by Tanya Loos
Coming from Melbourne, I was fortunate to be able to attend this fun weekend and was invited by the Wings on King organiser extraordinaire Kate Ravich to write about it.
The big news is that another site has been located for the Critically Endangered KI Brown Thornbill - and volunteers rewarded with amazing views, thanks to the Wings on King team and ecologist Mark Holdsworth.
This Spring survey weekend comprised 6 teams; 18 adults; 4 littlies and one 11 yr old so effectively 23 participants. And a whopping 61 sites were surveyed!
My birdwatching buddy Kent and I were in a team of our own, called “the Loos ends” after my surname Loos. It wouldn’t be proper birding without a pun! As we are both reasonably fit, and keen as mustard, we were assigned survey sites with scrambling, climbing, four wheel driving and fence crawling. The survey methodology uses the
standard 20 min 2 ha survey method, on the King Island shared sites, using the Birdata app on our smartphones. As we are both big Birdata fans (well me more than Kent!) this was easy as.
We carried out seven surveys on the first day, and five on the second day - each survey came with its own map and instructions, which were easy to follow.
We saw KI Black Currawongs catching flies in dune scrub, Strong-billed and Yellow-throated Honeyeaters in remnant forest on large farms, and Tasmanian Thornbills just about everywhere! We crept through ancient remnants with tall tree ferns (also known as man ferns locally) and giant banksias , enjoying the wildflowers in season. We were at first stumped by the local dialects of the Grey Shrike-thrush, and it took us a little while on one of the sites to correctly separate female Flame Robins from the local Dusky Robins.
The absence of foxes on the island has resulted in a strange addition to the roadsides and paddocks of King Island. Along with very high numbers of Bennett’s Wallabies, Turkeys, Pheasants and even Peafowl (Peacocks) in full breeding plumage may be seen all over the island. These birds are introduced, and naturalised, meaning they support breeding populations in the wild.
Like all Wings on King events - it wasn’t solely bird surveying. On the Saturday night, the KI locals hosted a delicious and convivial community dinner. We heard from legendary bird call recordist Fred van Gessel, whose name you may recognise if you use the excellent Menkhorst and Knight Birds of Australia smartphone app. And ecologist Mark Holdsworth gave us a great overvirew of the current status of the King Island Scrubtit and the KI Brown Thornbill.
BUT OF COURSE! THE HIGHLIGHT!
On the Sunday morning, Mark led an enthusiastic team of KI locals and out of town volunteers to see and hear the King Island Brown Thornbill. The ANU-led research team who visited the island in March, discovered that a particular KI Brown Thornbill call encourages local birds to come down from the canopy to investigate and that's what we used.
After a short presentation, we travelled to a site with tall eucalypt forest which appears to be a habitat type favoured by the species. The location is not posted online, to avoid too many enthusiastic twitchers and photographers disturbing the birds.
Mark played the call from a small speaker, and within about 4 seconds a KI Brown Thornbill flew in to a tree right near us. Looking like a Tasmanian Thornbill at first glance - but then so so different! The bill was long and pointed, and looked simply huge as the little bird called vigorously back to the playback. Most of us had very good views of the bird as it perched and moved about on trunks and branches about 3/4 up the canopy.
As the Wings on King team are very keen for volunteers to be able to confidently identify the species, we set off down the road to play calls at more sites and ensure everyone had a good view. During this time we carefully learnt all the features of the Tasmanian Thornbill, including the key difference - white fluffy undertail feathers that are easy to see as the bird often holds its tail cocked.
We were rewarded in spades about an hour or two later, not far from the original site. We spotted one KI Thornbill, then another, and all had the enormous pleasure of watching them forage! The pair flew into a eucalyptus tree, then wandered up the trunk, using their long bills to probe and glean for insects under the bark and in crevices. The foraging style was very similar to a Red-browed Treecreeper, but the movement similar to a Varied Sitella. Treecreepers and Sitellas are absent from King Island.
We were very excited to observe one that looked to be collecting nesting material!! It was picking at cobwebs with its incredible bill. But then it continued foraging, without going to a nest. Perhaps it was eating baby spiders? Amazingly, another KI Thornbill appeared, making it a group of three, and Mark said this one was calling a call much like a juvenile thornbill - so it may have been a fledgling.
Meanwhile, a few volunteers observed another two KI Thornbills on the other side of the road very close to where they were looking for orchids. So effectively, we had 5 Thornbills around us simultaneously.
Very little is known about the foraging ecology and nesting behaviour of this Critically Endangered bird, so we were all blown away by the experience! It was a great privilege to watch the birds going about their daily business, seemingly unconcerned by the group of humans gathered to watch the spectacle.
The Wings on King team, in particular Kate Ravich and Ash Kennedy, should be congratulated for organising and delivering an excellent weekend that will be sure to have ongoing and lasting impact for this species, as more and more volunteers get to know and love the little #kingislandsnorkerbill (as Mark dubbed it in one of his tweets!)
I know we will definitely return again, to help Wings on King and the King Island Brown Thornbill.
Wings On King is an on-going project designed so survey sites can be monitored at any time - whenever it suits YOU.
Like to know more about the Wings On King Project click here
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