The Deskbound Birder: Grey Fantail

Showing posts with label Grey Fantail. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 December 2015

Australia, Fiji and New Caledonia - 26th November (Day 16)

Another early start we were heading for the Farino area and recent sightings of the elusive New Caledonian Thicketbird and a few additional endemics to see. We left the hotel at 05:15 and after much discussion stopped at two pic-nic areas 15km east of the turning to Farino on the Canala Road (07:00-09:00). On route we stopped at a perched juvenile accipiter which despite close views we could not definitively identify, the balance was in favour of the endemic White-bellied Goshawk rather than Brown Goshawk but we were unsure. There had been sightings of the thicketbird at the first pic-nic area at 14km two weeks before but alas despite much bashing of the grassland habitats (mainly by MK and AD) we were unsuccessful in our task. Birds seen in this area included Striated Starling (a nesting colony present) Glossy Swiftlet, Cloven-feathered Dove (at least six present and one bird seen), Yellow-bellied Robin and Goliath Imperial Pigeon.

Drinks were needed and we spend a silly amount of time driving back and forth looking for a café, en-route stopping at a turn just over the bridge to the south of La Fao where two Red-throated Parrotfinch fed amongst the introduced (but stunning) Common Waxbill. A Rufous Night-heron was flushed from the bamboo thickets here. We should have stuck with the first suggestion of coffee at La Fao as this seemed to offer the only option with a great coffee and cake shop. We spent two hours relaxing here before heading to Les Grandes Park Fougeres Provincal. Birding in the car park initially which produced views of White-bellied Goshawk, an adult, identification was confirmed and the dodgy juvenile seen earlier was forgotten. Here to the main task was the Thicketbird, Volkert had spoken to a park guard who had, allegedly, directed us to drive to the start of a trailhead but as soon as we set off we were intercepted and told that we couldn't drive on the track, Volkert’s powers of French had failed us and we felt absconded. We set-off on foot along the trail that the park guard had said was the best for Thicketbird but the trail extended through forest and was clearly not right for the species we were searching for. A Kagu appeared on the trail and we delighted in this more timid and unringed bird as it hammered a fallen tree for grubs tossing bark left and right. A fantastic experience and we delighted as the Kagu slunk secretively back into the forest – it is truly hard to express what a unique and unmissable birding experience the Kagu is.

The rest of the day was spent birding the trails, car park and entrance to the park seeing a range of birds we had seen before by unfortubatey despite much effort no thicketbird. We headed off at around 17:30 quite satisfied with our land based birding on new Caledonia despite missing two endemics, New Caledonian Thicketbird and Crow Honeyeater.

Striated Starling - Canala Road, Farino, New Caledonia

Red-throated Parrotfinch - La Fao, New Caledonia

Grey Fantail - La Fao, New Caledonia

White-bellied Goshawk - Les Grandes Park Fougeres Provincal, New Caledonia

White-breasted Woodswallow - Les Grandes Park Fougeres Provincal, New Caledonia

Kagu - Les Grandes Park Fougeres Provincal, New Caledonia

South Melanesian Cuckooshrike - Les Grandes Park

Fougeres Provincal, New Caledonia

Orchid - Les Grandes Park Fougeres Provincal, New Caledonia

Panoramic view of Les Grandes Park Fougeres Provincal, New Caledonia

Links to other days of the trip

Day 1-3 (Part 1) - Fly LHR to Sydney, birding Centennial Park then drive to Capertee Valley.

Day 1-3 (Part 2) - Fly LHR to Sydney, birding Centennial Park then drive to Capertee Valley.

Day 4 - Capertee Valley, Sydney.

Day 5 - Fly Sydney to Viti Levu, Fiji then on to Tavueni, Fiji.

Day 6 - Tavueni, Fiji.

Day 7 - Tavueni then fly to Viti Levu, Fiji.

Day 8 - Viti Levu then fly to Kadavu, Fiji.

Day 9 - Kadavu, Fiji.

Day 10 - Kadavu, Fiji then fly to Viti Levu, Fiji.

Day 11 - Viti Levu, Fiji.

Day 12 - Viti Levu, Fiji.

Day 13 - Viti Levu, Fiji.

Day 14 - Fly Viti Levu to Auckland then to Noumea, New Caledonia.

Day 15 - Parc Riviere Bleu, New Caledonia.

Day 17 - Pelagic from Noumea, New Caledonia

Day 18 - Fly Noumea, New Caledonia to Sydney then bird Royal National Park.

Day 19-20 - Royal National Park then fly Sydney to London.

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Australia, Fiji and New Caledonia - 24th November (Day 14)

We were up at 04:00 ready to transfer to the airport when Martin informed us that we had received tickets for flights from Fiji to Auckland (New Zealand) at 09:45 and then Auckland to New Caledonia (14:15) arriving in New Caledonia at 15:10. We had a leisurely breakfast and headed to the airport, seeing a cracking Fiji Parrotfinch on the hotel lawn as we left, and all went smoothly, the plane departed on time and we were off albeit a day late.

The stop in New Zealand was novel as I had not been to the islands before and we flew over Cape Reinga and south to Auckland. While taxiing and in the airport we recorded Northern Red-breasted Dotteral, Starling, House Sparrow, Sky Lark, Black-shouldered Lapwing and Black-winged Stilt – the first species on my New Zealand list. Our flight departed on time and we flew in over the spectacular reefs spotted with islands and parched land of New Caledonia arriving on schedule at 15:10.

We collected our cars from Hertz and after a quick stop for drinks birded a gravelled road lined with scrub extending east from the main highway along a river valley to the south of Toro. We recorded our first species for New Caledonia including Streaked Fantail, Rufous Whistler, Green-backed White-eye, White-breasted Woodswallow, Fan-tailed Gerygone and Grey-eared Honeyeater. At around 17:00 we headed south to our hotel in the capital Noumea and after AD deftly navigated the streets of the city we arrived at our hotel on the seafront, the Nouvata Park Hotel a massive tourist complex and quite alien in comparison to our previous accommodation. We popped out to a local grill, being provided with raw fish to cook on a hot slate and enjoyed cold beers while planning our now reduced time in New Caledonia. We had arranged a pelagic trip from Noumea and a charter flight to Lifou and Ouvea, islands to the east of the main island Grand Terre, these islands support a small number of endemics that we were keen to see. However, due to the lost day we had to drop one of these days and put to the vote the island trip was axed.