Eyre Bird Observatory Report - February 2016 to April Buried and flying treasures at Eyre s Sand Patch

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1 Eyre Bird Observatory Report - February 2016 to April 2016 Buried and flying treasures at Eyre s Sand Patch We have been privileged to be back at the magical spot as volunteer caretakers for the past 3 months after an absence of two years, not quite, as we did have a brief visit in November 2015, attending the annual Bird Studies Techniques course.. After an extremely dry January with only 6mm of rain we were blessed with 32mm on our first two days, thanks to the tail end of a northern cyclone. The downside was a fierce wind which resulted in our first of many interesting encounters with special people. Just offshore, a bright orange catamaran dropped anchor and was giving its occupants a giddy ride. When they couldn t stand the rocking any longer, and after we had had two frantic calls from them regarding the weather, they made their escape with their dinghy ashore and came to visit us. The Verbeek couple sail for nine months of the year and for three months each year, he works as a stone mason They did manage to sail off to Twilight Cove later in the day to shelter there from the knot winds. The Eyre Repair Team visited us in early February, it was somewhat of an upheaval, as the kitchen tops were being sanded and revarnished and a new mixer-tap installed amongst a lot of other repair work. Crayfish feast for the hardworking ER Team thanks to John and Peter finish the new floor in the Honeymoon Vince, the cray fisherman. suite and VIP room before the partition is replaced. What a great team, they worked tirelessly and tried their best to make life easier on the catering side. 7 Hardworking people to be kept energised with the kitchen in turmoil was a challenge Being such an appreciative audience on both sides we got on well and the kitchen is looking marvellous as is the Honeymoon and VIP suites which got makeovers. Vince, the Crayfish fisherman, provided a feast one night and there was a bit of excitement here and there with a visiting Death Adder and Danie s first relocation experience. On leaving they got a fitting send-off from the Cockatoos with highwire performances and flypasts. Later in the month, just after a nasty incident in South Australia involving tourists, coming back from a Burnabbie Log, we met the Police. They had been to see us to look for three young French tourists who had sent out an emergency call. The RFDS and two other helicopters standing by. They were supposed to be 10km south of Cocklebiddy. That would be Twilight Cove, so the police were on their way there. The next day, at Cocklebiddy, we spoke to the French driver, sporting a reflecting red tan, he had left his girlfriend and friend in the car with their water and wearing only a tank top in 39 C, started out to find help. They were stuck on the track at Twilight Cove. He was lucky when he got a signal on his phone after walking for 10 km. That was around 11am. We met the Eucla policemen on

2 the track at 4pm when they were looking for them. They were brought in at 9pm on Thursday evening. Lucky escape. Our first serious birders, two young ecologists arrived in a soggy downpour, were not to be daunted and over the next couple of days between spits got an impressive bird list. Other visitors were given a bit of a raptor feast as the Brown Falcon and Brown Goshawk took turns at the bath. At one stage to our astonishment the Goshawk hovered in the air next to the Possum box on the telegraph line and felt with its feet if there was something in it. Now we know why that particular possum box is uninhabited. Wedge-tailed Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel and Collared Sparrowhawk all put in appearances on other hot days. Danie has given the garden a serious makeover, it is looking marvellous and most visitors comment on it. Hugh and Kate Greenhill and Neil and Lee Russell from South Australia overlapped a day or two, gave Danie invaluable advice on the garden, Neil is a farmer and Hugh and Kate live rural. The Greenhills donated a beautiful book on Plant Life on the Sandplains of Western Australia A Global Hotspot and we enjoyed Neil s farm fresh eggs. Just after the middle of March one of those extraordinary things in life happened to us, in that I lost my diamond Engagement/Wedding ring somewhere between EBO and Cocklebiddy on a Friday food run. Apart from the fact that the ring had been made by myself in my earlier professional days it is valuable. I had put hand cream on my hands in the Ute on the way to Cocklebiddy, put the ring in my lap or pocket and forgot about it, and only realised in the afternoon I no longer had it. I was devastated, the whole community rallied and Vince immediately organised a metal detector to come from 300km away and promised not to drag the track, which he has to do regularly to get his Crayfish out undamaged. If it was in my lap, I often jump out on the way to log birds, it was lying somewhere in the sand to become a future persons bit of luck in Eyre s Sand Patch, if in my pocket it could have dropped out anywhere as well. As it turned out before the metal detector arrived Vince came to tell us the ring had been found by a young electrician, Thomas Tesselaar working on the cables at Cocklebiddy, and handed in to the owner. We have since met this outstanding young man and are indebted to him. Even our guests at the time Raghu Sathyamurthy and Fiona McCarthy rallied to help. Raghu used Garmin handheld navigational tools intensively in his research, is an excellent birder too and helped Danie plot our stopping places on the North Track from his GPS. We have had so many varied and interesting visits, all our great guests cannot be mentioned, the last one I have to mention is Ralph Paramor who presented a Stargazing course here about 20 years ago, he finally got around to bringing his wife Carol to look at EBO after thinking about it for years, and both thoroughly enjoyed the visit and us their great company. He was very pleased to recognise and use a pair of binoculars he donated to EBO. We have once again made a lot of friends forever. The birds have been extraordinary this year starting with the Major Mitchell s Cockatoos who had just finished breeding around the time of our arrival at the end of January, and the air was alive daily with their squawks and the juveniles sometimes constant begging for food. We often counted up to sixty in the air above us in the mornings, as on the morning when Wendy and Alan (the outgoing caretakers) departed. A flock of at least sixty five in number screeching their goodbye above our heads in a flurry of pink and cerise giving them a fitting send-off. And then one morning they perched in the trees on the western side of the house, more than 100. They gave a fair number of visitors fabulous shows with their constant antics on the old telegraph wires, the Photo - Delene van Dyk washing lines and especially the lightning deflector on the roof, which they would fight for and then twirl in a circle hanging from their beaks, sometimes strung out in a row of three. They would also come in to land like aeroplanes with lowered speed, undercarriage down, flaps out (more like flap flapping) and as they set down, miss their footing, go tumbling earthwards, then look up in pure surprise, squawking out displeasure.

