Exploring Sydney - and further afield. (2 Viewers)

[James Jobling]

Your mention of Edwin Vella brought back fond memories of a trip to Australia in April 2008, when he was the guide on a Follow That Bird coach excursion with Janene Luff as leader/driver to Putty Road, Bushells Lagoon, McGrath Hill S.F., the Colo River, Wollemi N. P., Howes Swamp and the Macquarie towns along the Upper Hawkesbury River. It was all very civilized - we stopped for morning tea, lunch, and afternoon ice-creams! He kept up a running commentary on every bird seen. The highlight was a Square-tailed Kite near Wilberforce. He will not remember me (the English birder on the coach who insisted on sitting in the seat nearest the exit), but please pass on my regards and thanks again when you next meet him.

 

[MKinHK]

This is a great connection James - many thanks for posting. I'll pass the message on at the next opportunity.

Richmond Lowlands: Part II - Pugh's Lagoon
Sunday 16 July

To round off the morning we headed over to Pugh's Lagoon - a site I'd visited on my previous visit to Richmond and Windsor back in April this year. In addition to the usual Nankeen Night Herons and Azure Kingfishers we were also looking for a reported Spangled Drongo and a White-billed Cuckooshrike. I've sneaked in a dodgy pic of the Manakins as the drongo pic is a classic case of "best viewed reduced size".



We scored with all of the above. Although I managed no decent pix of the Azure Kingfisher or the Nankeen Night Herons the Spangled Drongo shot through the scope provided a record shot and the pics of the White-bellied Cuckooshrike, which was an interestingly dark-breasted individual that required care to separate from the larger and much commoner Black-faced Cuckooshrike ( below on the green background - taken in Kamay Botany Bay NP a couple of weeks earlier). But the faint black scalloping on the breast a nd the hint of a grey edge behind the rear of the eye and the proportionally longer and more slender bill provide the subtle indicators that the upper bird is indeed White-bellied Cuckooshrike.





Big thanks to Ian, Veeraj and Edwin for an excellent morning's birding.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Photospot: Brown Thornbill
Royal National Park- Waterfall Helipad
1 July 2023



This Brown Thornbill was part of a nice group of passerines that responded to pishing on the edge of Waterfall Helipad at the start of a visit to Royal National Park with Ian Mo back at the beginning of the month. Other birds in the wave included a couple of Scarlet Myzomelas, Superb Fairywrens and White-browed Scrubwrens, a steady passage of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and, pick of the bunch, a typically immaculate Beautiful Firetail.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Seawatching at Manly
22& 23 July 2023



After a long year and a half of missing the telescope that face-planted fatally into a pavement kerb I finally pulled the trigger on a beautiful new Kowa 88 angled scope. While I did take it out to Richmond Lowlands and enjoyed watching the somnolent breathing of any local pair of Tawny Frogmouths the proper test for me came from two sea-watching sessions during a rare period when the winds blew from the south at Shelly Beach carpark (1) in Manly. Conditions were pretty similar on both days, late afternoon sunshine from WNW picking out the details on birds a good couple of kilometres out to sea.



And in a season with not many records of seabirds I did OK, identifying out my first Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross from shore on the Saturday a typically snowball-headed, button-eyed juvenile, from twenty or thirty casually circulating Black-browed Albatrosses, as well as a fine adult White-capped Albatross the following day. For the second year running I picked up a Giant Petrel, but it never came close enough to pick out the colour of the bill tip that would have enabled me to identify it to species. I also learned that my ambition of swiftly switching to phone-scoping to capture such details was much harder than I imagined. Indeed I'd done better last winter with my trusty Sony RX10iv, albeit on substantially closer birds. Those pix show the difference in the underwing pattern between White-capped (narrow borders) and Black-browed Albatrosses (broader borders).

But the additional reach of the scope nonetheless gave me a much greater sense that I was in the game. One full scan from Long Reef (2) in the north round to Bluefish Point (3) delivered a terrific total of 53 Black-browed Albatrosses! I enjoyed picking up the pale flash on the centre of the underwings of a couple of very Short-tailed/ Sooty Shearwaters. At this range I had no prospect of identifying them to species as Sooty and Short-tailed Shearwaters are extremely similar. This was rather frustrating as I've seen neither since arriving in Sydney - and neither should really be here at this time of year. Some similarly distant small shearwaters showing all-pale undersides wheeled and arced above the choppier water, but again went down as an indeterminate Hutton's / Fluttering Shearwaters.

