GRAND AUSTRALIA PART I: NEW SOUTH WALES & THE NORTHERN TERRITORY SEPTEMBER 28–OCTOBER 14, 2019 A knock out Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove we found in Darwin perched out unusually brazenly. LEADERS: DION HOBCROFT AND JANENE LUFF LIST COMPILED BY: DION HOBCROFT VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM Our Australia tours have become so popular that we ran two VENT departures this year around the continent. The first was led by great birding friend and outstanding leader Max Breckenridge, well assisted by Barry Zimmer, one of our most highly regarded leaders. Janene and I led the second departure starting a week later. As usual, we started in Sydney at a comfortable hotel close to city attractions like the Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Art Gallery, and various museums. This included some good birding sites like Sydney Olympic Park some five miles west of the city. This young male Superb Lyrebird came walking past us in rainforest at Royal National Park. Our tour began with great cool weather, and in the park we were soon amongst the attractions with nesting Tawny Frogmouth a good start. There were plenty of waterbirds including Black Swan, Chestnut Teal, Hardhead, Australasian Darter, four species of cormorants, and three species of large rails (swamphen, moorhen, and coot). On the tidal lagoon, good numbers of Red-necked Avocets mingled about with a small flock of recently arrived migrant Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, while a dapper pair of adult Red-kneed Dotterels was very handy. Participants were somewhat “gobsmacked” by colorful Galahs, Rainbow Lorikeets, raucous Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, and their smaller cousin the Little Corella. It all seemed rather exotic. Unusual was a solitary Australian Brushturkey. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 2 Grand Australia Part 1, 2019 A big day in the superb Royal National Park (40,000 acres of forest and heath) is a major introduction to the delights of forest birding on the east coast of the sunburnt country. We were joined by my friend Steve. A sing-off between two male Superb Lyrebirds was a great natural history experience. The powerful repertoire of this giant passerine is mingled with complex mimicry, and we could identify ten species as the males competed for who had the most operatic voice. Whipbird, kookaburra, shrike-thrush, and black cockatoos were mixed in with surges of computer-generated spacecraft pulses! The views were great. Spring was in full effect, and the birds came by at a great rate of knots. Wonga Pigeon, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Topknot Pigeon, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo (including a juvenile being fed by Brown Thornbills), Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Australian King-Parrot, Eastern Whipbird, Satin Bowerbird, Green Catbird, Crested Shrike-tit, stunning Golden Whistler, and Variegated Fairywrens were amongst the temptations on offer. After lunch we worked the coastal heathlands at Wattamolla, and our good luck continued with Rockwarblers, Southern Emuwren, Beautiful Firetail and, perhaps best of all, an Echidna we found crossing the road. Our last hurrah for the day saw us searching for and finding successfully a family of Powerful Owls that included a large well-grown chick. A stunning adult Antipodean Wandering Albatross joined the seabirds off the continental shelf of Sydney. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 3 Grand Australia Part 1, 2019 Our pelagic day started with glassy smooth seas and light breezes, perfect for us to see Striped Tuna chasing baitfish, a Fur Seal, Humpback Whales, and a pod of Common Dolphins. Once out at the shelf break we produced a mass of chum and oil, and with a stiffening breeze we soon had a great collection of seabirds attracted to our vessel. Short-tailed Shearwaters were on migration with hundreds of birds coming past, some doing their falcon-like fitness display flights—quite spectacular. Albatrosses built up in numbers, and we had three Wandering Albatrosses, an adult Campbell Albatross, several White-capped Albatross, a juvenile Black- browed Albatross, and a fleeting Yellow-nosed Albatross to record. A hundred or so Providence Petrels attended the slick, and we had repeat visits from a single Gray-faced Petrel, plus a couple of brief Wilson’s Storm-Petrels. Wedge-tailed and Fluttering shearwaters and Australasian Gannets added to the day’s takings. After dinner we took a short walk and admired our first Common Brushtail Possums and Gray-headed Flying-foxes. Silver-backed Butcherbird is generally uncommon and inconspicuous in the Top End. Leaving Sydney we crossed the Blue Mountains on a perfect spring day. A strategic stop produced a fine Chestnut-rumped Heathwren that showed superbly, as did our first White- eared Honeyeater. A handsome Red-bellied Black Snake was watched cruising across the road. It is a shy, yet highly venomous species that is reluctant to bite. Lithgow turned up