MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
I do indeed - a silly error as I know perfectly well it has that whipcrack call - but I cannot edit it after 24 hrs.
Cheers
Mike
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Exploring Sydney - and further afield. (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter MKinHK
- Start date
Cheers
Mike
Consistently impressed with your new life ...keep it up 👍👍👍
And another lost hat, I really do need to start that long talked about stalking operation
And another lost hat, I really do need to start that long talked about stalking operation
Do you want me to edit it for you Mike?
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Oooh - yes please Delia!
I made the same mistake in post 5 para 5 and post 15 para 2. Could I also trouble you to remove the woodpecker youtube video in post 66 which was a total cock up.
Thanks in advance!
If only you could edit my actual birding so I lost less stuff ... even it does shut down Jos's next big career move
Cheers
Mike
I made the same mistake in post 5 para 5 and post 15 para 2. Could I also trouble you to remove the woodpecker youtube video in post 66 which was a total cock up.
Thanks in advance!
If only you could edit my actual birding so I lost less stuff ... even it does shut down Jos's next big career move
Cheers
Mike
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OK Mike.... think I'm done - could you double-check please that I've not messed up.
It was strange with the woodpecker. I saw it initially and thought it was an error you'd be sorting. Then when I went to double-check on it a few days later I couldn't find it!
So I thought you had deleted it.
So I thought you had deleted it.
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
That is odd - I can't see it now at any rate - so somehow your Admin magic has worked!
I also owe you an answer to your question about the Fantail pic. I couldn't attach a photo in the PM so here's the same shot with the filters amended to emphasize the colours more clearly - and Hey presto! From the shadows ... a proper Grey Fantail emerges!
Cheers
Mike
I also owe you an answer to your question about the Fantail pic. I couldn't attach a photo in the PM so here's the same shot with the filters amended to emphasize the colours more clearly - and Hey presto! From the shadows ... a proper Grey Fantail emerges!
Cheers
Mike
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Mt Ku-ring-gai to Turramurra via Bobbin Head
24 September 2022
On Saturday I returned to Bobbin Head in Ku-ring-gai National Park because I felt I'd left lots of good birds out there after the brief visit with my non-birding wife and friends a few days earlier. Fancying a longer walk I started at Mt Ku-ring-gai, which helpfully has a railway station (1) within a couple of hundred metres of a ridge-top trail that heads into the park towards the bottom left corner (2).
On entering the park a Noisy Miner and a smart male Grey Butcherbird immediately came over to inspect me (and the female below appeared later on the same ridge), and a few minutes later a trio of male Variegated Fairy Wrens, including a young male with some remnant grey crown feathers that pished in right next to the trail, which wound through a stand of mature trees and flowering understory.
The highlights of this ridge walk were a fine White-cheeked Honeyeater that posed beautifully before dropping into a puddle for a bath, and an ovipositing Australian Grapvine Moth. I stopped for a sandwich at Apple Tree Bay where six Welcome Swallows were hunting along the riverbank and the first of three ochre-bellied Striated Herons was lurking at the edge of the mangroves.
More to come
Cheers
Mike
Mt Ku-ring-gai to Turramurra via Bobbin Head
24 September 2022
On Saturday I returned to Bobbin Head in Ku-ring-gai National Park because I felt I'd left lots of good birds out there after the brief visit with my non-birding wife and friends a few days earlier. Fancying a longer walk I started at Mt Ku-ring-gai, which helpfully has a railway station (1) within a couple of hundred metres of a ridge-top trail that heads into the park towards the bottom left corner (2).
On entering the park a Noisy Miner and a smart male Grey Butcherbird immediately came over to inspect me (and the female below appeared later on the same ridge), and a few minutes later a trio of male Variegated Fairy Wrens, including a young male with some remnant grey crown feathers that pished in right next to the trail, which wound through a stand of mature trees and flowering understory.
The highlights of this ridge walk were a fine White-cheeked Honeyeater that posed beautifully before dropping into a puddle for a bath, and an ovipositing Australian Grapvine Moth. I stopped for a sandwich at Apple Tree Bay where six Welcome Swallows were hunting along the riverbank and the first of three ochre-bellied Striated Herons was lurking at the edge of the mangroves.
