Stewart Island

Kaka

Stewart Island is a large Island about 30km south of Bluff. There is a population of approximately 600 people of which 90% live in the main settlement of Oban. This small town located in Halfmoon Bay has basic services such as a small supermarket and a range of accommodation options. Roughly 85% of the Island is set aside as National Park. It's a wild place with unspoilt forests and prolific bird-life. There is about 20 km of road on the island, however walking (tramping) is the way to see this island with walks ranging from a few minutes to many days. Even though walking is the way to see the wild places, in my opinion it's necessary to have some form of motorised transport to get about. I was very grateful for the courtesy car supplied by our motel.
You know that you are going to a special place when the owner of the motel you intend staying at makes a point of meeting you before you even leave for the island.  It's a relatively quick 60 minute ferry ride across Foveaux Strait. I had hoped to photograph a few birds on the way over, however we only got distant views of albatross and petrels.
As soon as we arrived at the motel the local Kakas dropped in to accept what must be the usual handout of peanuts that they come to expect when there are new arrivals. These birds turned out to be great photographic subjects as they were habituated to humans and easy to approach.

Tomtit

The weather was partly cloudy, so as soon as we had settled in we jumped in the courtesy car and headed to Lee Bay where we did a walk along the coast. Unfortunately the weather by this time was threatening, so the walk was cut short. We did however get to see Tui, South Island Oystercatchers, Stewart Island Shags and a very large New Zealand Sea Lion. The following day we decided to do the coastal walk that started just below our motel at Bragg Bay and finished at.Horseshoe Bay, a total of 4 km, I think. Along the way we passed beautiful coastal scenery with the bush right down to the water's edge.

Weka

The beaches were mostly deserted apart from a few Variable Oystercarters and Shags. On the track itself we encountered Tomtit, Tui, Kaka, New Zealand Pigeon, Silvereye, Grey Warbler and Fantail. After lunch we headed out to Ackers  Point, a short walk. The same birds were seen here along with panoramic views of Halfmoon Bay. If we had timed the visit to this point for early evening we probably would have seen Little Penguins and Sooty Shearwaters returning to their nesting burrows.

Tui

The next day we caught a water taxi to Ulva Island which is a rat free Island a few kms from Stewart Island. It is probably the most pristine of any sanctuary in New Zealand that is open to the public.
Over the last 10 years a number of threatened species have been released here, so it is a very good spot to see and photograph these species. While on the island I was able to photograph Red-crowned Parakeet, Saddleback, Brown Creeper, Kaka, Tui, Bellbird, White-faced Heron, New Zealand Pigeon, Weka and South Island Robin. Seen but  not photographed were: Yellow-crowned Parakeet and Rifleman. We had so much fun here photographing the birds and enjoying the scenery that we extended our visit from a half day to a full day. We were aided in locating some of the species by a helpful guide aptly named Ulva. The South Island Robins here have all been released and are much studied. They all have very visible leg bands,. These birds show no fear of humans and will land at your feet  to pick up any insects that you disturb as you walk.

Grey Warbler

That night we took a guided Kiwi viewing tour. We managed to see two kiwis as they fed on invertebrates on the the beach.
You are not allowed to use flash at all and the tour guide was the only person who could shine a low powered torch at the bird itself. As a result we came away with a lot of blurry underexposed images, fit for record shots only. Not the best photographic wildlife experience I've ever undertaken, however most of the other participants seemed to be happy just to see this unique bird. Apparently Stewart Island is one of the few places that there is the possibility of seeing a Kiwi during daylight. Though I think you would need to go to one of the more remote areas.

Paradise Shelduck

During our stay I organised a few perches around the garden of the motel and used calls to attract  Grey Warbler (Gerygone), Silvereye and Bellbirds for a photographic session. We also had New Zealand Pigeon and Tui in the garden, however they never responded to calls. Tuis were very common, but proved rather difficult to photograph as I couldn't find a flowering plant that they were feeding on.

Bellbird

The Kaka were by far my favourite subjects as they visited us each morning and evening. It was a simple matter to encourage one onto a perch.

 I can highly recommend a visit to Stewart Island, though I doubt that many will be as lucky as we were with fine weather. I also recommend the Motel (Rakiura Retreat) we stayed at for the friendly service and surrounding gardens.

Swift Parrots

Last week I had the opportunity to visit South Chain Valley, on several occasions to photograph the Swift Parrots that have been resident for several weeks. Access to Chain Valley South is off the Pacific Highway via Tall Timbers Road.

This is a good site for photographing the birds as it is easily accessible in the Joshua Porter Reserve and the trees that the birds are frequenting are relatively low.



