Riverina

I’ve just come back from a week of birdwatching primarily in the Riverina, with a few stops in the Loddon-Mallee on the way home. Jonathan T joined me all the way to Griffith, which was a good bit of fun.

We met on Saturday morning in Elmore, where we got a fantastic blueberry danish and the only purple-crowned lorikeets of the trip.

This is a (mostly) chronological account, though as I visited some places multiple times on the return journey back to Victoria, I’ve folded those second trips into the initial description rather than giving them their own section.

Murray Valley National Park

A few quick observations along the way meant that we crossed the Murray River at Echuca with 19 species listed.

Our first stop over the border was in Murray Valley National Park, and in particular at the Gulpa Creek bird hide. I mostly forgot to take photos on the trip so the lead picture is from when I was there in 2023; there was a lot less water on this visit. As a consequence it was very quiet, but as the start of the trip we had a few quick wins regardless. On the pictured swamp there was almost no activity, with only a few swamp harriers circling around, an Australian reed warbler and a few welcome swallows, but in the adjacent forest there were also a laughing kookaburra, eastern rosellas, brown treecreepers, white-winged chough, grey shrikethrush, some of the only dusky woodswallows that we saw, lots of aggressive white-plumed honeyeaters and the local p. e. flaveolus subspecies of crimson rosella, the yellow rosella, the dominant subspecies across the Riverina.

Continuing into Picnic Point we weren’t able to get a coffee as the Timbercutter Cafe was closed but we did find a whistling kite, blue-faced honeyeaters, an olive-backed oriole and, most excitingly, a shining bronze-cuckoo calling from over the river.

We left the area having doubled our species count, reaching 39, and I boosted my Murray LGA life list by 28 species. Sometime in the near future I’m going to spend a proper amount of time in Murray Valley National Park – there are a lot of trails that I’ve never attempted and it’s deserving of more attention than a stop on the drive through to somewhere else.

Deniliquin

Deniliquin was the first major stop and where we spent Saturday night. On arrival we visited Island Sanctuary, part of the river redgum forest that stretches along the Edward River and runs through the centre of town.

We added a lot here to our trip list here, most of it very common: Pacific black duck, grey teal, peaceful dove, dusky moorhen, Australasian darter, both little pied and little black cormorant, both little and long-billed corella, red-rumped parrot, white-throated treecreeper, white-browed scrubwren, white-breasted woodswallow, magpie-lark, as well as rock pigeon and common blackbird.

There were a few nice moments here, including two yellow rosellas sharing food, and a yellow-billed spoonbill flying past carrying nesting material.

More excitingly, both little and noisy friarbirds were very active and we got a good opportunity to photograph a little as it fed amongst a few eastern rosellas. A fan-tailed cuckoo called a few times here as well. We caught the thin, clipped, metallic calls of a little lorikeet as they buzzed overhead, high in the canopy.

Our two big targets here were easily achieved. Almost as soon as we arrived we had azure kingfishers along the river boardwalk. On three separate trips I never got a good opportunity to photograph them, but they were a regular presence. This is where I got my azure kingfisher tick two years ago as well, so it was nice to return and see them still present.

The other was also easy to hear but far harder to see. Superb parrots are a presence across the plains west of the Great Dividing Range, from Numurkah and Chiltern in the south to Cobar and Narrabri in the north. This was a tick for Jono, and one that he had previously tried for unsuccessfully at Kinnairds Wetland on my recommendation. On an earlier trip to Warby-Ovens I also thought I heard one, but couldn’t confirm it with any confidence, so it was nice to finally help track them down for him.

I’ve seen them quite a few times now, but haven’t come close to a good photograph. They seem to really like to stay high in the canopy. I had my best success when I visited while driving back towards Victoria, on Wednesday 24 September, when a pair were investigating a nesting hollow only five metres off the ground. A terrible shot, but an improvement on what I’d previously achieved.

