ULAGALLA RESORT: A SLICE OF HEAVEN

We spent most of our first three days of the Sri Lanka trip relaxing in the Ulagalla Eco Resort. As well as lots of comforts, there were lots of nice birds around the property. Endemic birds are highlighted in bold.

Most of the birding I did was along a short bike track. The track started in a grassy area with a small stream, on the sides of which I saw a white-breasted waterhen. In the grassy area was also a helipad, and red-wattled lapwings were often resting on the helipad. The track then passed into an area of forest. In this forest I spotted Jerdon's leafbirds, a Sri Lankan junglefowl, oriental white-eyes, white-rumped munias, pale-billed flowerpeckers, purple-rumped sunbirds, rose-ringed parakeets, oriental magpie-robins, red-vented bulbuls and more white-breasted waterhens. The red-vented bulbuls were very common throughout the eco resort, as were spotted doves. After passing through the forest the track came to a paddyfield with wooly-necked storks, Indian pond herons, median egrets, little egrets and openbill storks, before going into more forest. In this last bit of forest, Ceylon green pigeons and green imperial pigeons could be seen eating fruit in trees. While eating dinner, I also observed more birds in a huge dead tree near the swimming pool, and a large, living tree next to the pool. The birds I spotted in the trees were brown shrikes, coppersmith barbets, Indian peafowl, spotted doves, red-vented bulbuls, jungle crows, white-throated kingfishers and blue-tailed bee eaters. Soaring above the property were brahminy kites. Finally, in front of the restaurant was a small lake in which I saw purple herons, openbill storks and plain prinias, and a lawn where I saw a single paddyfield pipit.

RED-VENTED BULBUL

WOOLY-NECKED STORK

WHITE-RUMPED MUNIA

INDIAN PEAFOWL male

SRI LANKAN JUNGLEFOWL male

GREEN IMPERIAL PIGEON

CEYLON GREEN PIGEON

In short, Ulagalla Resort was a perfect place for birding. 

THE AVONDALE HEIGHTS AREA

Though I have blogged about several of the places in the area where I live where I birdwatch, I have not given a whole list of birds and birding places. This post is trying to make up for that.

New Holland honeyeaters, a species of bird very common in the suburb

Around my house, a few birds can be seen. Most of these are described in earlier posts. Near my suburb are the parklands of the Maribrynong area, where there are several good birding spots. Afton Street Conservation Preserve is one of these, and again, there are many previous posts about this place. In the river itself, waterbirds include dusky moorhens, Pacific black ducks, grey teals, chestnut teals, little pied cormorants, hoary-headed grebes, mallards, Australasian grebes, white-faced herons and great cormorants, though a few of these are not usually sighted. Queens Park is a good place to see a lot of these waterbirds, and the other waterbirds not usually seen there can be spotted at Afton Street or in the river.  Common in most of the riverside parklands are birds like willie wagtails, red wattlebirds, Pacific black ducks, red-rumped parrots, rainbow lorikeets, Australian magpies, magpie-larks, little wattlebirds, little pied cormorants, dusky moorhens, white-plumed honeyeaters, superb fairy-wrens, New Holland honeyeaters and little ravens. In Afton Street Conservation Preserve, some other birds can also be spotted as well. Another good spot for forest birds, and a few waterbirds, is Brimbank Park. Some of the birds from these places include yellow-rumped thornbills, brown thornbills, grey fantails, buff-rumped thornbills, long-billed corellas, spotted paradalotes, grey currawongs (vagrant), red-browed finches, flame robins,crimson rosellas, eastern rosellas, Clamorous reed-warblers (I'm not completely sure whether or not they are in the area, but I think there could be some at Afton), silvereyes and Horsefield's bronze-cuckoos.

A dark phase Brown Falcon, one of the commoner raptors of the area

Raptors are not that common in the area, but I have spotted a few. Black-shouldered kites are fairly common in Afton Street, and brown falcons are also found here. Wedge-tailed eagles, little eagles, black kites, whistling kites and Australian hobbies also occur at Afton Street, but are far more uncommon. In the parklands, I have also seen swamp harriers and brown goshawks, but those two species are not common and are rather rare in the area.
One 'bald' myna also lives in my suburb, a myna with a mutation that has caused the feathers to fall off or not grow on its head. This, again, is described in previous posts.

Two introduced House Sparrows with a native Rainbow Lorikeet

A female Flame Robin, a possible vagrant to Afton Street (though they could be residents in the area)

Several introduced birds can also be found in the area. Song thrushes, blackbirds, common starlings, common mynas, rock pigeons, spotted doves, house sparrows and Eurasian tree sparrows are all recorded from the area. Most of the above birds can be found in my garden. The tree sparrows used to be found along a walking track that heads toward the river, but are now sparsely distributed throughout the suburb after some construction work was done on the area near that path. Sometimes they come to my bird feeder and eat with the house sparrows.
Along the river there are several good spots for birding, mostly providing the birds listed for most of the parklands, along with a few of the Brimbank or Afton birds.
Those are the birds of my suburb.

