LONG WEEKEND IN MILDURA

For the Anzac Day long weekend this year, my family and I travelled to Mildura to meet up with cousins. Since there are several good birding sites in the area, I decided to visit one of them while I was there: namely, the saltbush around the suburb of Ned's Corner. On the way towards Mildura we stopped at Lake Tyrrell but didn't stay for long enough to see any birds.

Lake Tyrrell is Victoria's largest salt lake, it was beautiful in the setting sun

The area was extremely peaceful: while in the saltbush we saw only a single other car. We birded by driving slowly along, stopping when something interesting could be seen. The most prominent creatures in the saltbush were not birds, but mammals: Western grey kangaroos. Towards the end of our trip we also saw a small emu crossing the road! A variety of little birds fed in the scrub. Australasian pipits were most common, along with lifer southern whitefaces and an odd wren I'm identifying as a female white-winged fairy-wren. Where trees dotted the saltbush, we saw multiple lifer blue bonnets, though they were too distant to get any particularly good photos. On the way out we came across a gigantic flock of little corellas and galahs, along with several red-rumped parrots and crested pigeons.
We didn't have enough time to properly explore the area and it is certainly a site I will be visiting again.

Around Melbourne Western grey kangaroos are replaced by their eastern variant

A distant and blurry shot of a blue bonnet, a species of parrot found in saltbush

The lack of an eye-ring makes me believe this is a female white-winged fairy wren

Thankfully southern whitefaces are far easier to identify

Little corellas are very noisy birds and also extremely social

LORD HOWE ISLAND: The Pelagic

On our third day on the island, we went for a boat trip with Jack Shick and Ian Hutton, headed towards Balls Pyramid.
Our first stop was an area of rocks below cliffs on the northern side of the island. Here there were many breeding red-tailed tropicbirds. Apparently the wandering tattler is sometimes seen on these rocks, however we could only find a few ruddy turnstones. The next stop was Roach Island, part of a small group of islands off the shore of Lord Howe. There were many masked boobies breeding on the island, with terns such as common noddies, black noddies and even grey ternlets flying around the island's cliffs.

This shot of a distant red-tailed tropicbird was taken later on from land

This young masked booby swam near our boat after falling into the water

The area around Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands is Australia's only site for grey ternlet

When we came to the seas around Mount Gower, we saw a large amount of Providence petrels feeding in the water. We also got a great view of the cliff face of Mount Gower.

The forested slopes of Mount Gower were beautiful in the afternoon light

Thousands of Providence petrels nest atop Mount Gower: a few can be seen here

This blurred and cropped shot of a Providence petrel does the bird no justice

Later on, when we were nearing Balls Pyramid, we stopped and put chum (a mixture of fish guts) in the water. This immediately attracted many flesh-footed shearwaters, as well as a few white-bellied storm petrels.

As we neared Balls Pyramid we got a beautiful view of the rock stack

The white-bellied storm petrel is another specialty of Lord Howe

A white-bellied storm petrel flies over a flesh-footed shearwater

This flesh-footed shearwater was quick to fly towards the chum

When we circled Balls Pyramid there were many nesting black noddies, common noddies and grey ternlets, as well as flesh-footed shearwaters circling the boat. Several noddies and ternlets flew near the boat for a few seconds to check us out, before darting away.

Balls Pyramid was even more spectacular from close range

On the way back we saw a group of swimming Bottlenose Dolphins, some flying fish and a distant wedge-tailed shearwater.

LORD HOWE ISLAND: The Airstrip

The paddocks and airstrip around the Lord Howe Airport are home to a variety of waders and waterbirds. Cycling the road towards the airport brought us right next to the airstrip, for close views of these species. I saw bar-tailed godwits, masked lapwings, ruddy turnstones, Pacific golden plovers and a distant whimbrel. Perched atop wooden poles were also many welcome swallows and a sacred kingfisher. From the car taking us back to the airport on our last day, I saw a larger selection of birds. While passing a lagoon I could see a group of hybrid mallard x Pacific black duck ducks. Some introduced magpie-larks were present in the field around the airport. Finally, just before the entrance to the airport I saw some self-introduced purple swamphens.

This bar-tailed godwit was part of a mixed species flock

Pacific golden plovers were abundant all over the airstrip

Ruddy turnstones were also present in large numbers

This sacred kingfisher seemed unfazed by my presence

LORD HOWE ISLAND: The Coast and Reef

The beaches around Lord Howe are of particularly great quality. The one we spent most time around was Ned's Beach. This beach is known for its population of tame fish, used to being hand-fed by tourists. I noticed many silver drummers, sand mullet, yellow-green wrasse, green-blocked wrasse, spangled emperors, Australian salmon and even a few endemic doubleheader wrasse. While wading into the water with my camera I managed to photograph several different species swimming around.