Late on Saturday evening we went north of Deniliquin and visited a small bushland reserve in the old Conargo LGA (eBird is using pre-amalgamation areas), which on eBird is called Cobb Highway at Mavers Lane. We visited the eastern side of the highway.

The south side of Mavers Lane was quite disappointing, with plenty of white-winged choughs and noisy miners fighting over territory, but absolutely nothing else. We wandered for about half an hour with just these two species. We headed back to the car, defeated, when Jono spotted grey-crowned babblers directly across the other side of the track. Investigating the northern section we found weebills, pied butcherbirds, a western gerygone, yellow thornbills, as well as blue-faced honeyeater, red-rumped parrot, laughing kookaburra, galah, black-faced cuckooshrike, Australian magpie, magpie-lark and grey shrikethrush.

The terrain here looked very good for Australian owlet-nightjar, with a lot of small hollows, and though we couldn’t find any, one was reported only a few days later, as well as white-backed swallows, which would have been a lifer for both of us.

On the way back to Deniliquin we went to Vartus Wetland, a small lake adjacent to a campsite. We visited twice, both on Saturday evening and again on Sunday morning, adding Australian pelican, hardhead, hoary-headed grebe, great cormorant, straw-necked ibis, royal spoonbill, black kite, singing honeyeater, grey fantail and tree martin to our trip list. There’s a track around the lake here that Jono took, attempting to find what he thought was an eastern yellow robin that he heard calling, but he was unsuccessful.

On the morning of Sunday 21 September we made a few stops. At Waring Gardens, a small park in town, we added Eurasian coot, Australasian grebe, Australian white ibis, sacred kingfisher, common starling and both domestic mallard and goose to our trip list. We also had a peregrine falcon perched on a radio tower on Cressy Street, the first observation of one in Deniliquin in a few years.

Our second Island Sanctuary list was quite similar to the first, though we found a baby brown treecreeper, common bronzewing, Australian reed warbler and white-necked heron. A local survey group helped us find tawny frogmouths, and I spotted an Australian king-parrot – apparently naturally rare for the wider area, but a pair have been present on Island Sanctuary for a few years now. They were inspecting a hollow so seemingly preparing to raise young.

On my return trip on Wednesday 24 I found eastern shrike-tit, but otherwise there was nothing new. I did get my not-so-good-but-better superb parrot shot on this visit.

Leaving Deniliquin we had boosted our trip list from 39 to 88, with only a few discrepancies: Jono had seen plumed whistling-ducks in Elmore; I saw common bronzewing and king-parrot in Deniliquin.

Jerilderie

After finishing at We headed from Deniliquin through to Leeton on Sunday, seeing nankeen kestrel along the way and stopping first at Jerilderie Lake. We found 30 species here, though only little grassbird was new for the trip.

I added a lot of new species for my local list though, including little black cormorant, white ibis, royal spoonbill, starling, pied butcherbird, grey shrikethrush, black-faced cuckooshrike and striated pardalote. This was my third visit to Jerilderie Lake, and I think it speaks to how much better a birder I am than when I first checked it out two years ago that most of these ticks were heard species rather than seen.

I visited for the fourth time on Wednesday 24, adding crested pigeon, Australasian darter, cockatiel, little corella, superb fairywren, blue-faced honeyeater, little friarbird, white-breasted woodswallow, grey butcherbird, white-winged chough, tree martin and, amazingly, house sparrow to my Jerilderie list.

Our trip list leaving Jerilderie was 90, and my LGA list increased from 23 to 52.

Narrandera

Our second stop on the way to Leeton was at Narrandera Wetlands. Both Jono and I saw separate groups of emus on the drive through from Jerilderie, and I saw a wedge-tailed eagle, both new for our trip.

Despite its small size and how unimpressive it is compared to the nearby Fivebough and Tuckerbil wetlands, I always try to stop here and enjoy it whenever I do. It feels like a shift: it’s where I got my purple-backed fairywren tick back in September 2023 and it’s the first stop heading into the Riverina where you start encountering them alongside the superb fairywrens that I’m familiar with back home. It’s also where I saw my first yellow-billed spoonbill, weebill and Australian reed warbler, as well as my first ever rakali, happily chomping on a fish.

