Hillarys Pelagic 01/04/2012

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The recent Hillarys Pelagic netted me three new birds for my list:

  • Streaked Shearwater (many seen, easily the highlight of the trip);
  • Wilson’s Storm Petrel (a brilliant little bird but almost impossible to photograph);
  • Bridled Tern (great views near the boat).
After my last pelagic experience (I felt very seedy….) I was reluctant to go on this trip.  It turns out sea sickness tablets do work (I took some the day before) and seeing cool birds early in the trip takes your mind off “other things”.  I’m glad I went.

Check out Leeuwin Current Birding for discussion of the Streaked Shearwaters.  These move my lifelist onto 265.

Edit: here is the official trip report.

Two days, two new birds

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These two birds are the latest additions to my life list, taking it to 262:

  • 261: White Wagtail (Lake Joondalup, WA, 23/03/2012);
  • 262: Red-browed Finch (Carmel, WA, 24/03/2012).
Seeing a White Wagtail was an unexpected surprise as I had previously dipped on one (perhaps the same bird) at Lake Gwelup in January.  I didn’t think lightning would strike twice as the White Wagtail is a fairly rare vagrant to Australia (let alone Perth).  I happened to be travelling near Lake Joondalup when I heard that Martin and John had relocated it and after a short detour (probably about 20 minutes) I had seen the bird (many thanks to Wayne Merritt for finding the bird the day before).
The Red-browed Finch was a slightly different story.  I had known of the existence of an introduced but self-sustaining population in the hills of Perth for a number of years.  Despite living very close by for the last three years I had never gotten the chance (or organised the chance) to find them.  So Martin, Alan, John and myself convened a meeting of The Big Twits at the Melville Nursery Rose Gardens in Carmel and spent a few hours talking and walking amongst the roses looking for finches.  After about an hour of searching I was rewarded with great views of a Red-browed Finch.  Other notable birds at the Rose Gardens were Red-eared Firetails, Nankeen Night-herons and Western Spinebills.

Birding Targets (2012 edition)

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Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata, Karratha, WA, Australia).  Successfully framed inside the mesh fence (and cropped).

At the prompting of Alan, here is a list of the birds that I am looking for at the moment.  I have included some species that are possible if I go to site with my new job.

  • Freckled Duck (Stictonetta naevosa);
  • Chestnut Teal (Anas castanea), I’m still checking all the Grey Teals I see;
  • Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia), beginning to think these are fictitious;
  • Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus);
  • Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus);
  • Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii);
  • Mulga Parrot (Psephotus varius);
  • Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus), not sure how I’ve managed to avoid this one;
  • Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus);
  • Redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus);
  • Gilbert’s Whistler (Pachycephala inornata);
  • Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus), a somewhat embarrassing hole in my list;
  • Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis), got to go check out that feral population in the hills…

Hooded Plovers

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Hooded Plover (Thinornis rubricollis, Lake Pollard, WA, Australia).  Image has been cropped and sharpened.

Thanks to the expert guidance of John Graff I finally caught up with a pair of these fantastic little birds – Hooded Plovers.  The 6km (round trip) walk to Lake Pollard was well worth the effort.  Also of note were the incredible numbers of Australian Shelduck (2500+) and Black Swans (1500+) on Lake Pollard.  These Hooded Plovers take my bird life list to 258.

(2^8) + 1

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Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia, Lake Joondalup, Western Australia).  Photograph has been cropped.

After attempting (and failing) to twitch the White Wagtail at Lake Gwelup, Alan Collins and myself checked out Lake Joondalup for the Intermediate Egret that was reported there.  We found the bird relatively easily as it moved about on a large patch of weed/grass.  This takes my life list to 257!  Interestingly, in the last fortnight or so I have doubled the number of egret species I have seen (*).

* I had actually seen three egrets prior to adding the Cattle Egret and Intermediate Egret (I had forgotten about the Eastern Reef Egret).  Thanks Alan!

Recent Bird Sightings

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Here are a few recent (and one not-so-recent) sightings:

  • Eastern Cattle Egret (finally at Lake Richmond, I have been looking for one of these for a while);
  • Broad-billed Sandpiper (in a flock of Red-necked Stint at Nairns);
  • Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (a member of the long-established feral posse at Lake McLarty, not a very satisfying tick but a tick nonetheless);
  • Red Knot at Nairns (have seen these before but this was a fantastic view alongside Great Knot);
  • Gull-billed Tern at Karratha (seen a few years back but finally ID’d by photo).

The first four birds were seen on a Lake McLarty/Nairns area trip with Alan Collins and John Graff.  This takes my life list (Western Australia & Australia) to 256 species.  A nice, neat number for a nerd like me…

And I finally pass 250!

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Brown Songlark (Cincloramphus cruralis, near Wongan Hills, WA, Australia).

