If there were no Plains Wanderers in Australia, I would not have made this trip.  This strange little bird, the only species within its family (Pedionomidae), is critically endangered.  Birdlife International reports that there are less than 1,000 remaining.  They live in grasslands in various, widely separated pockets of southeastern Australia.  As agricultural acreage has expanded, the habitat for the Plains Wanders has nearly disappeared.  To add to their woes, introduced foxes prey on these little ground-nesters, who are also poor fliers, who escape from predators, if at all, by running.

If the Plains Wanderer is not to become extinct, substantial credit for its survival needs to be awarded to Philip Maher of Australian Ornithological Services, who conducts the Plains Wanderer weekends several times a year.  He has spent years studying the Plains Wanderer near Deniliquin, in the Murray River Valley of New South Wales.  Along with his own work on habitat restoration, he has enlisted the support of some local ranchers who have made adjustments to their practices to maintain habitat.  One of these, Robert Nevinson, served as a co-guide on Philip’s Plains Wanderer Weekend. They are a good team, and the results of this intensive 2 days of birding were impressive.  I, and I am quite sure I can speak for the other 7 guest-participants, could not have hoped for a more interesting and productive week-end of birding than Philip and Robert guided. Although the Plains Wanderer was the highlight, we saw many other Murray River Valley birds on this intensive week end of birding.

One of the trip participants was Peter Bundgard from Denmark, an avid photographer, who has graciously provided the pictures contained in this blog and allowed me to use them here. To go right to the point, here are his pictures of the male Plains Wanderer

And the larger and more colorful female Plains Wanderer,

Very difficult to spot in daylight, we spent a most interesting night, primarily on Robert’s ranch, looking for and finally spotting this pair.  They proved to be most cooperative, taking little notice of us as we sat in our vehicles nearby, and Peter photographed to his heart’s content.  These birds are unusual:  the male incubates the eggs and raises the young; the female, after laying her eggs and occupying her mate with hatching the eggs and raising the kids, seeks another male companion and reproduces again.  In good years, she can produce several broods through this efficient arrangement.

Also seen on the night drive were:

Banded Lapwings,

Inland Dotterl,

Barn Owl

To add to this impressive list of grassland birds, we were treated to decent, if short, looks at Little Buttonquails and Stubble Quail.  Arriving back at our hotel around midnight we battened down for a short night’s rest, as the next morning our birding weekend was to continue.

To backtrack a bit, our weekend of birding began at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning, recessed for a brief rest between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., and continued with our night birding excursion beginning about 3:00 p.m. and ending at midnight.  Philip and Robert picked us up again about 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning and we birded until they delivered me to the Denilquin bus station about 1:45 p.m.

Among the birds photographed by Peter during these two days were:

Baillon’s Crake 

Royal Spoonbill

Black Honeyeater 

Crested Shrike-tit (Eastern Subspecies)

Emus

Rainbow Bee-eater

Superb Parrot (New)

Square-tailed Kite 

White-fronted Honeyeater 

and Yellow-billed Spoonbill

Other new species  seen on this weekend were:  Spotted Harrier, Collared Sparrowhawk, Black Falcon, Australian Spotted Crake, Long-billed Corellas (plentiful around our hotel), Yellow Rosellas, Blue Bonnets, Red-rumped Parrots (also plentiful), Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo, Tawny Frogmouth, Australian Owlet Nightjar, Azure Kingfisher,  Buff-rumped Thornbill, Yellow Thornbill, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Little Friarbird, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Pied Honeyeater, Black Honeyeater, Red-capped Robin, White-browed Babbler, Varied Sitella, several Woodswallows, Pied Butcherbirds, Little Ravens, White-backed Swallows, Fairy Martins, and Brown Songlarks.

The participants represented several countries:  Australia, Wales, Denmark, Netherlands and the U.S. (of which I, like Tigger, was the only one).  Several of the participants have travelled widely and have an extensive world bird list.  I added 52 new species to mine in the two days.

For others who would like to participate in one of these Plains Wanderer Weekends in the future, and who do not feel comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road, I was pleased with the ease and affordability of  the public connections.  From the Melbourne Airport you can travel by Skybus (they run every few minutes) to the Southern Cross Bus Station in downtown Melbourne, and by bus (one a day) from there to Deniliquin (it takes about 4 hours).  Directions are clear.

On the return, the bus left Deniliquin at 1:45 and arrived at the Southern Cross Station about 5:30, in ample time for me to skybus to the airport and board my 7:55 p.m. flight to Darwin.  My next adventure, all in Northern Territory, was Darwin, Kakadu National Park, Pine Creek, and from thence to Alice Springs.  Blogs to follow.