No mammals this time, but we did add mistletoebird, Australasian swamphen, great egret, rufous whistler and, of course, purple-backed fairywren. I added crimson rosella, grey teal, Australian pelican, sacred kingfisher, noisy miner, little friarbird, western gerygone and welcome swallow to my broader Narrandera list here.

We added another eight species to our trip list for a total of 98. I brought my Narrandera LGA list from 40 to 55.

Leeton

We took a break after reaching Leeton, and then made our first visit to the fabulous Fivebough Wetlands in the late afternoon of Sunday. There had been reports of wood sandpiper here in recent weeks so we were particularly keeping an eye out for them, as well as brolga and red-necked avocet, both of which I’ve dipped on here in previous years despite them being (apparently) relatively common.

Spoiler: we couldn’t find any of the three.

Nevertheless, visits here on both the afternoon of Sunday 21 and morning of Monday 22 were absolutely fantastic and the highlight of the entire trip for me. That first afternoon we added magpie goose, black swan, Australian shelduck, chestnut teal, black-tailed nativehen, pied stilt, black-fronted dotterel, red-kneed dotterel, silver gull, yellow-throated miner and golden-headed cisticola to the trip list.

Though we didn’t find wood sandpiper, we did find four sharp-tailed sandpiper, which caused a bit of a stir and half a dozen local birders came down to see them the next morning.

On the Sunday afternoon trip both dotterels, nativehen and sandpiper were all new to my Leeton list, as well as hoary-headed grebe, white-necked heron, black kite, brown falcon, superb parrot, red-rumped parrot, striated pardalote, weebill, western gerygone and (somehow) Australian reed warbler. My only excuse for the warbler is that I’ve only ever previously visited outside of breeding season, in June-July, when the birds would be very quiet, but it’s still a shocking tick for my fourth visit, given how prevalent they are.

I also got my first ever decent photo of a little grassbird – there was one particularly cooperative individual that we first saw feeding out in the open on a mudflat, and which hung around in the reeds as I whistled to it.

Monday morning was even better, as we replicated many of the finds from the previous day and added common greenshank, pied cormorant, Australian spotted crake, glossy ibis, brown goshawk, fairy martin and zebra finch to the trip list. I added another 12 to my Leeton list on day two, including many of the above and singing honeyeater, little friarbird, yellow-rumped thornbill, yellow thornbill, black-faced cuckooshrike, and mistletoebird.

On the drive out toward Griffith, at Whitton Cemetery just outside of Leeton, I had my first two cockatiels of the trip.

After five hours across two days at Leeton, we left with 73 observed species in the LGA, only one behind Deniliquin (74) despite having far less habitat variation in our birding sites. Our trip list increased by 20, from 98 to 118, and my Leeton life list increased by 29, from 58 to 87. This is now my second highest total LGA in New South Wales, behind Hawkesbury.

Griffith

On the way to Griffith we stopped at Binya State Forest, a short drive to the east. Google Maps sent us on different routes, which unfortunately meant that we ended up on different ends of Pine Drive and so we had slightly different experiences here.

I’d never birded here before. It’s a bit degraded – being reasonably close to Griffith and easily accessible off the Burley Griffin Highway it seems to be a bit of a dumping ground, and unfortunately there was trash all over the place. The roads aren’t well maintained and there were more than a few spots where trees had come down and not been removed, making the road impassible.

Nevertheless it was a very worthy stop. We added another ten species: eastern yellow robin, southern whiteface, splendid fairywren, red-capped robin, bar-shouldered dove, rainbow bee-eater, spiny-cheeked honeyeater, white-browed babbler, grey butcherbird, and apostlebird. For some of these – the whiteface, fairywren, yellow robin, dove and bee-eater – this was the only place on the trip where we saw them. We also had a common bronzewing prominently perch in front of us, which gave Jono a trip tick that he missed in Deniliquin.