3 In early March, a raucous flock of 40 came screeching over the dunes from the sea to the house, with a White-bellied Sea Eagle amongst them. First thought was that he was going to help himself to a pink meal, unusual, when two Ravens appeared behind him. The group split up with the Cockies going in one or two directions and the Sea Eagle in another back towards the sea with the Ravens in hot pursuit. This was witnessed by two lucky guests who managed to capture the incident on photos. The Cockatoos were about in large numbers for more than two months of our stay here, the young ones practicing their skills. Their numbers have now dwindled as they have dispersed and their much lower number count visits are irregular and on a few colder or wetter days completely absent. Our stint is almost over but we have a short while left to enjoy this most pleasant, peaceful special place before we say See you again! Danie & Delene van Dyk. All photos courtesy Delene van Dyk SIGHTINGS February to - April 2016 Photos by Delene van Dyk unless stated otherwise After an extremely dry January with only 6mm of rain we were blessed with 33mm on our first two days and in the latter part of February over 2 days with 36mm rain as incoming caretakers at EBO. The rain that arrived with us brought about feeding episodes in the air and on the ground almost constantly. We only had to listen to the sound of many birds, get ourselves there and was almost guaranteed good sightings of a lot of birds. The aerial feeders madly swooping and Rainbow Beeeaters, Dusky Woodswallows, Black-faced Cuckoo Shrikes, Welcome Swallows and Tree Martins (in lesser numbers than previous months as they seem to have started moving to warmer climes) constantly overhead. The Fork-tailed Swifts were around for some days as well. On one of the feeding episodes along the North track there were hundreds of pardalotes, weebills, silvereyes, wrens, so many small birds together seldom seen, and a lot of honeyeaters as well. The madness has abated now, with regular feeding episodes happening, the Bee-eaters have moved on and the Cuckoo Shrikes number few. Three times now the Malleefowl have been seen. On spotting their tracks on the North track the first sighting was in early March, a single bird on the track. Then on the 28 th March two in the home zone at the Rope Walk, a male and a female. The last sighting, two again, on the North track on the 12 th April, coming across them at around the 3km mark, one crossed the track and on trying to get a look at it, the other came across resulting in a good photograph again. Malleefowl at Eyre The Major Mitchell s Cockatoos had just finished breeding around the time of our arrival at the end of January, and the air was alive daily with their squawks and the juveniles sometimes constant begging for food. We got used to seeing flocks of 40 to 70 birds in the air and one morning we counted more than 100 perched in the dead trees to the West of the house. The Cockatoos were about in large numbers for more than two months of our stay here, the young ones practicing their skills and thrilling