As subjects these birds can be difficult as they then to stay well within the foliage. They also move about a lot and often fly on mass to another area without any obvious reason.



This site proved to be good for a number of parrot species, including: Scaly Lorikeets, Rainbow Lorikeets, Galahs, Eastern Rosellas, Crimson Rosellas, Little Corellas and Musk Parrots.

Sturt NP to Bowra Sanctuary

May 2011
The dirt road from Sturt NP to Noccundra was in good condition so we made good progress. While having morning tea along the road we were entertained by a couple of calling Crested Bellbirds. Further along the road there were big numbers of Black-faced Woodswallows and Black Kites. These were mainly congregating around the road works along a big stretch of the road.

Mistletoebird

We arrived at Thargomindah  late in the afternoon, but still in time to take the Riverside walk that starts just opposite the camp ground. Almost as soon as we entered the reserve we heard a mistletoebird that was happy to come in to investigate a brief call back.  Along the river banks there were a number of Australian Ibis and White-necked Herons, but nothing to get too excited about. In the sky however, there were large mixed flocks of Woodswallows that settled into some the large river bank trees as the light faded. Closer inspection revealed that the three species present were; Black-faced, White-browed and Masked Woodswallows. As we watched the Woodswallows grooming, arguing and whatever else they do before getting some shut eye, a flock of 10 Red-winged Parrots landed in an adjacent tree.

Masked Woodswallows

These parrots are good looking birds at any time, but in this light they were spectacular. A nearby noisy group of Apostlebirds caught our attention with their antics. The fading light prevented any serious photography so we headed back to the camp.
The first stop the following day was Lake Bindegolly National Park. We've been fortunate to see this lake both empty and full in the past so we knew what to expect with the waters only slightly lower than last year. As soon as we stopped Brogas could be heard in the direction of the free camp on the other side of the road. Unfortunately they were disturbed by campers before we got near, or maybe it was us. I didn't bother adding to my bum shot collection as they disappeared into the distance. 

Great Crested-grebe

I reckon if you're out this way this is one of the best free camping spots around, with scattered sites just above the lake. At this time last year you couldn't camp there unless you were prepared to walk in, due to water over the vehicle track.
Water birds were prolific with nesting Great Crested Grebes, Australasian Grebes, Darters, Cormorants and Black Swans being the dominant species.

Restless Flycatcher

We took the opportunity to have a quick look round and soon encountered Diamond Doves, White-winged Fairy-wrens, Singing Honeyeaters and Black-faced Woodswallows. We made a quick stop at Eulo bore. Given it was mid-afternoon, there wasn't a lot about. Really, to get the best out of this location you need to be around just before sunset when many birds come in for a drink. Though I doubt that the bore would be that attractive to local birds at the moment as there was a lot of surface water about elsewhere.
This was our fourth visit to Bowra in the last two years and the first since the Australian Wildlife Conservancy took over the property. The actual day to day running of the sanctuary is undertaken by volunteers from Birds Queensland. On arrival we were greeted by the the current manager and shown where to camp. 

Red-winged Parrot

Thankfully the lagoon contained some water, which was not the case on the last visit. The mistake I'd often made in the past was to neglect the area around the lagoon in preference for the far reaches of the property. So on arrival I made an effort to photograph the resident lagoon birds and any others that came in for a late afternoon drink. On the lagoon there were Black-winged Stilts, Straw-necked Ibis, a Black-fronted Dotterel and Grey Teals. During the stay a small flock of Red Rumps, Red-winged Parrots and a few Galahs came in for a drink, or to just check the place out. I also had a visit from the resident Restless Flycatchers, which are always fun to photograph.
The next day with the property map in hand we headed out to find a few of the specialities. It didn't take long to find six Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush exactly where the map indicated. The little buggers didn't want their photograph taken, so yet again came away with shots for my bum shot gallery. As for the other rarities we didn't have much luck so settled for some quiet time by the Gumholes. There were White-backed Swallows, Welcome Swallows and White-breasted Woodswallows chasing insects overhead.

Peaceful Dove

Zebra finches were crowding a small scrub near the water. Meanwhile a Peaceful Dove was kind enough to land close by and pose for a few shots. We had intended staying three nights but stayed only two. To be honest the bird numbers were significantly down on previous visits. I've no doubt that if you spent the time you would find all the property's specialities, however we decided our time could be spent better elsewhere. The truth is Bowra shines when there is not a lot of water about elsewhere as it has permanent water. One of the great things that the Birds Queensland group have introduced is the nightly bird calls. Here  the birds seen during the day are recorded and birders/photographers can share experiences and knowledge.
It was surprising to find Ian still had cattle on the property. Also there were large numbers of feral goats and pigs seen around the property. I know progress was being made in this regard, with a big number of goats removed just before we got there. I'm not sure if the pig eradication program was working as it seemed that the hunters were concentrating on the big animals and leaving the small pigs behind. Maybe they were looking to the future.