good numbers of Pink-eared Ducks and several breeding plumaged Hoary-headed Grebes. Our waterbird list had another big move along at nearby Wallerawang where the long-staying Freckled Ducks kept quite asleep most of the time. More active were the Australasian Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 4 Grand Australia Part 1, 2019 Shovelers, Musk Ducks, a pair of Blue-billed Ducks, and several spectacular Great Crested Grebes that were a big hit with the group! Latham’s Snipe was feeding out in the open while glowing Eastern Rosellas kept that exotic feeling lingering. We made a few strategic stops in the Capertee Valley, where another surge of new Australian birds connected with our binoculars. Good ones included Speckled Warbler, Hooded Robin, and beautiful Yellow-tufted Honeyeater with great numbers of nomadic White-browed Woodswallows with the odd Masked Woodswallow mixed in. We covered a lot of territory in the Capertee Valley the next day, but our good run with the weather conditions came to an end with a hot day with strong winds. We spent a couple of hours in an area where Regent Honeyeater had been reported the previous week but despite a thorough grilling had no luck with this rapidly disappearing species. Birding was pretty good despite the drought conditions that had prevailed now for several years, and we squeezed some good birds like Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Little Lorikeet, and Diamond Firetail, with more widespread species like Wedge-tailed and Little eagles, Brown Goshawk and Collared Sparrowhawk, Rainbow Bee-eater, White-browed Babbler, Double-barred and Zebra finches, Restless Flycatcher, and Brown Treecreeper to mention some. Several fence posts were decorated with Eastern Bearded Dragons. With the wind unrelenting, we returned to Sydney and set up in a comfortable airport hotel. Red Goshawk performed not only at the nest, it was seen in flight—a rare event. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 5 Grand Australia Part 1, 2019 Our flight to Darwin went smoothly, enlivened by a drunken heckler when I did the bird list! Our first stop was Knuckey Lagoon, a tropical freshwater wetland about 20 km south of Darwin. It was yet another “liferfest” for all the good people on our tour! Hundreds of Magpie Geese, good numbers of Radjah Shelducks, Bar-shouldered Dove and Torresian Imperial-Pigeon, flocks of Royal Spoonbills, dapper Pied Herons, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, a dashing Australian Hobby, Olive-backed Oriole, plenty of sulphur-bellied Australasian Figbirds, and flowering trees attracting Blue-faced and White-gaped honeyeaters and Silver-crowned and Little friarbirds. Migrant shorebirds included Black-tailed Godwit and Common, Marsh, and Wood sandpipers. Dozens of Black and Whistling kites sailed over us while a White-bellied Sea- Eagle watched proceedings. Australia has many rare and enigmatic birds like this Northern Shrike-tit. It was only my third sighting of this mysterious bird that disappears into vast tropical Eucalyptus woodland but is adversely affected by fire. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 6 Grand Australia Part 1, 2019 Our first morning in the Darwin district was dedicated to Howard Springs Nature Reserve— normally a reliable site for Rainbow Pitta but not today! Despite every trick in the book, I could not crack a sighting: a combination of drought, cyclone, and fire seeming to have hit the population quite hard. Birding was good though, and a big surprise was an amazing Black- breasted Buzzard well spotted by Janene. A perched Pacific Baza, beautiful Silver-backed Butcherbirds, and a steady roll call of monsoon forest birds kept us on our toes. Included in the morning’s takings were Brahminy Kite, Forest Kingfisher, Red-collared Lorikeet, Dusky Myzomela, White-throated Honeyeater, Green-backed Gerygone, Varied Triller, Gray Whistler, Green Oriole, and Shining Flycatcher. A big highlight for me was sighting three magnificent Merten’s Water Monitors. After lunch and a good siesta we continued exploring the birding sites around Darwin. This session also proved lively with a fantastic Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove perched in the sun, tame Bush Thick-knees, a surprise vagrant Gray-fronted Honeyeater, wonderful Torresian Kingfishers feeding on the mud in front of us, and a big list of shorebirds including such luminaries as Terek Sandpiper, Eastern Curlew, and Great Knot. A stroke of fortune to find this rare Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon feeding its chick in a rock crevice in a still smouldering Ubirr Rock. Our luck held with the rare trifecta of Top End pigeons this year: great views of all. Our good karma came back with a vengeance when not only did we find and enjoy superb views of Black Butcherbird, Red-headed Myzomela, and Australian Yellow White-eye in record time, shortly thereafter we had a cracking Rainbow Pitta teed up and singing away. It kept on trucking with a fine Mangrove Golden Whistler and lovely Broad-billed Flycatcher.