More to come
Cheers
Mike
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Too much gripping stuff, shouldn't you be going to work sometimes? 😅
foresttwitcher
Virtually unknown member
'Pot & kettle' springs to mind... Jos.
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Getting a job is the current challenge Jos, so in the meantime ...
Ku-ring-gai Chase NP, Bobbin Head continued
It had started drizzling while I was at Apple Tree Bay and when I got round to the Bobbin Head picnic area this turned into full on rain so I went and hid in a picnic shelter in the hope that it would pass. I was visited by several birds who had no notion of interrupting their lives for a splash of rain, starting with a bedraggled Laughing Kookaburra that swooped on a bread crust and smacked it to death on its perch in the approved manner, and an Australian Raven that looked like it had waded through an oil slick. The highlight was the Maned Ducks. Three females puffing out their chests and taking in their heads to optimise the run-off, and a wonderful family of eight ducklings and their over-protective parents who hissed and chased and even came to blows with other in stalwart defence of their family. They were not in the least shy and came right up to the shelter.
As the rain abated I carried on and found a family of Masked Lapwings with four chicks, who after foraging for a while, retreated under their crouched parent. a second pair with a single chick were far more aggressive and I was subject to a determined dive-bombing attack until I had moved outside the strategic exclusion zone. I did enjoy discovering that the yellow wattles that make up the mask are actually two wattles that overlap on the forecrown. If you zoom in on the chick you can see the beginning of the wattle in front of the eye. An adult White-bellied Sea Eagle flying upriver and a Channel-billed Cuckoo, which somehow manages to compete with Sulphur-crested Cockatoos to be the noisiest birds in Australia added some quality. The cuckoo is enormous - the world's largest parasitic nester - it has a bill like the smaller hornbills on a monstrous frame that strikes the fear of God into birds as big as a Pied Currawong and the cockatoos. I love 'em! The mangrove-edged creek here held a couple more Striated Herons.
Cheers
Mike
Ku-ring-gai Chase NP, Bobbin Head continued
It had started drizzling while I was at Apple Tree Bay and when I got round to the Bobbin Head picnic area this turned into full on rain so I went and hid in a picnic shelter in the hope that it would pass. I was visited by several birds who had no notion of interrupting their lives for a splash of rain, starting with a bedraggled Laughing Kookaburra that swooped on a bread crust and smacked it to death on its perch in the approved manner, and an Australian Raven that looked like it had waded through an oil slick. The highlight was the Maned Ducks. Three females puffing out their chests and taking in their heads to optimise the run-off, and a wonderful family of eight ducklings and their over-protective parents who hissed and chased and even came to blows with other in stalwart defence of their family. They were not in the least shy and came right up to the shelter.
As the rain abated I carried on and found a family of Masked Lapwings with four chicks, who after foraging for a while, retreated under their crouched parent. a second pair with a single chick were far more aggressive and I was subject to a determined dive-bombing attack until I had moved outside the strategic exclusion zone. I did enjoy discovering that the yellow wattles that make up the mask are actually two wattles that overlap on the forecrown. If you zoom in on the chick you can see the beginning of the wattle in front of the eye. An adult White-bellied Sea Eagle flying upriver and a Channel-billed Cuckoo, which somehow manages to compete with Sulphur-crested Cockatoos to be the noisiest birds in Australia added some quality. The cuckoo is enormous - the world's largest parasitic nester - it has a bill like the smaller hornbills on a monstrous frame that strikes the fear of God into birds as big as a Pied Currawong and the cockatoos. I love 'em! The mangrove-edged creek here held a couple more Striated Herons.
Cheers
Mike
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Ah my apologies, I assumed you had gone to Australia to take up a specific job ... I see my joke may have been insensitive if actually looking for work.
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
As they say here Jos, "no worries, mate".
Ku-ring-gai Chase NP, Gibberagong Track
The final part of my day was a 5km walk along the Gibberagong Track that follows a small river southwards. The name means "lots of rocks" in the language of Aboriginal and it certainly lived up to its name for a good chunk of the trail. Nonetheless it was beautiful, running first through the mangroves at the river up onto a sandstone promontory and then along a beautifully forested creek for several kilometres.