More satisfying was a fast-moving brown bird flying low and very directly over the water. last winter I had a couple of views of distant jaegers, but never a sniff of the substantially heftier Brown Skua, which the chunky body, pale bases to the outer primaries and the burly intent absolutely confirmed it to be.

The only other seabirds were a couple of hundred Silver Gulls, 20-odd Australian Gannets, single figures of Crested Terns and a party of nine Little black Cormorants on the second visit. An Osprey went over both days, and three eternally gorgeous Sooty Oystercatchers added the the inshore entertainment as they fed on the wave-cut platform some 15 metres below my watchpoint.

I was gutted not to be back for the third day - a Monday - with even stronger winds - but the day job unfortunately had to take priority.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Frank van Drogen]

That's an awesome looking scope Mike!

 

[MoMoBoy124]

Great read Mike! Awesome to re-live the birding day with your excellent write up.

 

[MKinHK]

I grin like a Cheshire Cat every time I look through it Frank
Many thanks Ian - it was such a great day out.

Kamay Botany Bay National Park: Solander Point and Terrigal Gap Trail
9 July 2023

A second visit to Solander Point delivered right away as the Lewin's Rail that has performed like a champion did exactly that, and I enjoyed almost unbelievble views of this normally inveterate skulker as it foraged in a pool right next to the boardwalk while a steady stream of visitors chattered past.





The steady westerlies had attracted the Black-browed Albatrosses to come in close for some cliff surfing and a steady stream of Humpback Whales heading north added to the spectacle of a blustery day by the sea.





I had no joy with the Southern Emu Wrens in the windy conditions but the same conditions delivered wonderful close views of a Swamp Harrier that came almost right overhead at the Terrigal Track pond, which was otherwise rather quiet.





Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Birding from home: Northbridge Peninsula



Two weeks ago we moved from Cremorne Point to Northbridge which is just couple of kilometres NW of where we were previously. The big difference is that we are no longer in a blow-street-level flat, but instead in a house (1) looking north over the forested slopes Sailors Bay Creek (2) . We can't quite see the water, but this is a short stream with a muddy mangrove-fringed mouth. There are stretches of habitat and views over the water all round the peninsula, all of them better than anything at Cremorne, and my recent walks have delivered The numbers on the aerial image below show these patches along the route of an anti-clockwise dog walk, except for (8) which is the sports field for a local school, where I capped my birdiest ever dog walk with my 45th and 46th species - a Magpie-lark and a pair of Masked Lapwings.



Spot No 3 is Flat Rock Creek, a park which runs from the right-hand corner of the sports field through a well-wooded steep-sided valley and down a couple of small waterfalls before flattening out for the final few hundred metres.



It then disappears into a drain underneath the Tunks Park Sports Field (4), which has contiguous habitat on its equally steep sides. The habitat on the northern edge is contiguous with the woods around the golf course and right all along the coast past Wreck Bay (6), but it required a steep climb from the coastal path the check out the ponds (5)on the eastern corner of the golf course. Thankfully the course is public and not too busy so we can walk where we like provided we respect the golfers, the greens, and keep safe. The final piece of habitat is Clive Park (7) at the eastern tip of the peninsula, where this Maned Duck had taken a liking to an old post.




Best birds so far include King Parrots seen from home, Grey and Collared Sparrowhawks (they were few and far between at Cremorne), Striated Herons at both Sailors Bay and Flat Rock Creek, flyover Australian Pelicans and a whole bunch of passerines for which there simply not enough habitat at Cremorne. These include Red Wattlebird, Brown Thornbill, Brown Gerygone, Crimson-browed Firetail, Grey Fantail, Eastern Yellow Robin and Eastern Spinebill. Both Superb and Variegated Fairy Wrens are present, as are the ever-wonderful Spotted Pardalotes. Also new owing to the presence of fresh water are the Coot, Dusky Moorhen and Australasian Grebe on the golf course ponds, which are just about big enough to hold Maned Duck and Pacific Black Duck. There are good numbers of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and a fine flock of 45+ Little Corellas enlivened our walk across the golf course this morning. Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants like Flat Rock Creek and Sailor Bay respectively, and an adult Australasian Darter was drying itself on the end of Castle Crag this morning.



