Old Acquaintances in the Rainforest

The Christmas-New Year break has often been fruitful for me in the past, as I have sought to fill some gaps in my year list or add another lifer or two before the new year began. This year, I set my sights on some rainforest birds I'd missed when I'd been in the Barrington/Gloucester area with Max in October. At the eleventh hour, I invited Josh who happily accepted, and we were on our way north, with Dad in the driver's seat, early on December 27.

First stop, as is almost always the case with trips to/through Newcastle was Stockton Sandspit, where we were greeted by a very high tide. In spite of this, careful scanning then stalking revealed a number of species, including the usual avocets (alas, no Banded Stilt), Bar-tailed Godwits, Eastern Curlews, Red-necked Stints (but no Broad-billed Sandpiper), Pacific Golden Plovers (but no Grey Plover), Red-capped Plover (but no Lesser Sand Plover) and the pair of Pied Oystercatchers. In addition were more than a dozen Sharpies, an irregular species at the 'spit, a couple of Curlew Sands, a couple of Red Knots, some Blackwits, and a Whimbrel or two. Round by the oyster racks we picked up Grey-tailed Tattlers and Terek Sandpipers. We missed Brahminy Kite (again!), meaning the following day would be our final chance for the year.

One of a number of Terek Sandpipers that were hanging out with the Grey-tailed Tattlers (see left-hand-edge) near the oyster racks.

Up through Seaham, we picked up Azure Kingfisher, Night Heron and numerous others for the trip list, which was already up around 75. We arrived at Cabbage Tree Creek shortly after 12, hoping to kick things off in the rainforest with a Logrunner or two. Cabbage Tree Creek is just down the hill from Yeranda Cottages, where we would be staying. About 15 minutes north of Dungog along the Main Creek/Skimmings Gap roads, we first stayed here in 2006, and in that trip, and the three subsequent visits, we have regularly seen a number of species on the very southern edge of their range, including Paradise Riflebird and Pale Yellow Robin, two of our targets for this visit. Cabbage Tree Creek has been arguably the most reliable of the spots in the vicinity, but today it would not come through with the species we really wanted. That said, we still had a good time, with Spectacled and Black-faced Monarch, Rose Robin and Rufous Fantail, among others, seen.

A (threat?) display or hunting move of a Rufous Fantail.

We headed up the hill and checked in with Ros and Kevin, the lovely owners, before setting our tents outside one of the cabins. A group of Leaden Flycatchers had Josh on edge as he tried to find Satins among them to no avail. It was easily over 30 degrees up in the dry woodland of the hillside, so we retreated to Cow's Head Creek, another nearby rainforest site which I had had luck in before. Here, it was much cooler, but, as rainforest can so often be, birdless. Eventually, as we carefully made our way downstream, things began to pick up, and we got onto another Spectacled Monarch, a young White-naped Honeyeater and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos. Then, from the distance, I picked up the distinctive walk to work of a Noisy Pitta. We turned, and set off back upstream in pursuit. After five minutes or so of walking, we were very close. Josh spotted it calling from a few metres off the ground, and we all got views excellent views of it hopping about on the ground.

With the first of our targets under our belt, we set off back downstream, and not long after, I spied a female Logrunner! She was not very obliging however, and Josh didn't get to see her before she vanished. With nothing else further downstream, we turned back, and at the spot I'd found Logrunner, this time Josh found the other three (it's unusual to see a lone Logrunner, and we'd expected a family group hiding nearby). Returning to our tents (via Nalleeghee Creek which was lifeless), we got dinner together, and Josh had a chance to clean up the tick and leech bites he'd already managed to procure. Not long after dinner, the first White-throated Nightjars called, and we jumped up and went after them. Not long after, we'd seen three in flight, which is not overly impressive,but I had also managed to find a bird sitting on a nest. This little detail we only got after accidentally flushing it due to camera flash, and we hoped it would be back on the nest the next morning.

Barrington Tops Frog - little is known about this species, which,
as you might expect, is confined to the Barrington area.