The highlight the whole day was connecting with New South Wales' only endemic bird - Rock Warbler. A cheerful and confiding pair were foraging right at the beginning of the sandstone promontory and I enjoyed several minutes of views as they bounced in and out of crevices, over boulders and rooted in the leaf and bark litter. As it had last time I visited the same area also held several Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, which proved no easier to photograph, a curious and musical Grey Shrike-thrush and several notoriously skulking Eastern Whipbirds.
However one of them had clearly not got the memo when DNA was being handed out, and in response to a swift pish it bounced into a casuarina tree directly overhead and peered down at me between the pathetically non-existent cover of its sparse and spindly leaves. Pushing my luck, I kept on pishing and after hanging briefly upside down and channelling some fabulous alter ego clearly decided: "I'm not just songful skulker that no-one can see. No. Not me. I want to be ...Jonathan Livingstone Seagull? No. Happy Feet? Too square! ... I want to be ... a ninja pole dancer!" it dropped onto a vertically hanging spindle of bark, flashed its tail in all directions before disappearing coyly behind the bark 'pole', which should have been far too thin to hide it, before popping out to say "I'll be here all week, folks". Just breathtaking! Click on the first picture and select the slideshow option to see the whole routine.
The rest of the walk up the gorge turned into something of a rush a the light faded slowly away as I headed up the rocky path that lower down edged some fine mangrove stands and atmospherically dripping sandstone cliff as it followed the eastern bank of the river. I didn't see many many birds, but Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were calling continually on the slopes above and I was chuffed to hear Lewin's Honeyeaters' rattling call and see a couple each of New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters before scoring big with my first White-naped Honeyeater that pished in with a flock of Silvereyes in one of the uppermost mangrove stands. I found three or four Eastern Water Dragons on the rockier sections of the stream and got to see my first swimming water dragon as one took fright and belly-flopped into the river before gliding effortlessly away.
The final hurrah (except for a Grey Kangaroo in the gloom on the edge of Turramurra golf as I waited for the bus) were a pair of zoothera thrushes in the near total darkness of the valley floor. I could barely see them, but having seen others of their ilk elsewhere in the world it was clear what they were and the amazing ability of the Sony to gather what light there was enabled this rather grainy picture of what I think is an immature bird showing some retained coverts. The smart money is on Bassian Thrush, but as I'm new here and not comfortable ticking on range when the is less that 20km of contiguous habitat between known sites of the extremely similar Red-tailed Thrush I'd hoped to be able to identify this bird on morphology rather than range - mostly based based on the shape of the coverts. But having found no support on the ID thread or the Sydney Birders Facebook page I'll have to let this one go for now, unless of course any of you have any ideas . . .
Cheers
Mike
Ku-ring-gai Chase NP, Gibberagong Track
The final part of my day was a 5km walk along the Gibberagong Track that follows a small river southwards. The name means "lots of rocks" in the language of Aboriginal and it certainly lived up to its name for a good chunk of the trail. Nonetheless it was beautiful, running first through the mangroves at the river up onto a sandstone promontory and then along a beautifully forested creek for several kilometres.
The highlight the whole day was connecting with New South Wales' only endemic bird - Rock Warbler. A cheerful and confiding pair were foraging right at the beginning of the sandstone promontory and I enjoyed several minutes of views as they bounced in and out of crevices, over boulders and rooted in the leaf and bark litter. As it had last time I visited the same area also held several Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, which proved no easier to photograph, a curious and musical Grey Shrike-thrush and several notoriously skulking Eastern Whipbirds.
However one of them had clearly not got the memo when DNA was being handed out, and in response to a swift pish it bounced into a casuarina tree directly overhead and peered down at me between the pathetically non-existent cover of its sparse and spindly leaves. Pushing my luck, I kept on pishing and after hanging briefly upside down and channelling some fabulous alter ego clearly decided: "I'm not just songful skulker that no-one can see. No. Not me. I want to be ...Jonathan Livingstone Seagull? No. Happy Feet? Too square! ... I want to be ... a ninja pole dancer!" it dropped onto a vertically hanging spindle of bark, flashed its tail in all directions before disappearing coyly behind the bark 'pole', which should have been far too thin to hide it, before popping out to say "I'll be here all week, folks". Just breathtaking! Click on the first picture and select the slideshow option to see the whole routine.
