After being in Sydney last week for the Ecological Society of Australia conference, I am now back and in the groove of bird surveys. For the record, the conference was great, although was very exhausting: 8.30am – 5.00pm most days, Monday it was 8.15am – 7.00pm. Rebecca and I managed to catch up with a small number of friends, which was great fun. During the day, Bec kept herself busy walking and shopping in town. We stayed in Glebe at “The Haven Inn”. Nice place, but my god, Sydney is SO filthy!! Rubbish everywhere. I saw one girl in Paramatta placing stickers on cement pylons (about something inane no doubt) and blatantly throwing away the sticker backing!! There were 10 – 20 just blowing around the street!! Made me SO mad to see blatant vandalism and littering… sometimes I wish I was an undercover policeman……Anyway, transplant yourself back to the clean and (relatively) safe Brisbane for another instalment of bird survey findings…
I surveyed the whole eastern section of sector 3 this morning; represented a very large portion of the forest to the east of the Pacific Motorway. The majority of the way was off-track, with many areas of dense understorey. Needless to say, there were hundreds of spiders, and those that know me would realised how much of a test it was to stay calm in the face of huge St Andrews Cross and Golden-Orb Weaver spiders everywhere!! It made the survey just that much more stressful! It was relatively quiet. I only saw 111 individuals from 15 species, although interestingly, there were two new species for my Toohey Forest surveying; one of which is rarely recorded in the forest. The first was a Pheasant Coucal that sat in a sapling in front of me and called a number of times (see dodgy quality video below; the call is right at the end). They are the most retarded species and don’t seem to harbour the ability to land gracefully in trees. They are more like a monkey in a large birds body; attempting to climb trees using their wings, only managing to attract attention from afar! The most unexpected species was a Topknot Pigeon. It was, granted, 70m above the forest, so most likely won’t be used in analysis, although it is worthy of note as this species generally inhabits sub-tropical forest in these parts, only being occasionally seen in eucalypt forest such as Toohey Forest. It is quite possible, given its high flight, that it was using the large expanse of Toohey Forest as a visual stepping stone to travel to greener pasture (albeit rainforest). Everything else was rather ordinary and unexpected, although the dense understorey in parts of Lantana and thick grass was particularly attractive to large numbers of Silvereye. My estimation of 20 individuals is perhaps a bit conservative; there were probably more like 25 – 35, although it is more of an estimate of number. With 7 surveys now complete, there are only 3 left to do. I will most likely get them all done before Christmas, although may do the last one between Christmas and New Year. It all depends on when Bec and I move house…… watch this space regarding THAT impending and building drama………..
Date: 12th December 2008
Time: 0535 - 0810
Sector: 3
Number of species seen: 15
Number of birds seen: 111
Galah (2)
Laughing Kookaburra (2)
Pheasant Coucal (1)
Rainbow Lorikeet (27)
Sacred Kingfisher (1)
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (8)
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (2)
Silvereye (26)
Spotted Turtle-dove (2)
Torresian Crow (11)
Topknot Pigeon (1)
Variegated Fairy-wren (6)
White-browed Scrub-wren (8)
White-throated Needletail (1)
Yellow-faced Honeyeater (13)
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