Sturt National Park



I've just returned from 5 weeks travelling around Central Aus. The first stop on this trip was Sturt NP in the far north west of NSW. My last visit to this National Park was years ago when the area was in the middle of a drought.
We stayed at the excellent Dead Horse Gully camping ground which is located just a couple of kilometres from Tibooburra. This campground is situated amongst the granite boulders that give this area of Sturt NP its distinct character. The camping sites are nicely spaced with reasonable privacy. There are toilets, free gas BBQs, but no showers. If you are desperate for a shower you can pay a small fee for one in nearby Tibooburra. I think we manged about  five days without showering, which wasn't too bad as we didn't meet up with anyone else. In total we spent 7 days in Sturt with five nights at Dead Horse Gully and two nights at Fort Grey.

Dead Horse Gully Landscape

Our routine while residing at Dead Horse Gully was to travel out to the South Myres Tank on the Jump-up Loop Track early each morning for the best light and return again in the afternoon. The first thing that struck me on my return visit was the Mitchell grass plains that stretched for kilometres. I'm sure on my prior visit these were barren gibber plains. The dam at South Myres tank was reasonably full, however the banks were shallow enough to provide plenty of landing and wading areas for birds. One of the target species I was after was the Flock Bronzewing. These had recently been photographed in this area by Rob Drummond and Simon Bennett, so I was delighted when these birds made an appearance on my first visit. Small flocks came in to drink each morning and afternoon.

Flock Bronzewing

They proved to be very difficult subjects as they were very nervous and appeared to take flight for no apparent reason. In hindsight I would have been better off concentrating on flight shots as they spent so much of their time in the air whirling around the dam, usually before coming to land on the opposite shoreline. What really surprised me was their willingness to actually land in the shallow water. Most did land on the banks, however they still tended to move beyond the water's edge.

Cinnamon Quail-thrush

One of the other species I was interested in photographing was the Cinnamon Quail-thrush. While photographing a group of White-winged Fairy-wrens I noticed a couple of Quail-thrush dart between some grass clumps. I set-up in the hope of intercepting them as they moved towards the road. I made no attempt to camouflage myself or call them in, however after waiting about five minutes a group of 6 birds started happily foraging out in the open only metres from where I stood. It was obvious that they were aware of my presence yet they continued to feed to with a couple of metres. They even let me move about them to get better angles. In the end after getting several hundred shots  I left them alone to feed. Another species I had on top of my list was the Gibberbird. I'd seen in my opinion the best image of this species posted on Feathersandphotos by Rob Drummond. Unfortunately even though I spent considerable time looking I was only able to obtain a record shot. 

Red-browed Pardalote

The drive to Fort Grey takes you initially through the Mitchell Grass/gibber plains to sand dune country. Along the way there were pipits, orange chats, woodwallows and plenty of birds of prey. Fort Grey camp is set amongst the sand dunes and near the ephemeral Lake Pinaroo. The camp is set up in a similar fashion to the Sturt NP camps in that toilets and gas BBQs are provided. Fortunately during our visit the lake was nearly full. There wasn't a lot of waterbirds obvious, however the birds of prey were numerous. The woodland and sand dune country surrounding the camp provided the opportunity to photograph some different birds, including Red-browed Pardalote, Red-capped Robin and Crested Bellbird.

Dusky Hopping-mouse

One evening during our stay at Fort Grey our travelling companion, Rod Warnock,  alerted us to the presence of native hopping mice. We all jumped at the opportunity to photograph these cute little mammals. During our stay at Fort Grey the mouse plague was in full cry. I pity the hopping mice as they compete for food and burrows.

The Gorge Loop track is definitely worth checking out, if not for the scenery then for the heaps of Red Kangaroos that can be seen.

The birds photographed in Sturt NP were: Gibberbird, Orange Chat, Brown Falcon, Black-shouldered Kite, Nankeen Kestrel, Swamp Harrier, Black Kite, Whistling Kite, Wedgetailed Eagle, Black-faced Woodswallow, White-browed Woodswallow, Black-fronted Dotterel, Straw-necked Ibis, Grey Teal, Pink-eared Duck, Eurasian Coot, Australasian Grebe, White-winged Fairy-wren, Australian Pipit, Cinnamon Quail-thrush, Red-capped Robin, Flock Bronzewing, Budgerigar, Bourke Parrot, Galah,Welcome Swallow, Singing Honeyeater, Yellow-throated Miner, Blue Bonnet, White-plumed Honeyeater. yellow-billed Spoonbill. Red-browed Pardalote, Horsefield's Bronze-cuckoo, Mistletoebird Crested Bellbird, Emu, Black-tailed Native-hen, White-necked Heron.