Binya State Forest is in Carrathool LGA, where I’d never birded before. This brought my list from zero to 27. The trip list reached 128.

My main target for Griffith was pink cockatoo. We went to the Griffith Golf Club on Monday afternoon, where they’re regularly reported. I’d been told that it’s easy to just walk in, but having now been there that seems a bit crazy to me – it’s huge (it’s an 18-hole course with driving range!) and, of course, it’s actively being used by other people.

Luckily Jono is a golfer himself, and managed to not only get us in with the staff’s permission, but also secured a golf cart to get around. I can’t imagine trying to bird here without that – even with a cart we still had a few people wondering whether we were supposed to be there.

We had more white-browed babblers here, our first swooping magpie, lots more apostlebird, magpie-lark, crested pigeons and common bronzewing, and we added three new species to the trip: Australian ringneck, greater bluebonnet and, happily, pink cockatoos.

We found the cockatoos over by the 13th tee, where unfortunately we had to wait for a large (drunk) group to play through. We had a couple of minutes with three birds on the ground as they ate pine cones before they were flushed by a brown goshawk; they disappeared up Scenic Hill and didn’t return after that.

A bit like with the superb parrots, I definitely improved on my previous best photo here, but it’s still far from the clean portrait that I want. I really want a photo with the crest up too, though like sulphur-crested cockatoos they most reliably flare their crests either when they land or when they’re vocalising, so it can be hard to time.

After the golf club closed we visited the adjacent Scenic Hill. Jono got his cockatiel tick for the trip but otherwise we had nothing overall new. There were plenty of very friendly ringnecks here, grey fantail, a western gerygone, yellow-throated miners and a few western grey kangaroos. A male red-capped robin sat calling in a casuarina right as we stepped into the car.

This was the last bit of birding that Jono and I did together, as he headed home to Melbourne early on Tuesday 23 September, and I kept going for a few more days. Our joint total was 131 species, with the final new bird being the pink cockatoo.

I did far less birding on my second day in Griffith due to some other obligations, but I did find a few hours to visit the campground and park on the northwestern edge of Lake Wyangan.

There was technically one more tick here, though it’s listed as an escapee on eBird and therefore doesn’t count: three Indian peafowl were roaming around the picnic area. I’ll defer to people who know better, but they certainly didn’t appear to be captive birds – they were flying over the fence and away into an adjacent area of bush when aproached – and there are eBird records of peafowl here back to at least 2002, which is longer than the expected lifespan of an individual bird, so they’ve managed to at least somewhat sustain themselves. On the other hand, I only saw three, all males, and the peak seems to have been seven individuals back in 2021, then six in 2022, and no more than three since, so they perhaps haven’t established a permanent population and are gradually on their way out.

The highlight of this visit overall was finally finding a cockatiel willing to sit and be photographed. There were half a dozen zooming around, at this cute male stopped reasonably low in this hollow and watch me for a few minutes, allowing me to approach and reposition without being bothered. I always like when I can end an encounter with the bird not having left, which happened here.

Other than cockatiels there were more ringnecks, both maned and Pacific black ducks, masked lapwing, pied butcherbird, greater bluebonnet, lots of red-rumped parrots, and my the first rainbow lorikeets in a long time. I found a couple of striated pardalotes that must be already raising young as they were regularly in and out of a small hollow carrying food. They were regularly returning to the same spot to catch mosquitoes, so I was able to grab a quick shot without disturbing the site where they were nesting.

I left Griffith first thing on Wednesday 24 September with the overall trip list at 131 (+1), and my LGA list increased from 41 to 66. I certainly hoped to add more here but with Campbells Swamp still closed – this was true last July when I was last in town as well – a lot of the waterbirds I’d expect to be able to find were simply inaccessible to me.

I drove from Griffith to Swan Hill, via Darlington Point (adding 22 to my Murrumbidgee list), Jerilderie and Deniliquin, as mentioned. In Deniliquin I added eastern shrike-tit to the trip list, for 132.