It was decided that, with no other night birds in evidence, we should try our hand at "frogging", so we drove down slowly to the creekline at the bottom of the hill, and crawled along slowly, listening for anything. A couple of hundred metres down the road (towards Carawirry), an absolute raucous of frogs brought us to a stop. At least four species of frog were easily audible around a permanent pond, and it was remarkably easy to find Peron's Tree Frogs and Tyler's Tree Frogs sitting on practically any vegetation. They were everywhere! By the edge of the water, Dwarf Green Tree Frogs were "reek-pip"ing away happily, and further back, after some careful searching, the source of the guttural "wahk wahk" was found to be a Great Barred Frog - quite an awesome looking guy. We couldn't make out any more calls, so moved on. At the Cabbage Tree Creek crossing where the birds are best, we found another two species. The first was a pair of small brown froglets amplexing. Without disturbing them, or hearing them call, we couldn't identify them to a species. They were either Common Froglets or Eastern Sign-bearing Froglets. The second was a few small green frogs that we found. A couple had beige-y-brown backs. We took notes and photos but the ID was only confirmed in Sydney by a herpetologist as a BarringtonTops Frog. Interestingly, it appeared to match a Green Stream Frog morphologically, but its call matched Pearson's Green Tree Frog closest. The return drive yielded a Striped Marsh Frog on the road, taking our tally for the night to 7 species, with one other heard a fair distance off but never found.

***

A female Logrunner - one of a group of four seen at Frying Pan Creek.

We were up early the next morning and soon on our way into Chichester State Forest. A brief stop confirmed the nightjar had thankfully returned to the nest. We arrived at Frying Pan Creek Campground, and, after a wrong turn, found the walking track that I've had so much luck on in the past. In 2006 and 07, the track has yielded Pale Yellow Robin, Paradise Riflebird, and many Noisy Pittas. It was rather quiet, as far as good birds went - nonetheless we saw a Pitta and a group of four Logrunners well on the track ahead of us -  and it was really only after we reached the track's end, where there is a beautiful rockhole waterfall, and started heading back, that the route came to life. I spotted a Pale Yellow Robin, which evaded Dad and Josh, and we, at the same location, had a pair of extremely obliging Logrunners which went through their full repertoire of calls. A pair of Whipbirds were spotted in the midstorey, which was rather bizarre. Closer to the campground, I spotted another robin which gave us good views, and was, to much relief, a Pale Yellow. A male Satin Bowerbird seen poorly had Josh and I very excited as we convinced ourselves that, surely, it was a Riflebird, but (of course) it was not seen again.


We returned to Yeranda, packed up the tents and headed off back into Dungog. Because it was still early, and because it would net Josh some good year ticks, we opted to head north-west to Allyn River. I had spent a night camped with Max here in October, and it had given us excellent birds such as Wompoo Fruit Dove and Regent Bowerbird in the figs. Unsurprisingly though, given it was two months later, the figs had finished fruiting, and it was only with much effort that we were able to locate a small group of Topknot Pigeons. A lyrebird and an unidentified Accipter (sparrow/goshawk) were the only other nice birds seen.

We retraced our route from yesterday, out to the coast and then south towards Stockton. While heading east, a big southerly could be seen approaching in the distance, and it was therefore not overly surprising to spot a loose group of needletails passing over (going west, oddly). We counted 27, between first and last, before continuing on, hoping to reach Stockton before the rain arrived. This we succeeded in doing, but, given it was absolute low tide, we took the risk of setting out across the mud to get closer to the waders, and were punished when the southerly struck, leaving us huddled under a lone mangrove tree sheltering ourselves and our cameras and binos from what quickly developed into hail. After 20 minutes getting progressively wetter, the rain finally relented, and we were able to escape our shelter. Bird-wise, we had decent diversity, with extremely low numbers (4 Avocets, 1 Terek Sand, 1 Whimbrel, and a couple of Stints and Eastern Curlews). And, of course, no Brahminy Kite. A Long-billed Corella on the F3 not far south of the Hunter River was an embarrassing but relieving year tick.

When it rains it pours. And hails. The view from our mangrove shelter at Stockton.

The one, only, and last. Male Cicadabird.

This trip more or less wrapped the year up. However, after a few reports of Glossy Black Cockatoos at West Head in Ku-ring-gai, I linked up with Josh again on the 30th, and we headed out for an unsuccessful attempt. The day was saved, however, after a Cicadabird was heard on the Chiltern Track, and we were able to bush-bash to the top of a hill to watch a beautiful male calling. He more than compensated, additionally, for the dip on the "dead cert" (damn you Josh!) Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters on the same track. A last ditch attempt at the pair of Bush Stone Curlews that apparently live at Avalon, just south of Palm Beach, was an abject failure, and this meant that that Cicadabird was the last year tick of 2012, taking me to 374, and it wrapped up what has been by far and away my best year. Now here's to an even better 2013!!

A Lace Monitor that Josh and I cornered in the open at Ku-ring-gai provided exceptional views and photo opportunities.