The rest of the walk up the gorge turned into something of a rush a the light faded slowly away as I headed up the rocky path that lower down edged some fine mangrove stands and atmospherically dripping sandstone cliff as it followed the eastern bank of the river. I didn't see many many birds, but Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were calling continually on the slopes above and I was chuffed to hear Lewin's Honeyeaters' rattling call and see a couple each of New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters before scoring big with my first White-naped Honeyeater that pished in with a flock of Silvereyes in one of the uppermost mangrove stands. I found three or four Eastern Water Dragons on the rockier sections of the stream and got to see my first swimming water dragon as one took fright and belly-flopped into the river before gliding effortlessly away.
The final hurrah (except for a Grey Kangaroo in the gloom on the edge of Turramurra golf as I waited for the bus) were a pair of zoothera thrushes in the near total darkness of the valley floor. I could barely see them, but having seen others of their ilk elsewhere in the world it was clear what they were and the amazing ability of the Sony to gather what light there was enabled this rather grainy picture of what I think is an immature bird showing some retained coverts. The smart money is on Bassian Thrush, but as I'm new here and not comfortable ticking on range when the is less that 20km of contiguous habitat between known sites of the extremely similar Red-tailed Thrush I'd hoped to be able to identify this bird on morphology rather than range - mostly based based on the shape of the coverts. But having found no support on the ID thread or the Sydney Birders Facebook page I'll have to let this one go for now, unless of course any of you have any ideas . . .
Cheers
Mike
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
The patch - Cremorne Point and nearby dog walks
Time for another monthly update from Cremorne Point, this time with a map kindly supplied by Google Earth which provides a bird's eye view of the layout of my 'walk from home" patch. Our place is close to the bright green square on the upper right edge and gives walking access within 45 dog-walking minutes (lots of stopping to sniff) to the beach below Taronga Zoo (TZ) at centre bottom via the well wooded coastal path around Siruis Cove (SC)to the high rise on Mosman Point, as well as the more familiar territory of Cremorne Point (CP) itself, which (at least in my imagination) runs from the narrow and steep-sided Reid Park (RP), which runs right to the edge of the photo all the way south to the far tip of Cremorne Point itself and up the other side to the small tidal flat at the bottom of Mosman Bay (MB). While some of this falls too far away to be reasonably recorded in a single eBird area for Cremorne Point this broadly covers my birding area and is really what I think of as my patch.
There have been a few additions to the patch in the late winter/early spring periods as some of Sydney's few migrants arrive. The Topknot Pigeons I reported on previous hung around for the best part of September, but I've not seen them for a few days and they may well have moved on. The first genuine migrant was a Rufous Fantail that was singing below the well wooded coastal path running left from Reid Park. I only had brief views but the broadly fanned rufous tail is unmistakable, and eBird notes a small passage through Cremorne Point.
More of a wanderer than a migrant was a fine male Variegated Fairy Wren that appeared at the very tip of Cremorne Point a couple of days previously, but there was no doubt about the two hulking Large-billed Cuckoos that set all the Rainbow Lorikeets, Noisy Miners and Australian Magpies absolutely bonkers; with some cause in fact as I saw one of the ten perched in a tree with a newly stolen nestling struggling hopelessly in its massive bill. Eventually they got fed up with the attention and powered away across the channel to Mossman Point. In some ways they are good news because they help to control the numbers of the much more musical, but equally rapacious Pied Currawongs.
The best spot away from Cremorne Point is the horseshoe of woodland that runs from Taronga Zoo beach through Sirius Cove and up to the block of flat on Mossman Point. Top birds include White-bellied Sea Eagle, which I think breeds close to the zoo, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike which, like a Red Wattlebird which sat above the bench on Mossman Point, is yet to appear on Cremorne Point. Best of all wonderful pair of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, which drifted into the tree above Sirius Cove before magically appearing just off the path to Taronga Zoo beach and giving wonderful eye level views less than ten metres away.