Going via Deni (and, from there, along Barham Road via Caldwell rather through Wakool) was the longer route to Swan Hill, but it was for a purpose. For the past 25 years there has been a small flock of common ostrich that have lived among the paddocks on Lashbrook Road. They’re listed as naturalised on eBird, meaning that unlike the peafowl they’re considered to be not only not captive, but actively sustaining their non-native population in the wild.

Surprisingly for such a large bird, it took me about half an hour to find the damn things. In the end there was only a single individual, sitting surprisingly close to the road, but further along Barham Road rather than on Lashbrook where I’d expected to find them. Along with the Australian pipits sitting along fence lines through here, the ostrich lifted my trip list to 134.

Loddon-Mallee

I spent Wednesday night in Swan Hill and headed back to Melbourne on Thursday morning with only two stops along the way: in the bushland reserve at Goschen and at Mount Korong.

This was my first visit to Goschen since last November, my fifth overall, and the first time that I’ve visited it so early in the warmer months. The species mix wasn’t too different, though it was missing a few key birds that I would typically expect to see here: particularly rainbow bee-eater and budgerigar, but also black honeyeater. I expect that we’re only a few days until the first bee-eater shows up, but the budgies and honeyeaters seem to be quite delayed this year.

It was a good time regardless! I arrived just before sunrise and was greeted by a male hooded robin as I parked my car, as I’ve come to expect here, the first tick for the morning. There were three more: white-browed woodswallow, blue-winged parrot and rufous songlark. The parrot I’ve never seen here before and it would not occur to me to expect them here, so that was a very pleasant surprise.

The highlight of the stop was the cockatiels though – 16 by my count, all of them very gregraious and interested in me. Multiple times they would take off, perch low and near and just watch, allowing me to get within ten metres before resetting. I had left my camera in the car so the best I could do was a short video of about half the flock arriving at a nearby tree.

Other Swan Hill ticks here for me were silvereye, pied butcherbird, fan-tailed parrot and peaceful dove, bringing my LGA total to 55. Leaving Goschen my trip total was at 138.

I didn’t realise until after getting home that there had been a few crimson chats recorded over by the schoolhouse, which would be a lifer for me and I would have tried to twitch if I’d known. Oh well – a good excuse to return soon.

Further south, I stopped at Mount Korong. I was last here in June to twitch a bar-shouldered dove, but the location is typically known as the best place in Victoria to find painted honeyeaters. They’re annual arrivals at the site from late September, and the first birds were reported about a week before my visit. When I arrived it was almost 10.00am with a strong wind that made the birding conditions absolutely miserable.

Despite this I did manage to find two of my three big targets here. At two different sites, on the southern and eastern edges I had black-eared cuckoos calling, and I was able to spot my first painted honeyeater sitting atop the acacia near the start of the Firebreak track. I would have loved to get photos of both, but it just wasn’t the right conditions for it.

I added a few more trip firsts: a Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo, black-chinned honeyeater, both Gilbert’s and golden whistler, and diamond firetails, bringing the trip total to 146. I missed out on a white-bellied cuckooshrike, a bird I first saw in Darwin last month but which has so far eluded me in Victoria.

Heading out after about 90 minutes in the wind, I made one final stop only a few minutes down the road. On a paddock in Powlett Plains, on my sixth attempt at this location and 20th attempt at this bird overall, I found two banded lapwings among the cattle. I have tried so many times and taken so many recommendations for guaranteed spots for these birds, and dipped every time. Even here it took 25 minutes as I crawled in my car along two different roads before doubling back and eventually getting them on Boort-Kurting Road. Thank god.

My final trip total was 147, including four lifers. I increased my totals in 15 different LGAs across two states. My New South Wales list jumped by 25 to 180, and my Victoria list only slightly, from 306 to 309. With the addition of common ostrich, black-eared cuckoo, painted honeyeater and banded lapwing, my overall life list is now at 513.