Urban Birder

New South Wales

Early morning on Bennets Gorge Track

in

This recording was made at Gundabooka NP shortly after dawn. I'd initially positioned the mikes in a spot that had few birds calling so I moved the mikes about 100m to a stop just off the road to Bennet's Gorge where Grey Shrike Thrush were calling. Species that can be heard in the background include Crested Bellbird, Rufous Songlark and Blacked Eared Cuckoo and Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo.

The recording was made with an Oade Brothers modified Tascam HDP2 and a pair of Audio Technica AT3032 omnidirectional Mics.

I've added a short 7 second section of predawn stillness to the end of this recording to give an idea of the level of noise generated by the recording chain.


7:39 minutes (12.54 MB)

spiny-cheeked honeyeater NR example

in

This clip is a after and before comparison of the use of noise reduction on nature sound recordings. While the Izotope RX denoiser plugin is quite effective at eliminating background hiss examining the clip using a sonogram shows that some fine detail in the recording is also lost.


0:52 minutes (988.11 KB)

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters at Round Hill

in

This chorus of Spiny-cheeked honeyeaters was recorded at Roundhill NR in NSW just before sunrise. A spotted night-jar also makes an appearance close to the start. Red-capped Robin can be heard through the later part of the recording.

The original recording has a heavy layer of hiss which is probably due to the recorder running on close to flat batteries - they died completely shortly after I finished record this. I've used a demo copy of the Izotope RX noise reduction plugins to reduce some of the more prominent hiss and ApEQ to reduce the low frequency wind rumble.


6:02 minutes (6.81 MB)

Gundabooka National Park

Posted September 20th, 2009 by nicole
in

GundabookaGundabooka

When we arrived at Gundabooka for a five day workshop with the Australian Sound Recording Group we knew straight away we were going to have a great time. Gundabooka National Park was in peak condition after heavy rainfall earlier in the year, resulting in a widespread flowering of eremophila and wildflowers throughout the region.

Mt GundabookaMt Gundabooka

On arrival we headed for the Belah Shearers Quarters which was to be our home for the next five days. After greeting the other members and settling into our rooms we set of for a quick explore of the nearby dam and bush before dinner. DaisyDaisyWe could hear Black Honeyeaters calling and it wasn't long before we saw them flitting around, these became one of the most common honeyeaters seen over the next five days. On the way to the dam we came across a party of Chestnut-crowned Babblers, a pair of Striped Honeyeaters in a nest that looked as if it was a hanging basket made of spiders web and a Spotted Bowerbird amongst other species. At the dam Black-fronted Dotterels were feeding around the margins, and an Australasian Grebe was on the water. A flock of Cockatiels were perched in a dead tree and later came down to drink. Mallee Ringnecks and Mulga Parrots were also nearby.

Track to Bennets GorgeTrack to Bennets Gorge

The next day the group went on a field trip to Bennets Gorge, fewer birds were seen in this area but perhaps not surprising as there were 20 of us marching through the bush, however we did see some Zebra Finch at the Mount Gundabooka Outlook and some were lucky enough to see a Black-eared Cuckoo.

Spotted Bowerbird BowerSpotted Bowerbird Bower

Later in the afternoon a member of the group had discovered the Spotted Bowerbird's Bower. The bower was decorated with all sorts of found objects, a light globe took central position within the bower and an assortment of concrete, rocks and zinc bolts decorated the front. About half a metre away another area was decorated with a colorful cacheBowerbird cacheBowerbird cache.
My favorite objects here were a pair of child's safety scissors with bright red handles and a coiled piece of orange plastic coated electrical wire these were complimented with an array of bluish coloured items.

EremophilaEremophilaMy highlight of the third day was a visit to a spot along the road a few kilometers north of the shearers quarters. A member of the group had successfully recorded Painted and Pied Honeyeaters here the day before and had reported seeing Painted Honeyeaters nesting. As we approached we flushed a couple of Diamond Doves which were sunning themselves of the road. Jill and Howard were already at the site and alerted us to a Pied Honeyeater which was calling mournfully from a dead tree, the Painted Honeyeaters could be heard calling not far away. As we stood waiting for the Painted Honeyeaters to make an appearance Black Honeyeaters were feeding on the nearby eremophila, Budgies and Woodswallow flew overhead. After a while a Painted Honeyeater flew down the the edge of the road to collect some nesting material and we were able to have a good look at its colors in the brilliant early morning sunshine. After watching the honeyeaters for a while we decided to return for the mornings presentation.