STARLINGS IN MY GARDEN

Of the three species of starling in Australia, 2 can be found in Victoria, and 2 in my garden. The common myna has been discussed in an earlier blog post, but I still have not talked about common starlings in my garden.
The common starling Sturnus vulgaris, like the common myna, is not native to Australia. It is native to Eurasia, and is one of the main introduced bird pests in Australia, though it is not as bad as the common myna. Thankfully, they are fairly rare in the suburb of Melbourne I live in. They are glossy black, with purple and green iridescence and a yellowish bill, as well as reddish feet. In autumn they have large white spots on the tips of their body feathers, and their bills are dark and legs are brown, but these colours and spots decrease with wear. During the breeding season, adults are glossy black and do not have any spots at all. Young birds are a duller grey-brown, and can be very confusing to new birders.
In my garden, common starlings are very rare. They will sometimes come to feed on the lawn, along with flocks of house sparrows and a few spotted doves and common mynas, when we are not in the garden. If we get too close to the windows, then they, along with the other birds in the flocks, will fly away. Sometimes, they can be seen up in the tall eucalyptus trees on the other side of the street my house is on.
Here is a photo of a starling in one of these trees, showing its many white spots.

Search for the Shoveler: The Sequel

Back in 2011, I blogged about trying and failing to spot a vagrant northern shoveler at the Western Treatment Plant. I said I would try again, but the bird flew off too quickly and before I could organise another trip. Well, this year, another shoveler showed up at the Treatment Plant. It was Sunday, we weren't going to do anything, the morning was free, so we all went and tried to spot the shoveler.
At first, I was a bit worried about some Conservation Fires that would be started around Lake Borrie, which is where the shoveler was supposed to be. Unfortunately, by the time we had discovered this we were already at the Treatment Plant. We decided to try birding anyway, but we started out at the Western Lagoons instead. This proved to be a good decision, for it brought me 3 lifers.
As we drove into the lagoons, the calls of golden-headed cisticolas filled the air, as the cisticolas hopped about in the reeds and sang their songs. A black kite flew by overhead, the first of the raptor species we would see that day. We got into the car and drove slowly along Coastal Road. In the second pond of the lagoon, we spotted a flock of banded and white-naped stilts feeding, along with about 8 hoary-headed grebes, before heading on.

A golden-headed cisticola perching on a wire by the side of the road

One of the banded stilts in the flock at the second pond

Soon, we reached another pond, where I spotted hoary-headed and Australasian grebes. At the Treatment Plant, the Australasian grebe is normally seen only in the cleanest of the ponds and is not that common, so I took a photo of the grebe and then we drove on again. It was now that our first lifer showed itself.

An Australasian grebe that was in the pond

My dad quickly stopped the car. I asked him why we had stopped, and he wordlessly pointed to the road. A small flock of finches were feeding on the ground, and I immediately recognised them as my lifer zebra finches!

Most of the birds in the flock were immatures, like the one shown above, but there were also a few adult birds. We chased after the flock as, out at sea, Pacific black ducks and chestnut teals fed with royal spoonbills. Finally, it started to rain and we gave up, deciding to head back home. We drove out of the lagoons, just as it thankfully stopped raining. While getting out of the car to shut the gate, I saw a small bird hop into a pool of water near some reeds. Thinking it might be a crake, I slowly and quietly approached the bird. It darted away swiftly, but not swiftly enough for me not to identify it. It was my second lifer, a little grassbird!

My lifer little grassbird, hopping on a clump of grass

We decided to head back up the road. There were several brown falcons perched on posts. Most of them were the commoner light form, though some of them were dark form birds.

A dark form brown falcon

A light form brown falcon

Just then, we turned around a corner, and there, in the grass, was my third lifer . . .

A SPOTTED HARRIER!

It flew up from the grass, looking for prey, but not quickly enough to escape my camera. Three lifers in one day! I hoped I could spot the shoveler and make that four instead of three.

We drove down to Lake Borrie, ignoring the many Willie wagtails that hopped up and down on the fence. Soon, we had reached the lake. We saw many birders watching for something down at one part of the lake. We drew up to them. We looked. And there, out in the clear water of Lake Borrie were . . .

2 musk ducks.

We waited a little while and asked the birders if they had seen the shoveler. One of them said "I saw it from the other side of the Lake, but I can't find it now." We stayed for a while, but my father had a meeting to go to, so, to the calls of the black-shouldered kites that were hunting overhead, we left the Treatment Plant.

One day, I will get that bird!