The best day in this period was 25 September, a three hour dog-free walk around Cremorne Point starting at 0600 with a wing-tagged Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in the tree opposite our flat, a showy Laughing Kookaburra, a pair of displaying Crested Pigeons and a couple of Topknot Pigeons in the little park at the bottom of Reed Street. These early signs of promise were followed by the most wonderful session watching a pair of Australian Brush Turkeys working together to excavate a cavity for egg-laying in their breeding mound, which was steaming steadily as they uncovered the lower layers of composting vegetation. Initially they dug together , but as it hole got deeper the female took over digger deep enough down to make space for her eggs, while the male patrolled the rim and occasionally kicked some dirt to show willing. Only once de he forget himself and jump onto her back and attempt to copulate. As she settled to lay her eggs, she lifted her tail and spread her wings while the male very gently bends over from the edge of the nest to touch her bill. Laying completed they both set to work two cover the eggs again. My photos were pretty much defeated by the dark, but I'll have to try to see if my video of this magical moment is any better. As a post script the male made absolutely no effort to defend the nest in the week after laying took place, so all the defensiveness beforehand was presumably about claiming the nest as his. he is now back on patrol and setting new records in how far he's willing to chase the dogs and I a full fifty metres along the road from the top of the steps which go past his nest.
As I walked south towards the Point along the eastern edge I was delighted to see three Galahs fly by above the sea and then helpfully land on a patch of lawn to feed on the grass seeds. Unsurprisingly the Noisy Miners took exception to the presence of something unfamiliar and chased them away but I found one of them preening in a bare tree right at the tip of the Point where he posed like a champion against the sky. The other big highlight was finding an Eastern Whipbird that was as overwhelmed with the joys of spring as his compatriot at Bobbin Head the day before and while not going the full monty nonetheless sang at me in full view right next to the path to the tip of the Point. The photos very much speak for themselves.
Other decent birds were the Tawny Frogmouth huddled safely away from prying eyes, the half-dozen Pied Cormorants and a Little Black Cormorant silhouetted against the rising sun on their regular roosting tree. As I arrived home I thought that the pair of fledgeling Noisy Miners huddled in a roadside tree had closed the account, but when I emerged a few minutes later to walk the dogs my second Australian Pelican for the patch drifted south almost directly overhead, trailing a comet of apoplectic Australian Magpies.
Cheers
Mike
Time for another monthly update from Cremorne Point, this time with a map kindly supplied by Google Earth which provides a bird's eye view of the layout of my 'walk from home" patch. Our place is close to the bright green square on the upper right edge and gives walking access within 45 dog-walking minutes (lots of stopping to sniff) to the beach below Taronga Zoo (TZ) at centre bottom via the well wooded coastal path around Siruis Cove (SC)to the high rise on Mosman Point, as well as the more familiar territory of Cremorne Point (CP) itself, which (at least in my imagination) runs from the narrow and steep-sided Reid Park (RP), which runs right to the edge of the photo all the way south to the far tip of Cremorne Point itself and up the other side to the small tidal flat at the bottom of Mosman Bay (MB). While some of this falls too far away to be reasonably recorded in a single eBird area for Cremorne Point this broadly covers my birding area and is really what I think of as my patch.
There have been a few additions to the patch in the late winter/early spring periods as some of Sydney's few migrants arrive. The Topknot Pigeons I reported on previous hung around for the best part of September, but I've not seen them for a few days and they may well have moved on. The first genuine migrant was a Rufous Fantail that was singing below the well wooded coastal path running left from Reid Park. I only had brief views but the broadly fanned rufous tail is unmistakable, and eBird notes a small passage through Cremorne Point.
More of a wanderer than a migrant was a fine male Variegated Fairy Wren that appeared at the very tip of Cremorne Point a couple of days previously, but there was no doubt about the two hulking Large-billed Cuckoos that set all the Rainbow Lorikeets, Noisy Miners and Australian Magpies absolutely bonkers; with some cause in fact as I saw one of the ten perched in a tree with a newly stolen nestling struggling hopelessly in its massive bill. Eventually they got fed up with the attention and powered away across the channel to Mossman Point. In some ways they are good news because they help to control the numbers of the much more musical, but equally rapacious Pied Currawongs.
