Male Baer’s Pochard, Bueng Borapet, Thailand

It’s our first full day in Thailand and we spent the morning at Bueng Borapet – Thailand’s largest fresh water lake and swamp, looking for one of the world’s rarest duck. In a four hour boat trip around the lake we managed to locate just one male of this critically endanger species, which breeds, in small numbers, in eastern Russia and northern China. Numbers of this Aythay have declined dramatically in the past two decades and during a recent survey of it’s traditional wintering grounds, less than a hundred birds were found. This truly amazing sighting gets our Thailand trip off to a flying start!

Flight shot of Baer’s Pochard (foreground) showing under-wing detail, in comparison with the similar Ferruginous Duck 

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a nice mixture of Australian wildlife. Here are a few photos of some of the stuff we’ve seen on our travels in New South Wales and Victoria, starting with the mammals..

Tasmanian Pademelon

Echidna

Bennett’s Wallaby – white form

One of the undoubted highlights was to come across a Platypus, swimming in a Tasmanian mountain stream, in the middle of the day! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to obtain anything other than a poor grab shot..

We only came across a couple of snakes, unfortunately. This is Lowland Copperhead – described in the text as ‘extremely venomous’!

Some of the fabulous birdlife, which probably didn’t get the attention it deserved whilst in the pursuit of my 500th species for Australia. This is the very eye-catching New Holland Honeyeater

Hooded Plover, a rarity – only found on the remote beaches of Victoria and Tasmania 

This wasn’t a ‘parrot trip’ – so this Blue-winged was a welcome bonus

Pink Robin, a bird of the dense rainforest

and to finish, a nice male Satin Flycatcher. Reasonably common but stunning nonetheless

We’re finishing our four week family holiday in Australia with a trip-list of just short of 260 species, including 15 Australian ‘Life ticks’. This is a great country for wildlife in general and birds in particular. What makes it particularly special is that practically everyone you meet is keen to share their knowledge – without their kind assistance I certainly wouldn’t have reached 500 species on this trip. With grateful thanks.. we’ll be back for more!

Next post will be from Thailand.

Last week we took a family holiday on Bruny Island, Tasmania. Interspersed with doing all the usual touristy things with the grand-kids, we were also in pursuit of the island state’s endemics. Traditionally, there were twelve resident endemic species: Tasmanian Native-hen, Green Rosella, Forty-spotted Pardalote, Scrubtit, Tasmanian Scrubwren, Tasmanian Thornbill, Yellow Wattlebird, Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Strong-billed Honeyeater, Black-headed Honeyeater, Dusky Robin and Black Currawong, which, together with a recent addition, Morepork – a split from Southern Boobook and two breeding endemics, Swift and Orange-bellied Parrot, formed our targets. In the six days we were on Bruny Island we cleaned-up on all but the Orange-bellied – which fortunately we’d seen previously on their wintering grounds in southern Victoria. Now sadly critically endangered and on the brink of extinction.

Easiest to see by far was the Native-hen, common in most pastures near water

Yellow-throated Honeyeater were readily located by their vocal habits

In the tree at the bottom of our holiday accommodation garden was a family party of Dusky Robin

Green Rosella were also regular over the garden

In the nearby adjacent woodland were Black-headed Honeyeater and Yellow Wattlebird

A trip to the coastal woodlands around Adventure Bay produced Tasmanian Thornbill and Strong-billed Honeyeater

 Forty-spotted Pardalote is regarded as one of the trickier species to find – it’s certainly one of the rarest. We eventually found a small group high up in the White Gums, in McCracken’s Gully. Record shot only

An expedition up into the rainforest was required for our next two targets – Tasmanian Scrubwren and the similar looking, but rather more elusive, Scrubtit

Amazingly, the last of the traditional twelve to fall was the Black Currawong

Morepork, the recent split from Southern Boobook, was found whilst attempting to relocate a Masked Owl, seen a few nights earlier. This, a screen shot of the back of my camera, texted by Dan to his mates in Newcastle, moments after our ‘tick-up’! 

As if this ‘tick-fest’ wasn’t enough, we also saw several Tassie sub-species, which are potential splits for the future, including Masked Owl (not photographed) Brown Quail and Grey Shrike-thrush

All this ticking-up has taken me well over the 500 target for my Australian List!

We’re now on Wilson’s Prom with my brother for a few days R&R before heading off to Thailand, to join up with Neil and Bob & Sue, for what I hope will be an intensive and rewarding tour of the top sites in the north of the country.

Tasmanian Thornbill – my 500th Australian bird species!

Yesterday I ‘ticked up’ my 500th bird species for Australia! We’re down on Tasmania attempting to see all the island’s endemics – my 500th happened to be one of the more uninspiring of them! Tasmanian Thornbill is similar to the more common and widespread Brown Thornbill, only rather more range-restricted. This reasonably modest total has been accumulated over a number of family holidays, but including visits to most of the geographic regions of the country, with the exception of the north west corner – which we’re saving for a future visit. Most of our trips have been in the Australian summer months.

The Great Ocean Road and the ‘Twelve Apostles’ – photo by Jane

On the last morning of our road trip from Newcastle to Melbourne we drove along the wonderfully scenic Great Ocean Road – looking for the range-restricted Rufous Bristlebird!

The target species – safely ‘under the belt’!

Singing Honeyeater –  was a surprising find along the coastal strip

Koala – just chilling! Found in eucalypts near our morning coffee stop. Photo by Jane

We’re off to Tasmania first thing tomorrow, so I fear it may be a week before we’re back in internet range. It’ll be a mixture of sight-seeing, beach  and hunting down Tasmania’s thirteen endemic bird species. Watch this space…