I'll post another report on the next stage of the trip shortly.

Port Stephens Pelagic

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Since I'd taken up bird photography I had read with interest the reports of the various sightings recorded on the Port Stephen's Pelagic. During this time I've been on a number of Sydney pelagics and it struck me that even though the two pelagics are only a couple of hundred kilometres apart the birds recorded appeared to be significantly different. When the opportunity came up to go on the Port Stephens Pelagic it just so happened that it coincided with the recent sightings of the Great Shearwater on every other pelagic running out of the east coast. Unfortunately we were out of luck and didn't get to see this species. I've heard theories as to why they are visiting in relatively large numbers ranging from  changes to the magnetic field to climate change. It would probably shock my fellow passengers, but I didn't care that much as long as there were birds to shoot and preferably new ones.
Originally we were booked on the Saturday trip, but due to predicted bad weather and the number of enthusiastic participants, the trip was brought forward to the Friday.

Shy Albatross

We left the Nelson Bay wharf at approx. 7.00am and passed the heads with a few clouds in the sky and a band of storm clouds on the eastern horizon. As we neared the southern heads a sea eagle flew to a perch high in one of the fringing gum trees.
The boat must have been near capacity with about 14 people on board. It was a good mix of keen photographers and birders. A novice like me could be positioned to take photographs yet still be close enough to one of the experts to hear them call out and identify any new birds that arrived on the scene.  Once out of the heads it was soon apparent that it was not going to be a smooth trip with a decent swell and white caps visible.  Even though the weather looked threatening at times, we managed to avoid rain for the whole trip.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross

The first part of the ride out to the edge of the continental shelf was very quiet with only a couple of gannets flying overhead. A distant trawler drew us in like a magnet. Even at a distance you could see a mass of swirling birds around it. As soon as we got near the burly was used to draw the shearwaters away from the trawler and have them follow us. There were so many shearwaters about that it was often difficult to focus on one target. At this stage there were none of the rarer species about, but my previous images of the Wedge-tailed and Flesh-footed shearwater were so bad that I was happy to have the opportunity to improve my images. Besides if we didn't have these birds for company it would have been a pretty boring 3 hour trip to the shelf.

Black Petrel

Enough burly was dispensed to keep the shearwaters interested all the way to the shelf. Once we were drifting off the continental shelf a rag soaked in cod liver oil was tied off and dragged behind the boat. The slick created  proved to be very attractive to large numbers of Wilson's Storm Petrels. I'd not seen these delightful birds before and it was a pleasure to see them dance across the water surface picking up the tiny bits of burly left by the other bigger birds. Photographing these birds would be difficult at the best of times as they zipped about, however the direction of the slick meant unless you were into bum shots the light angle was never favourable. Of course if I hadn't forgotten to take my flash I could have used it for fill light and come away with more than just record shots.

Pomarine Jaeger

It wasn't too long before we had a visit from a Black Petrel that liked our company so much that it decided to stay. It proved to be rather timid as it was swamped by the smaller shearwaters when burly was thrown in its direction. Its preference for sitting on the water made getting a flight shot rather difficult. 
During our time drifting we also had a visit from a Great-winged Petrel and a couple of Pomarine Jaeger. Unfortunately neither of these species hung round long or close enough to be photographed well.

The return trip again had the shearwaters following behind in big numbers. They were joined at various stages by three species of albatross, including Shy, Indian Yellow-nosed and Black-browed. By this time the light was starting to fade due to high cloud, which explains the lack of punch in my albatross shots.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

As we got closer to the heads a few Crested Terns and gulls joined the flock and a couple of kilometres from the heads a Sea Eagle made an unexpected but brief appearance. The last sighting for the day was a little penguin playing chicken with a game boat in the harbour.
I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as I saw and got to photograph some great birds in the company of some really friendly and helpful people. In particular Mick Roderick who did a wonderful job organising the trip and his brother Steve,  Allan Richardson and Rod Warnock for their expert knowledge and help.

Birds recorded on the trip were: 
Flesh-footed Shearwater, Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Short-tailed Shearwater,  Hutton's Shearwater (not seen by me), Fluttering Shearwater, Black Petrel, Great-winged Petrel, Wilson's Storm-petrel, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, Shy Albatross, Pomarine Jaegar, Australasian Gannet and White-bellied Sea-eagle. In all I managed to photograph three new birds.