There are
many types of heathland. Croajingolong National Park in East Gippsland has some
excellent coastal heathlands with salt laden mist and strong winds adding to
the leached infertile soils and fire as major forces shaping a unique and surprisingly
rich plant community/ecosystem. Whenever visiting Mallacoota in Gippsland’s far
east I can never resist at least one visit to the heathlands at Shipwreck
Creek.
Driving out
to Shipwreck there is time to think about the bird species I am hoping to find
in the heath - they include Eastern Ground Parrot, Southern Emu-wren,
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Beautiful Firetail and Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. All
of these somewhat uncommon and elusive species are to a great extent associated
with heathlands and all can be found on the Shipwreck Creek heathlands.
On a recent
visit the conditions were far from promising with cool windy and overcast
weather and frequent light showers blowing in from Bass Strait.
As I crossed the bar across Shipwreck Creek on my way to the heathland just west of the creek the weather looked far from promising. |
As light showers blew in from Bass Strait I searched the heathland for Ground Parrots and Emu-wrens. |
My first
target species encountered was a pair of Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. The pair
seemed engrossed in chasing one another and from time to time perched on dead
branches still standing since the last deliberate fire (aimed at preserving
heathland).
Pizzey describes this honeyeater as “…slender, graceful, long billed…”. I agree – they are very attractive. |
The bird moved and I followed – it continued to call from a new perch. |
There were
only two pairs of Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters on this section of heath – I was
very lucky to have got close enough to one of them for some photos.
As I moved
about the heath I ran into a Beautiful Firetail, or perhaps there were several,
certainly not many, and single birds only at each brief encounter. They proved
to be hard to approach for photos.
This fairly distant shot of a Firetail in poor light was tantalizing. |
Eventually
I found another Firetail, or perhaps the same earlier one. After several
attempts to get close for photos I got lucky.
Not a bad photo but that stick in front of the bird would be a time consuming challenge to remove from the image. |
The bird moved to a new perch close by. I moved up slowly, it continued to perch. |
The bird looked my way as I took some photos. |
The bird was relaxed enough to have a quick preen, or was this a nervous reaction? |
Given the
conditions I was feeling pleased I had managed to capture some reasonable
images of this elusive finch.
As another
shower approached I moved towards the shelter of some Melaleuca ericifolia on the edge of the heathland where I was a
little surprised to encounter more beauty in the form of four Spotted
Pardalotes. These birds do not frequent heath and were probably making their way
along the edge of the heath from one patch of forest to another. I couldn’t
resist photographing one.
A bright jewel on a dull day at the edge of the heathland. |
As another
shower set in I decided it was time to leave the heathland. Against the odds I
had been richly rewarded with several great bird encounters with some
satisfying images safely stored on the camera card to take away with me. I had
flushed one Ground Parrot and followed it for a couple more flushes before it
disappeared. No sign of Emu-wrens or Heathwrens. Both species are there but
were staying warm and dry out of sight low in the heath.
On the way
back into Mallacoota I decided to stop at the Betka River estuary to check on
the progress of a pair of Hooded Plovers with three chicks I had read about in
“The Mallacoota Mouth” the local newsletter. Alas it was clear that all was not
well – a large storm has wiped out the protected area and there were no chicks
to be found in the company of two adult pairs of Hoodies at the river mouth.
The protected area was no protection from the storm waves which swept across the bar. |
A sad note
to end a successful morning on the Shipwreck Creek heathland. Life is tough on
an ocean beach and raising young is a great challenge. The locals had done a
terrific job in providing protection for the chicks from people visiting this
very popular area – I can imagine they would have felt particularly saddened by
this outcome.
Post script on the Hooded Plovers:
Subsequent
to publishing this post I sent a link to Renée Mead, Beach-nesting Birds Project Officer at BirdLife Australia, who
kindly provided extra details based on information supplied by the local dedicated
beach-nesting bird volunteer monitors. Here is the story copied from Renée’s email:
MK was not the parent of the chicks.
There are x2 pairs (at the Betka Beach estuary) which battle over territory, and not uncommon to see them together,
making sure that each pair stay in their ‘invisible boundary lines’. x2
unbanded birds had the chicks. (Not the banded bird MK plus mate as I had
assumed).
The nest was found on 15th Feb,
and the 3 chicks hatched on the 14th March. The chicks at Betka
River have an advantage, and that’s the estuary. When the surf gets too big, or
the threats too extreme, they can retreat onto the river side of the beach. The
nest would have been in that enclosure which you photographed, but the chicks
don’t stay in there, so they survived that high tide. One chick survived for
between 23-24 days old. The other two chicks survived for 6 days and 8 days.
They cannot fly until 35 days.
(So 2 of
the chicks had perished by the time I visited the site on the 22nd
of March but one was still present).
The notes in the data (collected by the local volunteer
monitors) state that it was likely that a
predator took the chicks. Not sure which type, fox, raven, magpie, bird of
prey. Too hard to tell unfortunately (All are possible suspects at this and
many sites).
So the chick was likely in hiding
when you spotted the x4 hooded plovers together on the beach.
Sadly
this last chick perished on about the 6th or 7th of
April. As I said in the post “life is tough on an ocean beach” so hoodies need
all the help they can get. Volunteer beach - nesting birds monitors are so
important to help tip the balance in the birds’ favour. We all owe them a great
debt of gratitude.
This case
demonstrates how it is next to impossible to work out what has become of birds following
an incident like a storm. Near daily monitoring is needed to be able to know
how beach-nesting birds are fairing and when disaster strikes, to know what happened,
so lessons can be learnt to help improve the management of these endangered
birds.