2009 Tour Narrative
This year’s Australia tours encountered an unusual range of weather—including more than our fair share of rain! Fortunately, most of the time we were able to dodge the worst of the weather by birding around it, and the weather didn’t have a seriously detrimental effect on our birding.
We began as usual in Tasmania, where our local guide had all the endemics staked out, most of them right on her own wonderful property at Inala. The cold weather had brought many robins down from the higher country, and the paddocks were filled with a fine selection of dayglow pinks and reds. The Forty-spotted Pardalotes were group favorites as usual, though a pair of white-morph Gray Goshawks was also a sight to behold.
Moving north through Victoria, our next major stop was Deniliquin, home of the famous Plains-wanderer. Phil Maher and the local ranchers did us proud here, and after showing us Inland Dotterel, Little Buttonquail, and Stubble Quail, they produced a stunning female Plains-wanderer, the brighter of the sexes in this species. Deniliquin had received some rain over the year since our last visit, and more bush birds were in evidence. Still, almost all the ponds were dry, with no crakes in residence; we were lucky to see not one but two Australasian Bitterns at the only wet pond in the district.
Sadly there were no Regent Honeyeaters around Chiltern this year, but we were shown stunning Turquoise Parrots, noisy Black-chinned Honeyeaters, and Speckled Warblers. A lake just outside town produced a good selection of waterfowl, including seven unexpected Freckled Ducks, a local rarity.
The weather challenged us somewhat around Healesville, but in between showers we had great encounters with Superb Lyrebird, the longest passerine in the world. The wild and windy conditions put paid to our valiant attempts to find a Sooty Owl, but the Common Wombat beside the road provided considerable compensation. We started the next day well with Gang-gangs in the hotel garden, continued with Blue-billed Ducks and a vast camp of Gray-headed Flying-foxes, and ended brilliantly with a pair of Powerful Owls and a Platypus.
- David Fisher
Updated: January 2010