The best spot away from Cremorne Point is the horseshoe of woodland that runs from Taronga Zoo beach through Sirius Cove and up to the block of flat on Mossman Point. Top birds include White-bellied Sea Eagle, which I think breeds close to the zoo, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike which, like a Red Wattlebird which sat above the bench on Mossman Point, is yet to appear on Cremorne Point. Best of all wonderful pair of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, which drifted into the tree above Sirius Cove before magically appearing just off the path to Taronga Zoo beach and giving wonderful eye level views less than ten metres away.
The best day in this period was 25 September, a three hour dog-free walk around Cremorne Point starting at 0600 with a wing-tagged Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in the tree opposite our flat, a showy Laughing Kookaburra, a pair of displaying Crested Pigeons and a couple of Topknot Pigeons in the little park at the bottom of Reed Street. These early signs of promise were followed by the most wonderful session watching a pair of Australian Brush Turkeys working together to excavate a cavity for egg-laying in their breeding mound, which was steaming steadily as they uncovered the lower layers of composting vegetation. Initially they dug together , but as it hole got deeper the female took over digger deep enough down to make space for her eggs, while the male patrolled the rim and occasionally kicked some dirt to show willing. Only once de he forget himself and jump onto her back and attempt to copulate. As she settled to lay her eggs, she lifted her tail and spread her wings while the male very gently bends over from the edge of the nest to touch her bill. Laying completed they both set to work two cover the eggs again. My photos were pretty much defeated by the dark, but I'll have to try to see if my video of this magical moment is any better. As a post script the male made absolutely no effort to defend the nest in the week after laying took place, so all the defensiveness beforehand was presumably about claiming the nest as his. he is now back on patrol and setting new records in how far he's willing to chase the dogs and I a full fifty metres along the road from the top of the steps which go past his nest.
As I walked south towards the Point along the eastern edge I was delighted to see three Galahs fly by above the sea and then helpfully land on a patch of lawn to feed on the grass seeds. Unsurprisingly the Noisy Miners took exception to the presence of something unfamiliar and chased them away but I found one of them preening in a bare tree right at the tip of the Point where he posed like a champion against the sky. The other big highlight was finding an Eastern Whipbird that was as overwhelmed with the joys of spring as his compatriot at Bobbin Head the day before and while not going the full monty nonetheless sang at me in full view right next to the path to the tip of the Point. The photos very much speak for themselves.
Other decent birds were the Tawny Frogmouth huddled safely away from prying eyes, the half-dozen Pied Cormorants and a Little Black Cormorant silhouetted against the rising sun on their regular roosting tree. As I arrived home I thought that the pair of fledgeling Noisy Miners huddled in a roadside tree had closed the account, but when I emerged a few minutes later to walk the dogs my second Australian Pelican for the patch drifted south almost directly overhead, trailing a comet of apoplectic Australian Magpies.
Mike
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A short post-script to my previous post on Cremorne Point... I 've now had four different Asian Koels over the last five days including one singing in a fig tree close to my home that also held a Topknot Pigeon - which clearly have not yet departed. I was also rudely awakened this morning by one singing very close to my garden some time around 4am, making just the tenth species on my house list after almost six months here!
Cremorne Point - other wildlife
I also wanted to do a post on some of the other wildlife I've seen around the point, which includes Ring-tailed and Brush-tailed Possums, and what believe are Grey-faced Fruit Bats.
I have tiny skink in my garden and Eastern Water Dragons at various spots around the point, including one that shows off outrageously in a palm tree that has fallen across a stream. Unfortunately I only have dodgy iPhone pix, so this one perched on a rock above the path and a fabulous adult in peak breeding condition will have to do:
I've also seen a couple of Flatwing sp. damselflies in one of the little gullies and am waiting on iNaturalist for a positive ID.
Cheers
Mike
Cremorne Point - other wildlife
I also wanted to do a post on some of the other wildlife I've seen around the point, which includes Ring-tailed and Brush-tailed Possums, and what believe are Grey-faced Fruit Bats.
I have tiny skink in my garden and Eastern Water Dragons at various spots around the point, including one that shows off outrageously in a palm tree that has fallen across a stream. Unfortunately I only have dodgy iPhone pix, so this one perched on a rock above the path and a fabulous adult in peak breeding condition will have to do:
I've also seen a couple of Flatwing sp. damselflies in one of the little gullies and am waiting on iNaturalist for a positive ID.
