Birding Gold Coast- Days 3 and 4

We woke up early, ready for a second try at the owlet-nightjar and lyrebird on the Border Track. We quickly got ready and rushed to the Border Track. To skip the long sentences-
Our First Try- FAIL- All that was seen were logrunners and the other usual birds
Our Second Try- HIT!- Not only did we get a glimpse of the lyrebird (but not a pic), we also spotted a rose robin and more logrunners on this try!
Our Third Try- HIT! We finally spotted that pesky owlet-nightjar! Plus, we heard the green catbird!
In other words, we managed to see one of the star birds of O'Reilly's, plus two bonus lifers!

 A painting of the display of the beautiful Albert's lyrebird

 Can you see the owlet-nightjar?

After our successes, we drove back to the Gold Coast. The road was long and winding, but since it wasn't raining we managed to survive, birding along the way. As we were driving in the eucalypts, something big and black flew into a nearby tree. It could only be one thing- Glossy black cockatoos! 

The glossy black cockatoo. This is a male, females have yellowish spots on their heads. 

 After that, we kept our eyes peeled, and soon spotted pretty-faced wallabies!

 After we got through the winding roads, the landscape was mostly farmland. Black-faced cuckoo-shrikes were everywhere. Just then, we startled a beautiful parrot. PALE-FACED ROSELLA!

This is a bad photo of a beautiful bird- the pale-faced rosella!
Soon we got to our hotel in Surfer's Paradise, and ate at the Revolving Restaurant. My mother got sick on oysters. I think she got shellfish poisoning. She's still crying about it here at home!

DAY 4
We woke up at 5:55. Like a military commander, I got the others to wake up. We had whale-watching! What really got me excited was the chance to see seabirds, and the 100% whale sightings guarantee! We were not dissapointed- when we got past the rough water, 5 whales started swimming around the boat! One even breached! They were all southern humpback whales, with a few common bottlenose dolphins swimming near them. Flying in the ocean were Australasian gannets, as well as a lifer, a WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER!

I'm pretty sure this is a wedge-tailed shearwater. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

 As we got back in to the Gold Coast area, we could see heaps of great crested terns, little pied cormorants, silver gulls and white-faced herons on the sandy spit. A fitting end to this great trip.

Crested terns and silver gulls.

BIRDING GOLD COAST- DAY 2- PRIVATE GUIDING

Before going out to guiding, we stayed back and wondered around the discovery center. Outside was a beautiful wonga pigeon that I managed to photograph.

 After that our guide, Glen, came. He was amazing. He just called and all of the birds we had so much trouble trying to photograph in the rain just came right up. Eastern yellow robins, Lewin's honeyeaters, white-browed scrubwrens, yellow-masked scrubwrens, brush turkeys, grey shrike-thrushes, wonga pigeons, they all came up.

 Eastern yellow robin

 A Lewin's Honeyeater

 A grey shrike-thrush, common in forests in most of Australia.

A yellow-masked scrubwren on the path
We ventured deeper into the forest along the Border Track, hoping to see a rare Albert's Lyrebird. About halfway along we came across a logrunner's nest. At one point the track forked, and we took the right-hand fork. We soon reached a tree. It was supposed to have an Australian owlet-nightjar in it. The nightjar was either in another hole or just hiding. We came to a loop, where the fun started. We met the world's only tame eastern whip-bird, Mister Whippy.

Mister Whippy on a vine. This guy was so tame he even landed on my hand!
We continued walking, along the tree-top boardwalk. When we got to the ground we saw some logrunners scratching about for food. Glen got them to move into the light so we could photograph them. There were both male and female logrunners.

A female logrunner. The males have white throats

Unfortunately, we didn't see any lyrebirds. After lunch at the cafe, we watched a short documentary about the Albert's lyrebird. We also saw the flight show. We were mobbed by hordes of crimson rosellas and Australian king parrots. At a feeding table there were also red-browed finches. 

Eventually, we all drove to the Old Python Rock track, where a tame male lyrebird called 'George' had once lived. Now that George had died, there were 5 not-so-tame lyrebirds hanging around. We heard a lot of mimicking. The lyrebirds mimicked birds like the paradise riflebird and eastern whipbird, but we never managed to spot one. Never mind. But we still weren't done! After relaxing in the room, we ate dinner and headed to the 6:30 spotlight tour. Rain meant that we didn't see much. However, we managed to see the ever-present glowworms, a ring-tailed possum and a brush-tailed possum. 

A brush-tailed possum caught on camera

We had a great time on our second day at O'Reilly's. 

BIRDING THE GOLD COAST- DAY 2- EARLY MORNING WALK

We recently went to the Gold Coast to birdwatch for my birthday. On our first day we spent two and a half hours driving from Surfer's Paradise to the wonderful O'Reilly's resort, in darkness and heavy rain, on a wildly bending road. We arrived at the resort in darkness, had dinner and slept. This story begins from waking up at 5:40 AM for the early bird walk. 
We started the day by waking up and getting ready. At 6:30 we went out for our early morning bird walk. Despite the rain, our guide put out a feeder for the birds. Almost immediately heaps of male and female regent and satin bowerbirds, along with a Lewin's honeyeater and a pied currawong, flew up to the feeder.

