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Message: <blockquote data-quote="colonelboris" data-source="post: 1572335" data-attributes="member: 40117">Never a bad day when you bag fifteen lifers before coffee break.  Even better when more than half stay still long enough for a photo.I went for a walk around the uni campus before breakfast and, oddly enough, the first three birds I saw were introduced species: Common Starling, Common Myna and Spotted Turtle Dove.  I wasn't holding out much hope of being able to ID much of what I saw, so this was where even bad record shots can come in useful.  The first native bird I could identify was an Australian Raven, which was being ferociously mobbed.  Next was a Pied Currawong followed by a Noisy Miner.  One of the many sports fields on the campus had a fair flock of Crested Pigeons and while looking at these, an Australian Magpie flew in, although the photos of these are too poor to show, even to friends.  Then, a much larger bird turned up and landed just out of sight.  Walking wuickly around some buildings, I managed to get a good look at it and there was an Australian White Ibis, rummaging through a bag of rubbish.  While I was marvelling at this, one of the groundskeepers walked up and said."Faaahkin Swamp Chooks."  My first introduction to colloquial bird names in Australia.  <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />After a breakfast of coffee and banana bread, I found my new supervisor and the whole research group were out, so I took it upon myself to record more of the Sydney bird life.There were a large number of hirundine-like birds around the trees in Victoria Park.  I thought they had to be either actual hirundines, or wood-swallows of some kind.  After a bit of crossing off features, it turned out to be a mixture of Welcome Swallows and Fairy Martins.  Walking on to the duck pond (grandly titled Lake Northam), I was greeted by the sight of a group of Silver Gulls of differing ages and a lovely Magpie-lark.  On the pond were a few dozen Pacific Black Ducks and Hardheads and a fair few Dusky Moorhens.  I finally managed to identify the parrotty-things that had been flying overhead as Rainbow Lorikeets and saw two pairs on the ground.  The final one was just as I was walking back to work - a solitary Masked Lapwing.The photos came out ok, considering how desperately dire the Kodak P850 is, but I was quite pleased with the 3-in-1 shot...</blockquote>

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