4 the visitors to EBO. Their numbers have now dwindled as they have dispersed and their visits are irregular and on a few colder or wetter days completely absent. On hot days raptor feasts occurred as the Brown Falcon, Collared Sparrowhawk and Brown Goshawk took turns at the bath. At one stage two Brown Goshawks were in the birdbath together. Wedge-tailed Eagle and Nankeen Kestrel also showed overhead and even a White-bellied Sea Eagle came flying over the house with two Ravens in hot pursuit. At the observatory a pair of Sacred Kingfishers are now often seen together at the bird baths and there is a sudden influx of Grey Fantail and a pair of Jackie Winters on the Lookout Circuit. Unusually, there are some Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters in the Home zone at the moment. Apart from Fantailed Cuckoos, both Horsfields and Shining Bronze-Cuckoos made appearances. A few sightings in the home zone of Yellow-rumped Thornbills The New Holland Honeyeaters are still the dominant species around the observatory. Left - Sacred Kingfisher Interesting Sightings We have been treated to some unusual bird sightings: In early April we came across an unfamiliar bird looking somewhat like a Golden Whistler female but not quite, I saw it again and this time it gave an unfamiliar call as well and I managed to photograph it. I also realised on listening to the different calls that it sounded like a Gilbert s Whistler. A couple of days after, deciding to ask Alma de Rebeira for help with the ID as I was not sure at all, she said it did look like a juvenile Gilbert s and had asked others for opinions as well. Apparently a guest had heard it here before. Her third confirmation was from Ron Johnstone, Curator Ornithology,Terrestrial Vertebrates, whose comment was: Yes this certainly looks like an immature Gilbert Whistler judging from the short thick bill, the odd cinnamon buff feathers on throat, side of neck, belly and undertail coverts. The new slaty grey feathers on the head and back are a bit peculiar as most of our specimens are more brown at that stage. It is an extension of range for WA as I had no confirmed records from that area for the WA handbook. We have since heard the call once more but not managed to track down another bird. Gilbert's Whistler Copper-backed Quail-thrush A good sighting of 3 Copper-backed Quail-thrush happened in early February on the North track. We saw a Little Button-quail in the Home zone on the dune to the sea as well as two birds in late

5 April in the Microwave tower area. In late March, a Tawny Frogmouth flushed from the West Track after a guest had talked about a big bird on the track. It was only heard once more after this sighting. Shy Heathwren was once again spotted on the dunes between Nine-mile and Twilight Cove along with a Redthroat on two separate occasions. Along Kanidal Beach Kanidal and Nine mile beaches delivered less sightings this time around with the most exciting the still resident (from 17 October 2015) Great Crested Grebes, a Grey Plover for the first few weeks, Double-banded Plovers and Lesser Sand-plover, the odd Sanderling and a number of Rednecked Stints. An unusual glut of White-faced Herons were present at Nine-mile beach and Twilight Cove with the largest flock totalling 27. The unusual number of normally inlet species on the open shore are remarkable, apart from the Grebes and Grey Teal, a Musk Duck appeared, Banded Stilts and Black-winged Stilts as well as Red-necked Avocets. The two which made us take a closer look were Cattle-Egret and an Emu on Kanidal Beach. Pied Oystercatchers seemed to disappear for a few weeks but are reappearing while Sooty Oystercatchers suddenly appeared in large numbers, on one count numbering over 40. These large numbers seem to be lessening now. White-bellied Sea Eagles appeared a number of times. Banded Stilt Black-fronted Dotterel Double-banded Plover At Burnabbie and on the plains Here we found a pair of Western Yellow Robins late in March. Slender-billed Thornbill at Burnabbie in the Bluebush area. Ground Cuckoo Shrike in the bluebush on Pannikin Plains and 16 Crested Pigeons at Cocklebiddy. In April we saw 6 White-winged Fairy-wrens on the bushy plains behind Cocklebiddy. and regularly see Mulga Parrots on the Moondadong track. In early April we also found a juvenile Mistletoebird on the North Track to Burnabbie. Other wildlife Ground Cuckoo-shrike Mulga Parrot

6 Other interesting sightings of creatures great and small happened all the time. Barking Geckoes around the house, legless Skinks, a Bobtail or two and our regulars, the resident Kangaroo families emptying the bird baths. On a beautiful day out to Twilight Cove, we came across a very large Mollusc Turbo jourdani, about 20cm big, who had lost its footing and had been washed up on the beach still very much alive. Snakes were about but not as many as our previous middle of summer slot. A few around the house, the Dugites not amenable to relocating and difficult to get into the sack, but fortunately departing when confronted on their own volition. Several Death Adders easy to get into the sack but scary. Several sightings of Bottle-nosed Dolphins in the sea off Kanidal Beach and Nine-mile Beach and a small pod at the beach entrance to EBO. Danie and Delene van Dyk A guest photographed a Pygmy Possum peering at them out of the small tree under which they were sitting at the Circuit Lookout. Photo Graham Lee