NSW and ACT TWITCHATHON

Report on the 2016 Twitchathon

Congratulations on a very successful weekend – there have been some excellent scores coming through, and some of the lists I’ve seen contain very nice birds! It was a struggle for most teams, particularly on the waterbird front, with many usually common species having completely disappeared from most areas of the state, making twitching difficult indeed.

We’ve raised a lot of money so far (including a lot of offline donations which don’t show up on the justgiving page), and I think we’re on target for our goals. Great work! Don’t forget to try and raise as much money as possible over the coming days, and remember that donors can easily contribute by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Twitchathon-NSW-ACT – those Gould’s Petrels need it!

I apologise for not responding to most of the texts and emails we have received over the past 24 hours – our inbox was so full we struggled to process it all in time for the results tonight!

Please remember to submit your full list of species recorded, incuding rarest bird, biggest dip, and kilometres travelled. This should be sent to twitchathon.nsw@gmail.com before Friday night, so we can finalise results and start working out prizes.

We had an outstanding 11 teams in the 24 hour race, 17 teams in the 12 hr race, and 26 teams in Birdathon. Without further ado, please find below the list of competing teams and the preliminary winners! Final national results and prize lists will be released in the coming weeks after donations have been finalised, and totals have been verified.

Cheers,

Joshua Bergmark & Ashwin Rudder

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TWICHATHON 24 HR

242 DODGY DRONGOS (Grant Brosie, Max Breckenridge, Joshua Bergmark)

233 HUNTER HOME BREWERS (Mick Roderick, Steve Roderick, Craig Anderson)

215 BACK O’ BOURKE BUZZARDS (Dan Williams, Darren Lyons, Paul Donaldson)

198 MENACING MONARCHS

194 DUNBOGAN DRONGOS

194 INGLOURIOUS BUSTARDS

192 THE GANG GANG GANG

190 BLACK-NECKED STALKERS

150 CENTRAL COAST CHAMPION CHOUGHS

111 MANY-EYED GOAT SUCKERS

80 NO RUDDY TURN LEFT UNSTONED

CHAMPAGNE 12 HR

177 RAVEN ON (Matt Hinze, Ethan Marshall, Henry Siems, Liam Murphy, Dwaine Laxdal)

140 LOUSY JACKS (Paul Burcher, Deryk Engel, Ross Rapmund, Stephen Bloomfield)

130 NAGY MAGGIES (Miranda Moore, Krishna Nagarajan, George Voss)

129 WHICH IS IT

125 NOT ONE WRONG TERN

118 PARADISE SHOAL DUCKS

104 FREE-FLYING JUNGLEFOWL

101 LITTLE REGRETS

95 WOODEN SPOONBILLS

93 STORKERS

91 THE CITY CHICKS

83 WAMBOIN WARBLERS

73 MATHESON MOPOKES

73 KOOKABURRITOS

71 CENTENNIALS

15 THE SEE BIRDS

KOOKABURRAS

BIRDATHON

115 CHEERFUL DRONGOES (NSW) – Michael Cheers, Kevin Cheers, Brad Bolt

82 SAWTELL BABBLERS (NSW) – Freyja Giese (11), Ruby Richards (11), Jorja Wells (11), Ellena Cheers-Flavell (13), Milla Giese (5)

76 GONE PISHING (ACT) – Julian Teh, Meredith Thomas

75 HYBRID MALLARDS (NSW)

73 SILLY GALAHS (NSW)

71 THE FOUR THICK KNEES (QLD)

68 TWITCHY’ AND SCRATCHY (NSW)

67 COURTING BOWERBIRDS (QLD)

61 GOLDEN OLDIES (QLD)

60 FLEA BITTERN (TAS)

60 A TEAM (TAS)

59 YAPRICADONNA FEATHERS (QLD)

57 MILLENIUM FALCONS (QLD)

56 CANTANKEROUS KITES (NSW)

55 THE ZEMEKS (QLD)

54 A MUSTER OF MARTINS (NSW)

49 BORONIA (NSW)

44 MILENNIAL FALCONS (TAS)

43    EAGER EAGLES (NSW)

43 WONGA CONGA (NSW)

43 CASSIE VOGELMANN (QLD)

42 SWIFT (NSW)

41 ORDINARY OWLS (QLD)

17 PAXTON PLOVERS (QLD)

TINAROO TWITCHERS (QLD)

SAWTELL STARS (NSW)

RAREST BIRD

White-browed Treecreeper, recorded by the Hunter Home Brewers

The Twitchathon succeeds each year thanks to the efforts of Alan Morris, who organises and coordinates the event.

The Main Race is a deadly serious affair, won for the third year running by the Menacing Monarchs with a total count of 250 species.

The Champagne race, ‘a light-hearted Twitchathon for the socially minded’, was won by the Raven Lunatics.

How did Birding NSW do?

The Champion Choughs

The Champion Choughs entered the Main Race. Their team consisted of Alan Morris (leader), Mike Kuhl and Steven Edwards. This was Alan’s 26th Twitchathon!  They started their twitch out on the northwestern side of the Macquarie Marshes near The Mole Station. Two minutes before start time, at 3.58 pm, they watched a Brown Quail thinking about crossing the road. Was this to be their first Twitch bird? Alas, not so – at 3.59 pm said Quail ran back into the reeds and they didn’t see another Brown Quail for the next 24 hours!  Still the birding proved great, conditions were perfect, and there were plenty of Magpie Geese, Wandering and Plumed Whistling-Ducks, Crakes, Rails and small bush birds to find. They finished the end of daylight with 120 species. Driving through the night, they got to their motel in Merriwa at 1 am for their three-hour break. Birding recommenced next morning at Medhurst Bridge, Martindale near Denman. Here they ticked Painted and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, while closer to home they had a Spotless Crake and their top bird, a Blue-billed Duck at the Tuggerah Sewage Treatment Works. The team travelled 783 km, saw 211 species and came fifth out of 18 teams. The result was the best ever for this team, their previous highest total was 202 on two previous occasions.

The Champagne Shriketits

The Champagne Shriketits entered the Champagne section. The team was made up of Elisabeth Karplus, Tom Karplus, Philip Brook, Anne van Roekel and Janine de La Begassiere. The Champagne Shriketits travelled 131 kms and saw or heard 131 species during the 24-hour period.  The rarest bird was the Green Catbird at Mitchell Park and the biggest dip was the Channel-billed Cuckoo though there were a number of other species the team were disappointed in not seeing. At the end of the 24-hour period, the team was celebrating with champagne at Pugh’s Lagoon (Windsor) only to discover that the Cumberland Bird Observers team, The Speckled Warblers, (who’d turned up unexpectedly) had beaten the Birding NSW team by two birds. Both teams drank to their mutual great efforts and the 2012 challenge!

Team Which Is It

In the Champagne Race, team Which Is It, made up of Margaret and Kaye Pointer, and Michael Breheny, birded around Mangrove Mountain, Bucketty, Yarramalong, Tuggerah and The Entrance. They travelled 153 km, saw 127 species and came ninth out of 19 teams. The team reported their best birds as the Comb-crested Jacana at Pioneer Dairy Wetlands and Lewin’s Rail and Chestnut-breasted Mannikins at McPhersons Road Swamp, Tuggerah.

If you would like to know more about the twitching rules and how to plan your Twitchathon for future years click here.

Full information on the Twitchathon will be in the February 2012 newsletter.