Exploring Sydney - and further afield. (4 Viewers)

[MKinHK]

Black Noddy at North Curl Curl Rock Pool
15 March 2025



Two Thursdays ago Northern Beaches stalwart Neil Fifer photographed at Black Noddy at Freshwater Beach. This was the first real sign of any fallout from the cyclone that hit southern Queensland and northern New South Wales here in Sydney. It was then found the next day by sometime birder and spear fisherman Oscar Wang at North Curl Curl Rock Pool, and since this was not only a potential lifer but one I had been badly gripped on by mates in Hong Kong. I was super-keen to connect and arrived at the carpark well before dawn, where Little Wattlebirds were singing vigorously on the banksia trees by the surf club. A short path through the bush brought me to a moonlit viewpoint; Curl Curl Beach curving away from the cliffs to my left and the rock pool to the right, with North Head and a lit up Manly across the bay.

I had heard that the bird roosted on railings round the Rock pool, so I zoomed in with the scope and was just about able to make out a dark blob of approximately the right size, but it was still so dark I could not even see the dark cap. As the light came up I went down to the edge of the pool and caught a nice silhouette against the first pre-dawn light. I thought I might be alone or perhaps share the spot with early swimmers, but for the first time in 40 years of birding I shared a birding site with a swimwear photoshoot. The photographer's vision was to shoot the model standing in the pool as the sun rose behind her. It was a very windy morning, and as the tide rose waves broke on the rocks all round the pool and eventually flowed directly into the rock pool


As the light came up the Black Noddy began foraging close in along the tide line right where the rolling surf was breaking against the rocks.




Cheers
Mike

 

[Owene]

Cracking bird

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Cracking bird

The noddy or the model? 😛

 

[MKinHK]

Swimsuit models are ten a penny in Sydney, Jeff.
Black Noddies not so much!

 

[MKinHK]

Pacific Swifts at Long Reef
16 March 2025

The same day I first saw the Black Noddy I went to Long Reef when it disappeared from North Curl Curl Rockpool to see if might appear there. It didn't, but what did appear was a great cloud of Pacific Swifts. To say I was amazed is putting it mildly! I've been checking every flock of White-throated Needletails for a single Pacific Swift over the last three years only to see somewhere between 500 and 1,000 birds in just a couple of hours!



It is a bird I know well from Hong Kong, but it was no less thrilling for all that to see several hundred of one of Creation's ultimate flying machines zipping past at high speed, circling above the golf course and drifting slowly northwards as the northwesterly that had held them up allowed. I was also surprised to find just eight White-throated Needletails in the same flock - providing a useful counterpoint to highlight the pointed tail, slimmer wings and all-dark scaly underparts that distingushed Pacific Swift that were so different it from the needletail's white undertail horseshoe and white throat, broader nipped-in wings and short square tail.



Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

Chiltern Trail, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
12 April 2025



I've been enjoying an influx of Noisy Friarbirds into Sydney (including my patch first group of eight on Northbridge Golf Course and in the hope of duplicating Neil Fifer's discovery of a much rarer Little Friarbird amongst them. I found my first flock of the day when stopping by a friend's place at Davidson, but the real photo opportunities came from the Chiltern Trail on the edge of Kuring-gai Chase National Park, where I found a minimum of fifty birds in a small area near the trailhead and down the road to the north trail.



On arrival at the Chiltern Trail (1) my first good bird was a Square-tailed Kite that drifted slowly over - slung me a sneering down-eye (evil cousin of side -eye) and drifted off. Th etrail here curves around a large bald outcrop and rather than drop down to Terry's Creek I followed a dubiously marked trail up onto and along this ridge, pausing only for a pair of White-eared Honeyeaters and the first of many New Holland Honeyeaters. My top birds up on top were just my third Chestnut-rumped Heathwren (no pic) and a fabulous flock of 70 noisily-calling Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos that drifted into the valley, calling constantly without showing, and then drifted back in three separate groups of which this was the closest.




The real highlight came at the end of the day as the curiosity of a single Noisy Friarbird and a pair of New Holland Honeyeaters brought them close-in in the sumptuous evening light. The Friarbird posed beautifully, offering front and back views of its elegant ruff and hangover of death red eye!



But it was the pair of New Holland Honeyeaters that really stole the show. It started with one popping up on a decoratively burned stump before both birds came in to just a few feet to check me out, returning to the same small conifer several times.





As the Aussies say "How good !?"

Cheers
Mike

 

[Frank van Drogen]

As the Aussies say "How good !?"

Awesome birds and lovely photos Mike!!!