A yellow-green wrasse (top) swimming with a green-blocked wrasse (bottom)

Red-tipped urchins like this one are common in the waters around Lord Howe

This sea cucumber (Holothurian leucospilota) is also an abundant species

I believe this large fish to be a young spangled emperor

The silver grunter is known locally as the stinker, as its flesh is said to taste disgusting

Sand mullet such as this one were common around pretty much all the beaches we visited

We only saw one of these eastern garfish and after feeding we couldn't locate it

Another place we viewed life from on the island coast was the jetty. Just below the jetty, before our pelagic left, I saw a massive black stingray swimming around.

Apparently black rays like this one are a common sight around the jetty

A variety of birds also inhabit the areas around the coast. Ned's Beach was home to a small population of migrant ruddy turnstones and I also saw a distant Nankeen kestrel hunting around the cliffs there. Around the jetty Ian Hutton showed me a colony of wedge-tailed shearwaters and we weighed their chicks to collect data, however I didn't get any photos of the babies.

Several breeding plumaged ruddy turnstones on the beach allowed great views

At North Bay, a pristine beach we visited on a snorkelling tour, there was a mixed colony of black noddies and common noddies. There were also several distant sooty terns flying around North Bay, along with a single juvenile tern that didn't seem to know how to fly.

This juvenile sooty tern most likely died soon after this photo, as it couldn't fly

A large flock of roosting common noddies, with several black noddies in the foreground

Finally, white terns were common wherever we went, using the large Norfolk pines near the lagoon beach as nesting sites. In the morning about 60 terns could be seen wheeling over the lagoon. Though none of the terns were laying eggs, some of the terns had chicks.

Lord Howe Island is one of only a few places in Australia where white terns breed

These two white terns were squawking angrily at each other

While we were on the island this little tern chick fledged and left its nest

We saw this chick at Wilson's Bike Shop: some of the locals run 'tern orphanages'

The reef of Lord Howe Island was also extremely beautiful. We went snorkelling and glass-bottom boating in the reef 4 times over our stay. Apart from a myriad of different fish, highlights included seeing a young Galapagos shark, watching a Cook's scorpionfish camouflage into the reef bed, getting close views of a swimming green sea turtle and enjoying the colours of a rather tame Moorish idol. Unfortunately since I don't have a waterproof camera I wasn't able to photograph any of this, though I did my best through the glass bottom of the boat.

The face and ridged shell of this turtle identify it as a hawksbill sea turtle

We saw several green sea turtles through the bottom of the boat

This shot of the reef shows several endemic Lord Howe butterflyfish in the background

This photo does the amazing colours of these corals no justice

This male green sea turtle (named Anchor) surfaced right next to our boat

LORD HOWE ISLAND: The Forests

Recently my mother, my sister and I travelled to Lord Howe Island as an early birthday trip. It was extremely successful and I managed to see most of my target species, as well as doing some great snorkelling in the island's reefs. As I did with my Wilson Promontory trip, I'm going to split this trip report up into a list of different sites on the island: particularly the habitats I explored.
Most of Lord Howe Island is covered in forest, be it replanted forest or the thicker and more pristine forests atop Mount Gower. This forest is home to a variety of unique subspecies of bird, as well as one surviving endemic, the Lord Howe woodhen. Over my 6 day stay on the island I managed to see many of these, as well as introduced blackbirds and song thrushes.

Emerald doves are much tamer on Lord Howe Island than they are in Sri Lanka

This pied currawong was very tame and even took a grub from my hand

Some split the Lord Howe subspecies of the silvereye as an endemic species

Unfortunately I only managed this shot of a female golden whistler on Lord Howe

The golden whistler (subspecies contempta), silvereye (subspecies tephropleurus), buff-banded rail and emerald dove are common throughout the island. Less abundant is the pied currawong (subspecies crissalis), though it is still not hard to find along certain tracks. Along a Ron's Ramble walk we were introduced to a tame bird who allowed us to hand-feed him grubs.
My main target species in the Lord Howe forests was the Lord Howe woodhen. This endemic and flightless rail was once near extinction, though now roughly 300 birds inhabit the island. Again our best views of this species were on a Ron's Ramble walk, where we met 3 tame birds who ate seeds near our feet.

Though mainly nocturnal, Lord Howe woodhens are still often seen during the day

Many other creatures inhabited Lord Howe as well, particularly near the coasts . . .