All in all a significant upgrade birdwise from Cremorne! And to provide a little context the site I saw my first Owlet Nightjar back in is just a kilometre or so further north in Castle Crag.

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Seawatching at Manly
Sunday 6th August 2023

My quest to put Shelly Beach carpark at Manly on the Syndey sea birding map continued with a wonderful four albatross day on 6 August.

25+ Black-browed Albatrosses, including four or five loafing on the sea just offshore when I arrived, two juvenile Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, three White-capped Albatrosses further out and - the jewel in the crown - a fabulous adult male exulans or 'Snowy' Wandering Albatross tracking its way slowly north with an astonished-looking entourage of Silver Gulls!

This last bird was also picked up off Maroubra by Richard Murray some 25 minutes earlier. I also learned from his post that albatrosses come inshore to feed on Giant Cuttlefish which die and float to the surface after breeding at this time of year, which perhaps explains why they sit about on the sea just offshore and are happy to generally hand about the Sydney area.

A final Brown Skua was a little more icing on a very rich cake.



Cheers
Mike

 

[etudiant]

Birding from home: Northbridge Peninsula

View attachment 1525644

Two weeks ago we moved from Cremorne Point to Northbridge which is just couple of kilometres NW of where we were previously. The big difference is that we are no longer in a blow-street-level flat, but instead in a house (1) looking north over the forested slopes Sailors Bay Creek (2) . We can't quite see the water, but this is a short stream with a muddy mangrove-fringed mouth. There are stretches of habitat and views over the water all round the peninsula, all of them better than anything at Cremorne, and my recent walks have delivered The numbers on the aerial image below show these patches along the route of an anti-clockwise dog walk, except for (8) which is the sports field for a local school, where I capped my birdiest ever dog walk with my 45th and 46th species - a Magpie-lark and a pair of Masked Lapwings.

View attachment 1525646

Spot No 3 is Flat Rock Creek, a park which runs from the right-hand corner of the sports field through a well-wooded steep-sided valley and down a couple of small waterfalls before flattening out for the final few hundred metres.

View attachment 1525684 View attachment 1525685

It then disappears into a drain underneath the Tunks Park Sports Field (4), which has contiguous habitat on its equally steep sides. The habitat on the northern edge is contiguous with the woods around the golf course and right all along the coast past Wreck Bay (6), but it required a steep climb from the coastal path the check out the ponds (5)on the eastern corner of the golf course. Thankfully the course is public and not too busy so we can walk where we like provided we respect the golfers, the greens, and keep safe. The final piece of habitat is Clive Park (7) at the eastern tip of the peninsula, where this Maned Duck had taken a liking to an old post.

View attachment 1525773

View attachment 1525682 View attachment 1525683
Best birds so far include King Parrots seen from home, Grey and Collared Sparrowhawks (they were few and far between at Cremorne), Striated Herons at both Sailors Bay and Flat Rock Creek, flyover Australian Pelicans and a whole bunch of passerines for which there simply not enough habitat at Cremorne. These include Red Wattlebird, Brown Thornbill, Brown Gerygone, Crimson-browed Firetail, Grey Fantail, Eastern Yellow Robin and Eastern Spinebill. Both Superb and Variegated Fairy Wrens are present, as are the ever-wonderful Spotted Pardalotes. Also new owing to the presence of fresh water are the Coot, Dusky Moorhen and Australasian Grebe on the golf course ponds, which are just about big enough to hold Maned Duck and Pacific Black Duck. There are good numbers of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and a fine flock of 45+ Little Corellas enlivened our walk across the golf course this morning. Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants like Flat Rock Creek and Sailor Bay respectively, and an adult Australasian Darter was drying itself on the end of Castle Crag this morning.