LIST OF SPECIES

1. BLACK SWAN

2. PACIFIC BLACK DUCK

3. CHESTNUT TEAL

4. GREY TEAL

5. MUSK DUCK

6. AUSTRALASIAN GREBE

7. HOARY-HEADED GREBE

8. AUSTRALIAN PELICAN

9. WHITE-FACED HERON

10. ROYAL SPOONBILL

11. AUSTRALIAN BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE

12. SWAMP HARRIER

13. SPOTTED HARRIER

14. BLACK KITE

15. PURPLE SWAMPHEN

16. EURASIAN COOT

17. MASKED LAPWING

18. WHITE-NAPED STILT

19. BANDED STILT

20. SILVER GULL

21. BROWN FALCON

22. GALAH

23. RED WATTLEBIRD (in a tree on the way to the treatment plant)

24. BLACK-FACED CUCKOOSHRIKE

25. WILLIE WAGTAIL

26. LITTLE RAVEN

27. WELCOME SWALLOW

28. LITTLE GRASSBIRD

29. GOLDEN-HEADED CISTICOLA

30. ZEBRA FINCH 

LIFERS: 3

NEW BIRDS FOR MY VICTORIA LIST: 4

TARGET BIRD SIGHTINGS: 0

A VISIT TO THE BOTANICAL GARDENS

I am sorry for my long absence, iPhoto was not working so I could not access my photos for this blog. Anyway, recently I went on a trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens with my family as a outing with lunch.

The trip started with us all walking to the ornamental lake, spotting a little wattlebird feeding on some lavender and a common blackbird hiding in a bush. When we got to the lake, I spotted some very tame purple swamphens, Eurasian coots and dusky moorhens on a green, grassy lawn. On a dead branch was a little black cormorant, and far across the lake on a small island were 3 nankeen night herons.

The little black cormorant 

One of the nankeen night herons

As we walked further on, we saw more of the same birds. The ringing calls of bell miners filled the air and we saw some in the tall eucalyptus trees. We reached a small pond and spotted what I believe is a hoary-headed grebe, swimming in the water, as an Australian wood duck grazed on a nearby lawn.

The hoary-headed grebe

An Australian wood duck

We came to a cafe overlooking the lake, and ordered something to eat, namely scones with cream and jam. In the part of the lake the cafe was next to, I spotted chestnut teals, Eurasian coots, Pacific black ducks, dusky moorhens and a single black swan.

A black swan

A male chestnut teal. Females are dull grey-brown, with an orangish-brown breast

After exploring the lake, we walked over to a site named 'Gulliver's Volcano', where there were lots of cool-looking arid area plants, mostly being cacti, but with a few other plants. I saw two pied currawongs fly into a tree.

A Sturt's Desert Pea, the national plant of South Australia, at Gulliver's Volcano

A pied currawong perched into a tree

After that, we went off to the kids garden. In a tree, I spotted a lot of rainbow lorikeets as a little raven walked on the grassy lawns of the ground. Then, we went to the gift shop and I brought a book about birding in Victoria.
All in all, it was a wonderful family outing, though not so wonderful in birds. 

DAY 1 PART 1- AN INTRODUCTION TO SRI LANKAN BIRDS

I had just arrived in the town of Kurunegala, fresh out of the plane to Colombo. It was about 6 am and I could hear the birds singing so I asked my dad if I could go on a quick walk with him to look at the birds. He said yes, so we went.
We had stayed the night at the rather dingy Seasons Hotel, and I was eager to see what was outside. In the garden of the hotel the first bird of the trip started calling-a yellow-billed babbler.

YELLOW-BILLED BABBLER

With the sun behind it it looked very much like an endemic rufous babbler, but when it flew to the ground I soon realised what it was. I kept walking forward and eventually reached a lake. A line of rocks separated a shallow part of the lake from a deeper part. On those rocks were three birds-a common sandpiper, an Indian pond heron and a little egret. I heard a call I remembered from

COMMON SANDPIPER

the last time I had been to Sri Lanka and realised that there was a brown-headed barbet in the tree above me! It quickly flew away. A common kingfisher perched on a twig shot off like an arrow from a bow. I was getting used to the common birds that I had seen on my previous trips to Sri Lanka. A house crow cawed from a wire as three parakeets flew overhead.

HOUSE CROW

Then we got back to the hotel. I was bored, so I opened the balcony door and stepped out, looking for any birds. I looked carefully at a tree and I saw . . .

The endemic Sri Lankan grey hornbill!

They stayed for a while, building a nest in the tree. Perching above the male was the duller female bird. Both flew over to trees and plucked out the leaves. They were there until lunch, when we had to leave to go to Ulagalla Resort, for a whole new world of birding . . .

I'M BACK!

I have just returned from a two week long trip to Sri Lanka. I managed to see several new birds, including some of the endemics. Below is a list of what I did on each day and whether or not I will blog about it.
DAY 1 - Birding Kurunegala and introduction to Ulagalla Resort birds NEW BIRDS: 0  YES
DAY 2-  Birding Ulagalla Resort grounds NEW BIRDS: 0  YES
DAY 3- Birding Ulagalla Resort grounds NEW BIRDS: 2 YES
DAY 4- No birding
DAY 5- No birding
DAY 6- No birding
DAY 7- No birding
DAY 8- No birding
DAY 9- No birding
DAY 10- Birding Horton Plains NP NEW BIRDS: 6 YES
DAY 11- Birding Bandarawela Garden NEW BIRDS: 1 YES
DAY 12- No birding
DAY 13- No birding
DAY 14- Birding Sinharaja NEW BIRDS: 7 YES
DAY 15- Return to Australia

I saw 16 lifers and 11 of them were endemic birds.