With the sighting of a Common Tern at Cape Lambert (identified by John Graff and Alan Collins via a series of photographs) and many Brown Songlarks at Wongan Hills I have finally passed the 250 bird mark for my Western Australia list.  I am now on 251.

My Apple History

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With the passing of Steve Jobs, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the impact Apple Computers has had on me.  Here is a rundown of my “main computer” Macs.  I haven’t included those acquired for my (rather out-of-control) collection.

  • It all started in the mid-1990s and involves playing the original version of Cyan’s Myst with Simon Wright on his Apple clone (the brand was Umax if my memory serves me correctly).  Simon and I used to prepare all our group assignments on this setup (he had a scanner and a printer as well I think).  This got me hooked on all things Apple.
  • In the mid-1990s my folks bought us a second hand Apple Macintosh IIci (8MB/80MB) from Simon’s Dad’s work.  It was fantastic.  Mum and Dad then splashed out and bought a brand new StyleWriter 1200!  I still have the IIci and StyleWriter.  Years later I discovered the IIci had come with a Nubus ethernet card, making it even cooler.  The IIci remains my favourite Apple product.
  • After a few years of University studies I purchased (for a ridiculously high price) a Performa 5400 (160MHz/32MB/1.6GB).  Not one of my better decisions.  I foolishly chose the higher clocked 603-based Mac over the slower clocked 604-based one.  I bought my first (of many) boxed Mac OS version for the 5400 – Mac OS 8.5 (I updated to 8.6 by downloading all of the disk images over a 33.6 modem).  I did get it to boot MkLinux from a 250MB Zip Disk (once).
  • Early in the piece I purchased (for about $500 I think) my first PowerBook, a PowerBook 150 (4MB/500MB).  I sold it a few years later.  I spent a while trying to find more RAM for it but had no luck at all.  I now have a handful in my collection…
  • My next PowerBook was a PowerBook 1400 (133MHz/Passive Matrix Screen/40MB/1.3GB) and a PowerCD (as the 1400 had no internal CD drive).  I sold the PowerBook a while later but have kept the PowerCD.  I think I paid about $1400 for this.  The 1400 also ran MkLinux briefly…  Needless to say I have kept the reasonably rare and unusual AppleCD in my collection.
  • For the last few years of Uni I had a Lombard G3 PowerBook (400MHz/192MB/6GB) until upgrading to a brand new PowerBook G4 12″ 1GHz (256GB/40GB).  Later I upgraded the RAM to 768MB and the hard disk to 320GB.  This is the only new Macintosh I have ever bought.
  • The latest upgrade (nearly three years ago now) was a second hand MacBook 2.16GHz (2GB/120GB).  I later upgraded the hard disk to 320GB.  I’m currently typing this post on it!  It has been a good work horse.
  • I guess I should also include the iOS devices.  I started with a 2nd Generation iPod Touch (8GB), followed with an iPhone 4 (16GB Black, I was a late adopter) and the latest acquisition has been an iPad 2 (Black/Wifi-only/16GB).  They are incredible pieces of kit.
For the record I think it is perfectly normal to remember the specifications of all computers you have owned.

Bird List Anomalies

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There are a few anomalies in my birding list.  I’m referring to families or groups of birds where I have seen a member that is rare (or difficult to find) yet I am missing “straightforward” members.  Here are a few:

  • Terns:  I have seen an Arctic Tern (a rare vagrant to Perth) yet I am yet to see a Bridled Tern or a Roseate Tern (both semi-regular along the coast near Perth);
  • Emu-wrens: I have seen a Rufous-crowned Emu-wren (apparently a potentially difficult bird to find) but not a Southern Emu-wren (relatively common along the south coast of WA);
  • Ducks: I have seen a Northern Pintail (the third record for WA – BARC accepted) but not a Freckled Duck (probably the hardest resident/regular duck to find in Perth but still… Northern Pintail?!?).

I am fortunate to have a group of very talented birding friends: these people are the source of most of my rarities and are fantastic companions when I do get out and about birding.  One way or another they are all involved in the “rare” or difficult to find birds in the list above.  I’ve just got to search out all the common birds missing on my list now…

Arctic Tern at Hillarys

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Bird number 248 on my life list is a successfully twitched Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) that has somehow found its way to Hillarys Boat Harbour.  Arctic Terns are rare visitors here and this particular bird has been hanging around for most of the week.  John Graff and I saw it in the late afternoon as it meandered its way around the harbour walls amongst the Silver Gulls.  The bird was quite cooperative and performed several close flybys for us before perching on a jetty post.

I took a lot of photographs but the fading light (and weather closing in) has meant that not a lot are very sharp.  Thankfully they are good enough for me to convince myself of what I am looking at!  Below is the best photograph of a rather ordinary bunch that I took.

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Only two more birds to go and I hit the magical 250!