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Message: <blockquote data-quote="colonelboris" data-source="post: 1590690" data-attributes="member: 40117">Sold!  I'll ask an admin-type to change it.  Speaking of Miners, I saw one tke a pot-shot at a chap's head in the uni this evening.  The Miner gently lobbed itself out of the tree, fluttered to head height behind the unsuspecting chap and whack - gave him a love tap.  The chap involved did not look too impressed.Another trip over to Bicentennial Park / Olympic Park today and managed another seven lifers.  First up was a Whistling Kite being mobbed by a Pied Currawong and a pair of Australian Ravens.  The little light windows near the end of the wings helped a lot when looking at a near-silhouetted bird.  After that, I got to the waterbird refuge at he top end of the mangroves and was treated to a pair of Black Swans - first wild ones I'd seen (saw plenty of feral birds in Switzerland), closely followed by a Royal Spoonbill.  Many Black-winged Stilts present, as were Chestnut Teal and Grey Teal, but there was also a LBW - little brown wader.  I'm posting a note on it in the ID forum in a bit, but it looked certainly very interesting.  All of a sudden, every duck and half the stilts took off and the sound of whistling wings and mobbing ravens was all that could be heard.  Looking up gave a White-bellied Sea Eagle fling out to the bay.  You'd expect something that size to be eqipped with landing lights and an undercarriage, but there it was in its monochrome glory.Round by the Archery Park, I saw a Great Egret in a creek and a pair of Black-shouldered Kites.Around Wentworth Common, a flurry of small shapes darting in the shrubbery revealed Red-browed Finches, followed by an introduced species - the Red-whiskered Bulbul.  Just as I was adding notes to the notebook, a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike alighted in a tree and sat for long enough for me to pin down the species.  Reading through Pizzey and Knight and SImpson and Day for a month before coming out really has helped with IDing birds quickly that I've never seen before.On the wy back to Concord West station, one last lifer turned up - an Eastern Rosella, sat on someone's TV ariel.  I always feel a little uncomfortable looking at people's gardens or roofs, but as it was a lifer...Photos to follow and I'll add a link to the ID thread...</blockquote>

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