From Western Australia I arrived in Hobart, Tasmania on the afternoon of October 15.  I had made arrangements with Coreena Vieth through Tours by Locals for her to pick me up at my Airport Travelodge Hotel at 7:00 a.m. the next morning.  Our itinerary for the 16th was to drive to the ferry to Maria Island.  Maria Island is home to an introduced colony of Cape Barren Geese, and this was a species I particularly wanted to see, and was not likely to see on Bruny Island, my main birding destination in Tasmania.  Some of these Cape Barren Geese proved to be quite tame.

Some areas of the island are cropped very short due to the high population of Australian endemic mammals, including Forester’s (Eastern Grey) Kangaroos

Wombats (Mum and Bub)

Pademelon

Pademelon with Joey

Unfortunately for the geese, endangered Tasmanian Devils have also been introduced to the island and have done well, foraging at night on geese and their eggs.  As the devils are nocturnal, I did not get a look at one on the island.  The future of the Cape Barren Geese on Maria does not look promising, based on recent studies on the impact of the devils on the wildlife on Maria Island.   Reference the Tassiedevil website.

I invited Coreena to take as many pictures as she liked because I did not have a camera and wanted to have some pictorial record of the birds and animals found on Maria.  Fortunately, she is a talented photographer, and welcomed the opportunity to use her skills while guiding me about the island.  All of the pictures in this blog (except those taken by Cat on Bruny Island) were taken by Coreena, who graciously permitted me to use them here.

We spent the entire day on Maria, and during the course of the day, I, with help from Coreena who in addition to photography and general tour guiding, knows a bit about birds, was able to identify a fair number of interesting birds, including the following:

Pacific Gull

White-fronted Chat 

Nankeen Kestrel

Tasmanian Native Hen (Endemic)

Flame Robin feeding Chick

Scarlet Robin

We boarded the last ferry from Maria to mainland Tasmania, and Coreena drove me to the Oyster Cove Inn in Kettering.  The Inn was still serving food when I arrived and after a pleasant welcome and a good meal, I settled in and the next morning I walked the short distance to the Bruny Island Ferry. The little restaurant at the ferry landing opened in time for a good breakfast of bacon (Tasmanian bacon is excellent) and eggs, before departing for the half hour ride over to Bruny Island.

I was met at the Bruny Island landing by Cat Davidson, who was to be my professional bird guide for the next 2 days.  She is one of several guides working  for Inala, a first rate hotel within a private reserve of some 1500 acres, with excellent birding itineraries for guests.   All 12 of Tasmania’s endemic bird species can be found on Bruny Island, many of them on the Inala premises, and we managed to find 11 of them during our 2 days.   The only one missed was the Scrubtit.  The ones seen were Green Rosellas, Strong-billed Honeyeaters, Black-headed Honeyeaters, Yellow Wattlebirds, Forty-spotted Pardalotes, Tasmanian Scrubwrens, Black Currawongs, Dusky Robins, Tasmanian Native Hens (pictured above) and Yellow-throated Honeyeaters.

Cat is involved in bird conservation as well as guiding, and she and her partner (who was working on a documentary) had access to the restricted conservation area along the beach where the Little Penguins come ashore at night to find their way into burrows in the sand dunes, where they lay their eggs and raise their young.  At the same location, thousands of Short-tailed Petrels arrive by air at dusk to dive into the dunes near cavities where they, too, nest, sometimes brushing by within inches of our heads.  The night was still and clear, and the penguins and shearwaters arrived on schedule to provide a fascinating night-time show. Having seen this phenomenon up close, as the show-time wound down and we started the trek back along the beach, I asked that we stop and turn off our flashlights so we could just stand quietly and look at the billions of stars shining brightly in the dark sky. The Southern Cross, always a delight to me when I have the good luck to be in the southern hemisphere when it is visible, shone, although a bit low to the horizon.

In addition to the 11 endemic species seen in Tasmania, and the Little Penguins and Cape Barren Geese, the following new species were added: Grey Goshawk (white morph), Hooded Dotterel, Pallid Cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Crescent Honeyeaters, White-fronted Chats (pictured above), Brown Thornbills, Grey Currawongs, Forest Ravens, Pink Robins, Flame Robins (pictured above), and a Beautiful Firetail.

