Only a small number of members joined me at Kioloa Coastal Campus over this long weekend (plus two for Sunday only) to escape the first blasts of the Canberra winter. We spent two lovely fine days there, without seeing a cloud in the sky, exploring for its bird life the cleared area of the campus, and the surrounding eucalypt and rain forest, the areas of casuarina and coastal heath, the tidal creek and the relatively unspoilt sandy beaches and their associated rocky platforms.
The undoubted highlight was coming across 4 Ruddy Turnstones at Bull Pup Beach, about 2 km north of the campus. As they were a new bird for most participants and were at slightly different stages of coming into breeding plumage, they caused quite some identification problems, despite the bright orange legs. It was a case where the field guides simply did not provide enough information. Good views were obtained by all, initially from close (including some very good video footage) and then as they flew to some rocks in the water, where they rested for a time before flying off high out to sea, seemingly on their way to New Zealand.
Unfortunately the Hooded Plover we were seeking (and tried very hard to turn them into) were not to be found. They had been present up to about a fortnight before, but had moved on (you can imagine the comments about those “ruddy” birds we found instead). In fact there were few species on the beaches and associated rocks except for surprisingly numbers of Sooty Oystercatchers, and for those up early, several Caspian Terns patrolling close to the shore.
Highlights around the campus buildings were a number of confiding Jacky Winter as well as a White-necked Heron. Nearby in the mixed woodland/heath close to the road we managed to call up a male Crescent Honeyeater. It was a surprise to me that this often rather cryptic species responded so readily to a taped call, and also to find it so close the ocean, as I have always associated it with the higher, colder country.
We spent one morning exploring the forest to the west of the campus and spent a very enjoyable hour round a forested dam where many birds were gathering to feed, drink or bathe, including a single Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, a number of Lewin’s Honeyeaters, and several Eastern Yellow Robin as well as Brown and Striated Thornbill. The latter allowed for a good comparison of their identification features. Further along in a patch of rain forest we saw several Brown Gerygone, and then about 16 Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos with several squawking dependent young moving through the forest.
Over the 48 hours we managed to see 67 different species, midway between the numbers encountered in previous COG trips there on the same weekend in 1996 and 1999, remarkably with 11 species not recorded on the previous visits.
A special thank you to all participants for being so patient with my leading in an area of which I was unfamiliar. We were very comfortably housed in the newer campus accommodation, and were especially privileged to be able to use the large kitchen and dining facilities, which made for a particularly relaxed and enjoyable stay. A special thank you to the managers Steve and Robin van Berkhout for allowing us to use this facility.
Jack Holland