Rufous-lored Whistler, Mallee Emu-wren and Striated Grasswren.