Ten years ago, when we were over here, we stopped off at Sale Common on our way back home from Hundred Mile Beach. I remember the boardwalk around the wetlands as being full of interesting wildlife – including plenty of waterbirds and a Red-bellied Black snake which refused to shift off the path and we had to go the long way round to avoid annoying it! Yesterday we indulged in a bit of nostalgia and made a return visit. Unfortunately, after the floods of last summer and the ensuing damage, the whole reserved had been closed – it was still closed! There were very few birds visible around the margins of this large wetland, between the banks of the Thomson and La Trobe rivers – most interesting was a small group of Yellow-billed Spoonbill. Meanwhile, back on the Prom, we’ve been entertained by the birds visible from the property – mostly raptors, including: Wedge-tails and White-bellied Sea-eagles, Swamp Harrier, Black-shouldered Kite and Brown Falcon. On a walk around Duck Point a couple of extra trip ticks – Caspian Tern and, ‘yes’ four waders in the form of Red-necked Stint!

The absence of waders remains a feature of our current trip to Australia. On Sunday we paid our respects to the Edithvale wetlands – the first time the hide had been open in six months, due to flooding and covid. Apart from a few stilts there were no shorebirds. We’re now at Wilson’s Prom, staying in Rob & Gi’s fabulous weekender. Walks to the familiar spots of Duck Point and Shallow Inlet yesterday did produce a few trip ticks: Cape Barren Goose, Aussie Shelduck, Skylark etc but, again, no waders.

We’re now down in Melbourne with Rob & Gi enjoying a week of catching-up, seeing family and friends, doing a bit of sightseeing and, of course, some birding. One species which is omnipresent, along the east coast, is the spectacular but under-appreciated Rainbow Lorikeet. The dazzling combination of emerald green, yellow, orange and blue, which gives it its name, and screeching call immediately attract attention to this common and obvious species. I guess its the equivalent in the UK of say Goldfinch – found everywhere but not really noticed by birders. We saw plenty in NSW and, on a walk through a local park here in Victoria, plenty more. Whilst looking through my photos of previous trips, for a suitable image to include in this blog, I spotted a good shot taken in Darwin in 2012, on our world trip. Only when I came to examine it more closely did I realise my schoolboy error – the bird was of course the range-restricted ‘top end’ version – Red-collared Lorikeet. A nice Australian armchair tick! We’ve added a couple of trip ticks so far with more to come we hope.

One of the few night birds which can be seen in the day is the weird and wonderful Tawny Frogmouth. Despite their large size (wingspan of <30cm) and relatively common status – even in urban settings – their cryptic plumage makes them difficult to find. Yesterday we did another trip round Newcastle, trying unsuccessfully to fill more holes in my Hunter List. At one site, whilst looking for something else, Dan said casually ‘there’s a Tawny Frogmouth up there’! When we looked there were actually three – possibly an adult with young.

We’re now at the end of our stay in NSW and today we fly down to Melbourne to stay with my brother Rob and Gi. It’s been great spending time with Dan and his family, catching up with friends, visiting old and new places and, of course, doing some NSW birding. During our time here we’ve managed to see (or hear) 215 species and moved my Hunter list on with a dozen or so ticks. My all-time Hunter total now stands at 338 – not bad for an occasional tourist! See you in Victoria.

I’ve said it before, night birds in Australia are a nightmare. They rarely emerge until it is proper dark and the forest species often remain hidden deep in cover – their calls being the only evidence of their presence. Every trip to Australia we have undertaken at least one night-time manoeuvre, attempting to see owl or nightjar species – nine times out of ten we fail. Yesterday evening we returned to the Watagans National Park for our third visit this trip, in the hope of connecting with some rainforest species prior to a spot of owl-dipping! We tried several locations for Rose Robin to no avail before pulling up at a promising piece of habitat in the failing light. Dan heard a treecreeper and I saw a bird fly and land tight to the trunk of a near-by gum tree. Assuming it was the bird I lifted my bins only to see our target bird – Rose Robin! Two silent birds flitted through the canopy, giving reasonable views. My first for the Hunter. An hour later it was dark and despite playing a multitude of different calls we only had brief and distant responses from a Masked Owl and Boobook. Returning home along a forest track a bird flushed in front of us – in the headlights it looked like Owlet-nightjar. A response to play-back and a couple more over-head passes confirming the identification. Another Hunter tick – my last previous sighting being in 2014.

Rockwarbler is New South Wales’ only endemic. It’s a bit of an anomalous species, looking more like an Old World warbler than anything typically Australian. It is only found on sandstone outcrops in central coastal areas of the State. We’ve seen it well on previous trips to the Blue Mountains near Sydney but, despite extensive searching – including on this trip – we’ve never caught up with it in the Hunter. All that changed this morning when another early start took us to the Sugarloaf Mountains for dawn. Half an hour at the Lookout produced nothing and it was beginning to feel like another dip when Dan suggested we move further round the rock escarpment. Within a few minutes first one and then another appeared at very close quarters – the relief was palpable.

We were up again at 4.00am for an early start in the rainforest. The first couple of sites produced some interesting birds but not the elusive ‘Hunter tick’ we were hoping for. Eventually, after a walk through ‘leech country’, near Buladelah – I picked up three in my sandals! – we struck gold. The well-named Australian Logrunner was running around on a mossy log in the dark depths of the forest. We eventually saw a couple of birds well, but photographing them at 1/5th second not surprisingly produced record shots only. Our second prize came in the form of Varied Triller. This is a species we’ve seen well before in Queensland but here, at Mungo Brush, it is approaching it’s southern limits. We saw three birds – probably a pair with a youngster in tow. On the way home a Square-tailed Kite obligingly drifted across the Pacific Highway – my third Hunter tick of the day – bringing my tally to a dozen for the trip so far!

Nowadays I normally spend New Year’s Day in the NENBC area, doing the club Birding Challenge. The challenge being to get out of bed, get birding and get my New Year’s list off to a good start. This year it’s been a bit different, as we’re down-under in Australia, visiting family. In a gesture of NENBC solidarity I decided to generally stick as close to the ‘rules’ as possible but, since celebrations on New Year’s Eve also involved Dan’s 40th birthday shindig, I opted for a later evening start – to coincide with UK time – followed by a morning session on the 2nd. In total we birded for about six hours, all of which was spent within the Newcastle LGA – essentially birding within the city limits. By the end of the evening session we’d seen around 65 species – this morning we managed to push that total to 106. This involved more ‘heard only’ ticks than I’m used to but Australian bush birding is like that. If I wasn’t sure, after listening to the audio track, then I didn’t count it. That probably cost me another dozen species. Most of the birds were the regular stuff, which we’ve been seeing since our arrival, but I did manage to add a couple of trip ticks. Unquestionably the bird(s) ‘of the day’ was the adult and young Powerful Owl we found this morning deep in a damp gully in Black Butt Reserve. It’s only the third time I’ve seen these monster birds – which mainly feed on Possum – once, about twelve years ago, in very nearly the same spot and once in the ‘go to’ location for UK birders – the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden. Tomorrow we’re off early to try to add a couple more rainforest species to my Hunter list.