View attachment 1525774 View attachment 1525775

All in all a significant upgrade birdwise from Cremorne! And to provide a little context the site I saw my first Owlet Nightjar back in is just a kilometre or so further north in Castle Crag.

Cheers
Mike

Seems a wonderful walk with great birds, the pooches must be delighted as well.

 

[3Italianbirders]

Wow, what a beast Mike! Well done!

 

[MKinHK]

Warriewood Wetlands and Long Reef
Sunday 13 August
Two Sundays ago I teamed up with Veeraj Sharma to look for waders at Long Reef. Veeraj kindly picked me up from home, and as the tide was not low until mid-morning we headed to the nearby Warriewood Wetlands. We dipped on our targets - Black Bittern and Little Grassbird - and the Flying Fox colony from my last visited had shifted far enough away that we could neither see, hear or smell it. However Veeraj did pick up two calling Spotless Crakes on what was an otherwise rather quiet visit. I was surprised to see a Pacific Black Duck perched on a fern root some six feet off the ground. I could see no immediate reason for this as its mate seemed perfectly happy at the base of the tree, but there it was.


We did rather better at Long Reef, I had a great moment with the Australian Pelicans loitering around Fishermens' Beach. First up was a fly-by from a bird that came past low, slow, large, and dead level - the perfect bird-in-flight target! This was followed shortly thereafter by a bird that spotted what was a presumably struggling fish in the shallows - a Yellowtail Kingfish that was clearly in no state to have any sense.


We headed out to th e tip with the tide well off the rock platform and quickly found a Double-banded Plover amongst a flock some 50 Red-necked Stints, half-a-dozen Ruddy Turnstones, two Grey-tailed Tattlers, and later on a pair of Sooty Oystercatchers.


More to come

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

In belated reply to 3IB and etudiant respectively:

3IB: The Albatross was an absolute monster, and so big that I was able to pick it out every time I looked for about 20 minutes as is tracked very slowly northwards towards Long Reef (point 2 on the linked photo) from My earlier post on sea watching at Manly.

etudiant: I loved the walk but the dogs were knackered - the distance was more than treble their usual!

Warriewood Wetlands and Long Reef (part II)

We headed out to the tip of Long Reef with the tide well off the rock platform and quickly found a Double-banded Plover amongst a flock some 50 Red-necked Stints,half-a-dozen Ruddy Turnstones, two Grey-tailed Tattlers, and later on a pair of Sooty Oystercatchers. As you can see I have plenty to lear about getting the course wright when taking pix from my phone!




The Grey-tailed Tattlers and Double-banded Plover were lifers for Veeraj as were the two Black-browed Albatrosses that we saw at some distance off the easternmost tip of the point. But the top highlight of my day were the pairs of Greater Crested Terns that were at the pink-tinged pink of their breeding finery, displaying gently to one another in between loafing on the rocks and washing in the shallower pools.



Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Northbridge, Castlecrag and Harold Reid Reserve
26 August 2023


Realising that there was good habitat within walking distance just to the North I walked from home (1) to Warners Park (2) and up through Castle Crag and down a steep and narrow path (3) into the forest that runs into Harold Reid Reserve. I started with a couple of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos munching on baby pine cones and a male Australian Brush Turkey dragging material towards a nest, and at one stage doing so quite acrobatically as it leaped onto a straw-bestrewn stump and hacked away.



As I watched him a pair of Brown Goshawks and a separate juvenile came floating over and gave fine views as they clearly enjoyed the thermals over Castle Crag. I also learned that the guidebooks suggestion that bulging secondaries were indicative of Collared Sparrowhawk is not a reliable feature , and the graduated tail giving a rounded shape is diagnostic for Brown Goshawk.



Dropping onto the broad damp valley floor (4) I was happy to find a winding river through a tropical-looking habitat with the ground heavily turned by Bandicoots. It took a little while to dig some birds out but a Laughing Kookaburra lurking low, a showy Eastern Whipbird, an Eastern Yellow Robin, a group of five Crimson-browed Finches and my first couple of Lewin's Honeyeater on the new patch all appeared as I made my way to the waterfall at the top of the valley and then up the trail to the contour path in Harold Reid Reserve.





