Ben Cruachan – natural history

we seek the blighters everywhere. Orange-bellied Parrots that is, and we were at it again yesterday, the first of the three official surveys for the year. We jumped the gun by one day due to a busy schedule, but as nobody else would be doing Jack Smith Lake that wasn’t a concern. We didn’t get far along the entry track before stopping, birds on the fence wires caught our eyes and sure enough they were wintering Flame Robins, the first of a good number we saw during the day. While we were watching them we heard unfamiliar calls and looked up to see a flock of quite spectacular birds fly over, Banded Lapwings no less. I hadn’t seen these in the district for thirty odd years, so they were a sighting right out of the box, they didn’t stop, but Peter could still hear them in the direction we were heading so we hoped to catch up with them. Our next stop was a kilometre further on, and it wasn’t for birds, but mushrooms, hundreds of them in huge rings, and bingo, over past the mushrooms were the lapwings. They were too far away to get good pictures and flew when I tried to get closer, so the mushrooms were much easier subjects. The biggest ring measured 22 metres in diameter, and a goodly number went into a bag to be taken back to the kitchen. Click to enlarge.

Back into the 4WD and it wasn’t long before we saw our first parrots, not OBPs, but 15 odd Blue-winged, then as we continued west we spotted the lapwings again, out in the glasswort. The flock was bigger now, and after driving as close as we dared we managed to get a reasonable picture for the record. They’re wary birds, and took off soon after, 20 strong, and eventually came to earth again on the far side of the neighbouring paddock where we bade them goodbye.

After parking the vehicle a bit further on we started walking, pleased to find that the recent rain had sparked regeneration of many food plants in the salt marsh, and by the time we turned to head back the Blue-winged count had risen to 60. There was a cool sou-wester blowing and the parrots were taking shelter in the tall tussocks,but they weren’t the only ones doing that.

Double-banded Plovers are over from New Zealand for the winter, and we ticked three on a salt pan before we drove to the end of the track to start the next long walk towards the Woodside end. This is usually very reliable for parrots, but not on this occasion with only five more being added to the total. We did see more Flame Robins in the neighbouring sheep paddock, and a huge flock of migrating wattlebirds in the distance was an interesting sighting. There must have been at least a couple of hundred birds, but the distance was too great to see if they were Reds or Littles, both species were in the scattered flowering Coastal Banksias.
We were both ready for a sit down and a late lunch when we got back to the vehicle, and with that out of the way we walked to the top of the coastal dune to check out the ocean. There are records of the endangered Hooded Plover breeding on the reserve, but in all the years I’ve been going down there I’ve never sighted any. When I scanned the shore to the west I saw two small birds at the water’s edge in the distance, and announced in ringing tones “Hoodeds!” Alas, when we got a bit closer we could see they were redheads, not brunettes, Red-capped Plovers, nice birds but not what we’d hoped for.
We still had Lake Lamb to check out, and with the ground dry and old legs feeling the strain we did it in comfort, driving slowly, following the drainage lines and areas of newly emerged food plants. This intermittent lake used to break through the dunes at a place called the Blue Hole, which we’d never visited, this time we were able to drive there, checking for parrots all the way in good habitat. There was plenty of water backed up behind the dunes and Red-capped Plovers were patrolling the edges. Scanning through the bins I could see a pair of plovers at the far end that looked a little bigger than the Red-capped. This time I kept my big mouth shut, and after cunningly encouraging Peter to check out the adjacent salt marsh I walked up on them, and this time when I raised my voice I did in fact have a pair of Hooded Plovers in my sights. We hadn’t added any more parrots to the tally, but the Hoodeds were a terrific consolation prize at the end of a great day’s birding.