 The splendid black and gold of the male regent bowerbird

 And the beautiful dark blue of the satin bowerbird

Joining this pied currawong for breakfast!

We continued on, walking down the first part of the border track. Bad conditions forced us to stop, but not before we had seen white-browed scrubwrens, yellow-throated scrubwrens, southern logrunners and eastern yellow robins. We decided to try and spot more birds in the other part of the resort. Eastern whip-birds, Australian brush turkeys, wonga pigeons, crimson rosellas and brown thornbills joined the list, as a red-necked pademelon, a relative of the kangaroo, hopped by. We soon ran off for breakfast, ready for our private guided tour- but that's another story.

 A red-necked pademelon out on the lawn at O'Reilly's.

Another common resident around the guesthouse is this Australian brush turkey.

A VISIT TO HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY

Today we got to visit another zoo, Healesville Sanctuary! Remember all the photos here are of wild birds that have flown into the open enclosures, except a few that I noted below.
We started the day by going to my sister's Ballet class. After that, we drove to Healesville, stopping for lunch on the way. It took us ages to find a carpark.
As we entered the park two of the most common birds of the area could be seen- wild galahs and common bronzewing pigeons were foraging in the emu enclosure, and on a lawn were a few Australian white ibises.

 A wild galah, these birds are common

 A common bronzewing pigeon. Look for these birds in the emu enclosure.

An Australian white ibis.

After spotting the bronzewings and galahs, we went to the flight show. As usual, I found it very entertaining. Below is a picture of the captive barking owl with a zookeeper.
FACTS ABOUT OWLS MENTIONED IN THE SHOW-
- One of their ears is slightly higher than the other
- They can only see black-and-white
- They have good night vision (you probably knew that)
- They have good hearing

After the flight show we went to the 'Luna's Secret Forest' exhibit, which teaches little kids about the Leadbeater's possum, an endangered possum that can only be found in the mountain forests of Victoria.   On the way to the exhibit, my mum spotted a small bird in a tree. I zoomed in with my camera and realized what it was- a Lewin's honeyeater, a lifer!

A rather bad photo of a Lewin's honeyeater

After that we went to the Platypusary because my sister was doing a story about platypuses for the school Science Talents Search competition. After that we went home. All in all, it was a great day, with an unexpected lifer. 

If you want more about birding in Melbourne and Werribee Open Range zoos, have a look at my other posts on birding in the Victorian zoos. 

That should sum it up. 

A VISIT TO WERRIBEE ZOO

I am, so far, the ONLY person who has blogged about birding in Werribee Zoo (not to boast). Today we went to the open range zoo.
We started the day with a safari trip. On the trip, we saw the usual captive animals and got rather close to the Giraffes. Of course, this is a BIRDING blog so I won't be mentioning them, you can take a look at them on the zoo website. In a lake which the zebras were drinking from I spotted several white-faced herons, a masked lapwing and two magpie geese. Magpie geese are considered threatened in Victoria, but can often be seen on safaris at Werribee. In the hippo lake I managed to see a Australasian grebe swimming.

 A magpie goose

 An Australasian grebe
After the safari tour, we went on the African carnivore walk. At the hippo section, there were a few chestnut teals. Just then, I saw something on the mud at the edge of the lake. It was a bird I had only seen twice before, a black-fronted dotterel!

 The black-fronted dotterel
After that we went and saw the night serval cat presentation and some fire-dancing before we went home. We had a great time at the zoo.

A serval cat with a zookeeper, 

Birding Sri Lanka- Thalangama Tank Part 3

While in Colombo, I managed to squeeze in a bit of birding and go to Thalangama a few times with a few family friends. This is another Thalangama Tank trip report. As usual, we started very early.We walked up a small creek that flowed into a large lake. I managed to see purple swamphens, pheasant-tailed jacanas and some tiny tadpole-like animals here.Apparently 3 species of kingfisher can be found at Thalangama- the common, white-throated and pied kingfishers. We had gone up the creek to try and find one. When we came back along the creek we got an interesting bonus- a secretive yellow bittern and a water monitor lizard swimming.

                                   A water monitor. These lizards are common at Thalangama.
 We soon got back to the main lake. At the lake we saw the usual birds- yellow bitterns, white-breasted waterhens (like moorhens, but they have white bellies), purple herons, little cormorants, pond herons and various egrets. Unfortunately, we couldn't spot any leaf monkeys. For information on most of those birds and other animals, you can look at my other posts on Thalangama. The birds I haven't shown before are shown below.

                                             A pond heron in breeding plumage

                                                     A white-breasted waterhen

                       An Oriental Darter (this bird was in a tree, nesting with some purple herons)

                                                            A purple heron

                                                     A pheasant-tailed jacana
I enjoyed being able to show two more people the magic of this wetland just a few kilometers away from the center of Colombo. It was a great day birding, and I also managed to get a very good shot of an oriental darter.
 I think that pretty much sums it up.

Sorry about my absence

I am very sorry about my long absence from this blog. I was mourning the death of my grandmother in Sri Lanka. My family and I went overseas for her funeral. Now I should still be posting about my birding adventures. Thank you for putting up with me, Chanith.