More to come ...

Cheers
Mike

 

[foresttwitcher]

Once again great landscape / habitat context shots, Mike.

 

[delia todd]

That looks to be beautiful unspoiled habitat!!!

Surprised it's taken you so long to see Lewin's though, unless they're scarce in your area! But annoyed you got such a cracking view of the whipbird when all I got was a sense of movement under a bush!!! Well done indeed.

Thanks Mike.

 

[MKinHK]

Thanks Pete. When you drop into these gullies it's like the houses above are simply not there. Stay tuned for more.

Lewin's Rail is typically a tough bird to see Delia, but I only really tried once for it before connecting. As for Whipbirds ...I hear them every day from home and have had good views on not more that two or three occasions.

Northbridge, Castlecrag and Harold Reid Reserve
26 August 2023 Part II

I realise I forgot two important moments from the bottom of the valley. The first was a surprise Little Pied Cormorant that came swimming up the creek and then perched up on a bare branch to dry its wings.Even after the bird perched on the open branch at the bottom of Flat Rock Creek I was totally unprepared to see a cormorant deep in the forest in such a small creek.



The second was an Australian Bush Leech stretching out to catch onto me from an ankle-high leaf. It failed, but I did pick another off the edge of my trainer before it had found a way onto my ankle.



As I emerged out of the creek bottom onto the contour path that runs around the reserve. I figured I'd take advantage of being eye level with the tree tops and see what might push in. While there were no surprises I enjoyed the views of Eastern Spinebill and Spotted Pardalotes that came to eyeball me as well as the usual White-browed Scrubwrens, Brown Thornbills, Variegated Fairy Wrens and a female Golden Whistler.




A little further on the trail dipped down next to the water where the stream flows out through a fine stand of mangroves. Here I found a White-faced Heron sleeping on an exposed trunk before stalking off for a feed, and another little Pied Cormorant flew in and fed in the bay. From the spot where the photo was taken I could also see good-sized Mullet making their way upstream to feed.



As I walked along here I kept hearing the calls of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, but it was not until arriving at the viewpoint at the tip (6) of the reserve that I got close enough to finally connect, finding a couple of birds feeding a in a banksia on the slope a few metres above me. As I scrambled into position I realised one of them was pulling apart a small conifer sapling. Cockatoos rip leaves and flowers off trees all the time, but this was the first I've seen going hard at the trunk. after a good ten minutes of painstakingly pulling apart the truck piece by piece it finally grabbed a large grub or caterpillar of some kind, which had clearly been the intended target. Having succeeded it moved to another sapling nearby and repeated the process. The birds did not seem at all bothered by my presence and every so often would stop to see what I was up to before continuing its foraging.



Cheers
Mike

 

[delia todd]

Lewin's Honeyeater

Lewin's Rail is typically a tough bird to see Delia, but I only really tried once for it before connecting. As for Whipbirds ...I hear them every day from home and have had good views on not more that two or three occasions.

LOL It was the Honeyeater I was referring to Mike. Missed the rail entry I'm afraid. I never saw that one, don't think I even heard it!!!

I made some recordings of the Whipbirds on my phone, but have no idea how to deal with them now to get them into the Opus page.

 

[Dutchbirder64]

When I visited Australia in October 1991 I had a spot for Lewin's Rail. Back then we depended on trip reports. So I had a spot for a creek somewhere and a little bridge and when you look down you can spot a Lewin's Rail walking on the mud. I was thinking yeah sure, need to be lucky. I arrived, peeked over to the side and there he was walking. It was really funny. Right time, right place I suppose.

 

[MKinHK]

Humble apologies Delia - I've seen lots of Lewin's Honeyeaters, but this is the first one on my new patch. As for Lewin's Rail ... read it and weep! And if that's not bad enough here's my best whipbird series to date.

Dutchbirder64 - very cool - I love it when a plan comes together!

My next post here will document a fine purple patch for my local patch in Northbridge, but before that I'm preparing my first Conference Birding report for four years following a work trip to Melbourne that included a wonderful day in the howling wind and rain on Philip Island.

Cheers
Mike