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Dee Why Lagoon, Collaroy Golf Course, and Long Reef Aquatic Reserve
Last week I returned to Dee Why and Long Reef, passing along the edge of Collaroy Golf course on my way between the two. This offers access to a range of habitats including the lagoon, the scrub on the dunes and the edge of the golf course, the inter-tidal wave-cut platform and rocks (long Reef), and the open sea beyond.
Getting off the bus at 1 I walked through the car-park to 2, where I had views across the Lagoon where I was pleased to pick up a nice range of waterbirds that ranged in size from the three magnificent Australian Pelicans, through the immature White-bellied Sea Eagle to 30-odd Australian Ibises, two Royal Spoonbills and a Little Egret to the Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants, half a dozen Masked Lapwings and three Southern Pied Oystercatchers.
As I walked back towards tohe golf course I was delighted to see three Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos fly overhead and land nearby 3 and I was pleased to get some relatively close shots of them feeding on the fruit in a tee-side wattle.
As it was windy there were not too many birds showing in the dune scrub, but I did pick up Red and Little Wattlebirds, New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters, White-browed Scrubwren and a wonderful pair of Superb Fairywrens that responded well to my pishing.
The golf course also held a noisy Pacific Koel, Great and Pied Cormorants roosting on one of the ponds plus a few Crested Pigeons, Welcome Swallows, Australian Magpies and Dusky Moorhens, Pacific Black Ducks, a Willie Wagtail and a Magpie Lark, plus an Australian Swamphen and a Nankeen Kestrel that sat on a post clearly not enjoying the light drizzle that had swept in from the sea.
More - from the marine reserve - to follow
Cheers
Mike
Last week I returned to Dee Why and Long Reef, passing along the edge of Collaroy Golf course on my way between the two. This offers access to a range of habitats including the lagoon, the scrub on the dunes and the edge of the golf course, the inter-tidal wave-cut platform and rocks (long Reef), and the open sea beyond.
Getting off the bus at 1 I walked through the car-park to 2, where I had views across the Lagoon where I was pleased to pick up a nice range of waterbirds that ranged in size from the three magnificent Australian Pelicans, through the immature White-bellied Sea Eagle to 30-odd Australian Ibises, two Royal Spoonbills and a Little Egret to the Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants, half a dozen Masked Lapwings and three Southern Pied Oystercatchers.
As I walked back towards tohe golf course I was delighted to see three Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos fly overhead and land nearby 3 and I was pleased to get some relatively close shots of them feeding on the fruit in a tee-side wattle.
As it was windy there were not too many birds showing in the dune scrub, but I did pick up Red and Little Wattlebirds, New Holland and White-cheeked Honeyeaters, White-browed Scrubwren and a wonderful pair of Superb Fairywrens that responded well to my pishing.
The golf course also held a noisy Pacific Koel, Great and Pied Cormorants roosting on one of the ponds plus a few Crested Pigeons, Welcome Swallows, Australian Magpies and Dusky Moorhens, Pacific Black Ducks, a Willie Wagtail and a Magpie Lark, plus an Australian Swamphen and a Nankeen Kestrel that sat on a post clearly not enjoying the light drizzle that had swept in from the sea.
More - from the marine reserve - to follow
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Part 2 - Long Reef Aquatic Reserve
When I got to the Point I realised that the tide was way up and that it would be staying that way for at least a couple of hours. I decided to wait it out and plonked myself down on the beach at the bottom of the stairs in a drizzle that thankfully never became real rain. I could see a few waders on the rocks at the tip - picking out Red-necked Stints by size, half a dozen Sooty Oystercatchers by the obvious black body and orange bill, Pacific Golden Plovers by the pale super and Ruddy Turnstones by the breast pattern as they sheltered under an overhang with the crashing waves sending white foam high in the air. A bit back from the point there were gatherings of 100+ Silver Gulls and 40+ Crested Terns, three Pied Cormorants and a Great Cormorant. An Osprey went to and fro a couple of times, once dropping a bony-looking fish with a big dorsal spike, giving me closer but not really any better shots than I've managed here previously. I was excited to see Wedge-tailed Shearwaters coming in close to the rock platform at the tip and this more than anything kept me waiting for the three hours it took before i could walk out.