Among the many lovely Bruny Island birds were these, photographed by Cat and used here with her permission:

Blue-winged Parrot

Black-faced Cormorant

Hooded Plover 

Brown Thornbill

Grey Shrike-Thrush (skirmishing with itself on our outside rear view mirror)

A stop at the Mavista Rainforest produced a couple of the new birds.

An interesting mammal encountered nearby was this Echidna, showing mostly its bum.

Having completed 2 full days of birding on Bruny Island, and 2 nights in the beautiful and secluded Narina Cabin on the Inala property, Cat took me back to the ferry and Coreena met me on the other side.  As I mentioned in my Western Australia blog, one of the high priority new species that I wanted to see was Australia’s rarest duck, the Freckled Duck.  Coincidentally, Cat knew just where, on the Tasmania side, a dozen or more Freckled Ducks had been seen in recent weeks, and she coordinated with Coreena on location.

Coreena and I worked around a light rain which lasted most of the day, first touring the city of Hobart, learning the history of area, and then driving to the “Freckled Duck Location.”  There (Gould’s Lagoon, I believe) we found one of the highlights of my trip, a flock of at least a dozen Freckled Ducks. 

At the same location were Black Swans

Australian Pelicans

And a good assortment of other water birds.

We completed our day visiting Russell Falls, at Mount Field National Park.

Returning to my hotel at the Hobart Airport, I retired early to be ready for my 6:05 a.m. flight to Melbourne.  There I would “Skybus” from the airport to the Southern Cross Station in downtown Melbourne, there to board a long-distance bus to Deniliquin, in the Murray River Valley.  I arrived in time to walk to a nearby grocery store for some victuals, and arose early the next morning to participate in Philip Maher’s intensive Plains Wanderer Week-end.

On April 6, 2017 Barbara and I left Des Moines as we boarded the first leg of our flight to Delhi, India.  A day or two of rest in Delhi then preceded our flight on April 9 to Paro, Bhutan, with the other 3 participants in the 2017 Victor Emanual Birding Tour of Bhutan.

From the plane we could see the beautiful Himalayan Mountains before landing at the ornate Paro airport.

My prior blogs detailing our birding out of the U.S. usually approached the subject in chronological order.  This time I am going to do it differently.  I have chosen as the first installment to cover the most striking family of birds that we saw in Bhutan, the Pheasants, or Phasianidae. All 40 or so species of this family are native to Asia.  The Chinese Ringneck Pheasant has been introduced as a game bird in North America and around the world, and has adapted well.

Let’s start with what our group voted the bird of the trip, Blood Pheasants.  They were plentiful in the high altitudes, i.e. 10,000 to 14,000 feet above sea level.  As is common among the Phasianidae, the males are far more colorful than the hens.  Here are some of the many Blood Pheasant photos Barbara took. [Third down is a female].

Behind the Blood Pheasants both in number and in favor among the 5 of us, were the Tragopans and Himalayan Monals (far fewer seen, shy and difficult to photograph).  The Monals are most often found well above 10,000 feet.  While downloading photos from the camera, something happened that erased about 60 photos from that time period, including the ones of the Monals.

It is hard to believe that a bird as beautiful as the Tragopan only rated a second place among the pheasants.  Here are photos of the male and female of this not so shy bird.

At the lower altitudes we encountered a few Kalij Pheasants, which lack the brilliant coloration of their brethren shown above, but nevertheless are striking birds.

Two other pheasants shown in the Field Guide to the Birds of Bhutan were Grey Peacock Pheasants (quite plain, reportedly common, but not seen by our group) and Blyth’s Tragopan, (rare and not seen by our group).

Stay tuned for the next installment, which will feature the birds I saw which are representatives of families of birds that were new to me in Bhutan.   (There are about 240 families of birds world-wide, with over 10,000 species spread among them.  Some families have several hundred species, others with but one specie).

From Toko Lodge we drove to the western gate (the Galton Gate) into Etosha National Park, which, along with the Namib Dunes, is the leading tourist attraction in Namibia.  Most of the western part of the Park is Mopane woodland, interspersed with granite hills and outcrops.  The drought has resulted in severely dry conditions throughout the Park.  Etosha is the largest and most important of Namibia’s conservation areas.  Large game animals and birds are present in good numbers.

There are 3 lodges within the Park, all government run.  The lodges and, in particular the food served at the lodges, were outstanding.  Because of the many wild animals, we were not allowed to get out of our vehicle at any time, unless within the fence at one of the lodge areas.  Moreover, the lodges close their gates at 7:00 p.m. (sundown) and they remain closed until 6:00 a.m, or so (sunrise).  We had to be inside the fence within those hours.  At each of the lodge areas, however, is a lighted water hole which attracts animals that can be viewed at all hours of the day and night.