Mulga Ant NestMulga Ant Nest

Other birding highlights for the trip were a pair of Major Mitchells Cockatoos which were seen preening in a tree by the dam who also made several flyovers of the camp and a group of Red-winged Parrots that appeared on the third day and were seen on several occasions after that.

Throughout the week interesting talks were provided by the members and many members were able to make excellent recordings of some unusual nomadic species as well as some more common but interesting species. In all 22 AWSRG members, partners and friends attended the Workshop, including four United Kingdom based members. One new AWSRG member made a long trek from Western Australia by plane, train, bus and automobile to reach the workshop venue, whilst many others drove from NSW, Victoria and Queensland. The 2009 AWSRG Workshop was an event that will doubtless be fondly remembered for years to come by participants.

Gundabooka National Park bird list

Cocoparra National Park and Binya State Forest

Posted September 15th, 2009 by nicole
in

CocoparraCocoparra

We arrived at Cocoparra in the afternoon and drove to the Woolshed Flats camping ground. Initially we were unimpressed by the degraded conditions of the camp ground but as we'd just spent a week at Gundabooka National Park I think we were a bit spoilt. However, soon after setting up the tent by the dry creek things improved, we noticed a pair of Jacky Winter with a nest just above our tent, our presence didn't seem to bother them too much as they foraged for insects around our campsite. Other birds also appeared Dusky Woodswallows, Mallee Ringneck, Mulga Parrots, Varied Sitella and White-browed Babblers noisily foraging around the creek bed. In the distance a Western Gerygone and Rufous Whistler were calling.

Around 4pm we went for a walk in the bush near to the camp ground and saw many thornbills, a few honeyeaters and what looked like a single female Black Honeyeater. In the open woodland area near to the fire management track we saw many birds foraging on or near the ground, including Crimson Chat, Brown Treecreeper, Rufous Songlark, around 12 White-winged Trillers, Southern Whiteface and Yellow Robin. Back at the campsite Peaceful Doves were cooing from the trees. A Black-eared Cuckoo made an appearance calling from the top of a dead tree until it was chased off by another bird.

The next day birds were still active around the campsite we could hear a Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo calling with the Back-eared Cuckoo calling for comparison in the background. A Restless Flycatcher was actively hunting repeatedly making his scissor grinding call.

After packing up the campsite we headed for Binya State Forest to look for a Turquoise Parrot. We had heard Wattle Dam was a good site to see this bird. We found Wattle Dam just off Wattle Track, the site was being patrolled by a large group of Choughs which called to alert all of the birds in the area of our presence with their loud descending calls. We spent about 30 minutes looking and noticed a few Red-Rumped Parrots but could not find any Turquoise, on the way back to the car a couple of parrots flew into a thicket of Cypress, while I was looking intently into the bushes Paul saw a lovely Turquoise Parrot perched in the tree in the sunshine. Initially we thought it to be female until the wind blew its wing covets and revealed a brilliant patch of red. After a few minutes the parrot obligingly faced the other way to show us his backside then after a few more minutes made a series of short calls then flew off making longer flight calls so that we could hear the difference.

Falcon FallsFalcon Falls

After this we headed up to Spring Hill Picnic area for a walk up to Falcon Falls. This is a very pretty walk up to what would be a small waterfall near the top of the rocky cliffs if not dry, many small birds were seen on the way including Silvereye. There was still a small amount of water near the top of the cliff, some Peaceful Doves and White-browed Babblers were seen nearby. After a short while we saw a lovely Peregrine Falcon sitting on a tree near the top of the cliffs, we could hear loud calls coming from with a crevice nearby, the falcon took of and flew into the crevice where we assumed there was a nest with chick.

In our short stay we saw an impressive number of birds however there did appear to be a lack of honeyeaters, many plants were flowering however not the honeyeater attracting species. A longer stay with visits to more sites would most likely reveal many more species. This is a very scenic park really worth visiting.

The Murrumbidgee Field Nats have some helpful notes on Cocoparra and Binya included in the Bird Routes of Griffth .

Cocoparra Trip List

Map of Cocoparra

Yenda Supermarket: A good place to buy supplies. They make a good foccaica and also sell affogatto here.Yenda Supermarket: A good place to buy supplies. They make a good foccaica and also sell affogatto here.