The big highlight was getting close to a pair of Sooty Oystercatchers that came out to feed as some of the larger rocks lying on the wave-cut platform were uncovered. One pair flew straight past me, but suddenly panicked and went vertical right in front of me. Whether that was because of me or the Osprey perched on a clifftop snag I don't know, but it was fun to capture. It was a second pair that stayed to forage, and provide the shots below, which were made much more dramatic by the waves rising to a good six feet above me before breaking on the edge of the the reef.
More to come ...
Cheers
Mike
When I got to the Point I realised that the tide was way up and that it would be staying that way for at least a couple of hours. I decided to wait it out and plonked myself down on the beach at the bottom of the stairs in a drizzle that thankfully never became real rain. I could see a few waders on the rocks at the tip - picking out Red-necked Stints by size, half a dozen Sooty Oystercatchers by the obvious black body and orange bill, Pacific Golden Plovers by the pale super and Ruddy Turnstones by the breast pattern as they sheltered under an overhang with the crashing waves sending white foam high in the air. A bit back from the point there were gatherings of 100+ Silver Gulls and 40+ Crested Terns, three Pied Cormorants and a Great Cormorant. An Osprey went to and fro a couple of times, once dropping a bony-looking fish with a big dorsal spike, giving me closer but not really any better shots than I've managed here previously. I was excited to see Wedge-tailed Shearwaters coming in close to the rock platform at the tip and this more than anything kept me waiting for the three hours it took before i could walk out.
The big highlight was getting close to a pair of Sooty Oystercatchers that came out to feed as some of the larger rocks lying on the wave-cut platform were uncovered. One pair flew straight past me, but suddenly panicked and went vertical right in front of me. Whether that was because of me or the Osprey perched on a clifftop snag I don't know, but it was fun to capture. It was a second pair that stayed to forage, and provide the shots below, which were made much more dramatic by the waves rising to a good six feet above me before breaking on the edge of the the reef.
More to come ...
Cheers
Mike
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Long Reef - Part 3 (final)
As the tide finally dropped I was able to walk out to the rocks at the tip of the reef where 100 or so Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were foraging within 100m and giving views that were pretty much as good as can be expected from land. I had hoped there might be some Short-tailed Shearwaters in with them - they have been recorded on a few days already this spring - but no such luck. While far from beautiful these shots are useful in showing the broad, diamond-shaped spread tail, dark underwings, the pink feet, and dark bill, as well as a size comparison with the accompanying Silver Gulls and Crested Tern (pic 1) and the strong elbow, the length of the closed tail and the bowed wings when shearing (pic 2) that are all useful ID features for this large strong dark shearwater. I enjoyed them so much that in between checking out the waders and the other loafing gulls arts and cormorants I went back for a second and a third view, although they never came any closer.
Having left their high tide roost the waders were a big feature as they spread out to feed among the pools and rocks across the rock platform. I had three new Australian ticks - - four Pacific Golden Plovers, a Grey-tailed Tattler and a Red Knot among the 35 Red-necked Stints and nine Ruddy Turnstones.
More to come…
As the tide finally dropped I was able to walk out to the rocks at the tip of the reef where 100 or so Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were foraging within 100m and giving views that were pretty much as good as can be expected from land. I had hoped there might be some Short-tailed Shearwaters in with them - they have been recorded on a few days already this spring - but no such luck. While far from beautiful these shots are useful in showing the broad, diamond-shaped spread tail, dark underwings, the pink feet, and dark bill, as well as a size comparison with the accompanying Silver Gulls and Crested Tern (pic 1) and the strong elbow, the length of the closed tail and the bowed wings when shearing (pic 2) that are all useful ID features for this large strong dark shearwater. I enjoyed them so much that in between checking out the waders and the other loafing gulls arts and cormorants I went back for a second and a third view, although they never came any closer.
Having left their high tide roost the waders were a big feature as they spread out to feed among the pools and rocks across the rock platform. I had three new Australian ticks - - four Pacific Golden Plovers, a Grey-tailed Tattler and a Red Knot among the 35 Red-necked Stints and nine Ruddy Turnstones.
More to come…
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