From Galton Gate, we drove toward Okaukuejo Lodge where we would spend the night.  Among the first animals seen as we moved away from the Gate were Black-faced Impala, a subspecies of Impala found only in Namibia.

The Black-faced Impala were just one of the 8 species of African Antelope we saw at Etosha.  The others were Red Hartebeest, Springbok, Kirk’s Dik-Dik, Oryx, (also known as Gemsbok), Steenbok, Greater Kudu, and Blue Wildebeest.

At the waterholes we saw Lions, Black-backed Jackals, Elephants, Blue Wildebeests, Springbok, Oryx, and much more.

In the category of “life is tough out there”, the Ostrich action shown below involves a female ostrich killing the chicks of a male/female pair in order to get the male to mate with her.

Although the main attraction in the park is the abundant wild game, some new birds were found there as well, including

White-headed Vultures

Tawny Eagle

Double-banded Courser

Temminck’s Courser

Burchell’s Sandgrouse 

Namaqua Dove

After dinner at the Okaukuejo Lodge, we saw our first and only Black Rhinos at the Lodge water hole.  The arrival of the Rhino eased the fears of the 11 giraffes that had appeared, very tentatively, on the horizon and advanced ever so slowly in ghostly formation toward the lighted waterhole until they determined the source of the noise they were picking up was the Rhino and her baby, and not lions.

Giraffe and Kudu

On November 10^th (day 8 or our trip) we travelled further east through the park to Halili Camp.  Not much new showed, but toward the end of the day we came upon a small herd of elephants, including a couple of young.

New birds for the day were:

Secretarybird 

Cinnamon-breasted Buntings

Golden-breasted Buntings

On November 11 (day 9 of the trip) we left Halili Camp to drive toward our evening lodging, Namutoni, the eastern-most camp within the Park.

Today we saw a lot of plains game and several Spotted Hyenas.

The highlight of the day came late in the afternoon when we drove the famous Dik-Dik Drive, where we had great views of cute little Kirk’s Dik-Diks, which weigh around 10 pounds, compared to their largest antelope cousin, the Eland, which weighs nearly 2,000 pounds.

We also saw:

Swainson’s Francolins

Southern Red-billed Hornbills

Grey Go-away Birds

We stopped for a look at the animals at the Klein Namutoni waterhole, where we saw several Spotted Hyena, Black-faced Impala and Elephants.  Steve had to put the pedal to metal to get us back to camp before the gate closed, and we barely made it as the sun set and the gate was coming down.

On the 12^th we saw Red-billed Buffalo Weavers, Jacobin Cuckoos and White-bellied Sunbirds before leaving the Lodge ground.  We then left the Park via the east gate and visited the private Mokuti Lodge.  There we saw:

Yellow-breasted Apalis 

Crimson-breasted Shrike

Along the road to Waterberg Plateau we saw many pipits and larks. We were fortunate to find one of my target birds, a Wahlberg’s Eagle, standing guard in a tree near its nest as we approached the Waterberg Plateau.

Klipspringers were common and relatively tame at the Waterberg Plateau Lodge grounds.

We watched the super moon just before sunset from the patio.

As we were finishing dinner one of the staff came to our table excitedly announcing that there was a Cape Porcupine just outside the kitchen window. We quickly left our table to go look, and indeed, there was a very large Porcupine, apparently accustomed to dining on the kitchen waste.  The angle and the lighting were not good enough for a picture.

The next day we took the long drive back to Windhoek Airport with many warthogs nibbling the newly green grass along the highway.

Steve and Louise Braine are good partners in the Batis Birding Safari operation.  I cannot imagine a better qualified guide for anyone seeking to see the birds of Namibia.  Louise manages the arrangements, communicates with clients, and goes above and beyond the call of duty to make clients feel welcome and at home.   We enjoyed our Namibia birding safari, and it was much more than a birding safari.  We enjoyed the variety and closeness of the animals, particularly the 10 Antelope species seen in Namibia, adding to the Eland, Bontebok, Grey Rhebok and Cape Grysbok seen the previous week in the Cape Town, South Africa area.  We also were greatly impressed with the food, accommodations and people of Namibia.  We certainly hope that the rains come soon.

I returned home with my World Bird Species List at approximately 3,060, substantially more than the 3,000 that I had planned on (very conservatively) for the combined South Africa and Namibia trip.