Photos taken over the last few weeks in Sydney’s parks.
Brown Quail at Centennial Park, Sydney
Spangled Drongo photographed at Randwick Environment Park, Sydney
Superb Fairy-wren at Sydney Park in Sydney
Little Pied Cormorant at the Duck Pond in Centennial Park, Sydney
Powerful Owl with possum at Centennial Park, Sydney
The sight and sound of over one hundred Little Corellas rising together as one is a sure sign that some danger is present. This time in Centennial Park, Sydney it is a Brown Goshawk that is stirring up the park’s inhabitants.
A Brown Goshawk is on the chase at Sydney’s Centennial Park. Brown Goshawks are seen quite often in the city’s Eastern Suburbs.
It is a good question as to who is chasing who. Currawongs and Ravens were protesting the Goshawk’s presence while these Rainbow Lorikeets pass quickly by.
Taronga Zoo in Sydney enjoys a magnificent harbourside setting and provides a green haven for 350 species of animal. It is Australia’s largest zoo, established in 1906 on the 28 hectare site. For people interested in birds it is a chance to see rare species. The walk-through aviaries: the Australian Rainforest Aviary, Blue Mountain Bushwalk and Rainforest Trail, are all excellent places to take close up photos, although high ISO settings are needed for the often low light.
This Superb Fruit-Dove was in the Rainforest Trail aviary, together with Wompoo Fruit-Doves, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and a number of birds from other lands. Picture taken at 1/125 second, f /5.0, ISO 2000 at 240 mm with the Canon EF 100-400 IS II USM lens.
Sydney Harbour provides the backdrop for the wonderful Free-Flight Bird Show and this Barn Owl poses against the city buildings across the harbour. A highlight of the show is the flight of the Andean Condor, soaring close above the heads of the audience.
Another Bird Show participant, the Black-breasted Buzzard, demonstrates how to break an egg with a stone - a technique used by Buzzards in the wild.
The zoo has a small group of Fiordland Penguins consisting of injured birds that have been brought to the zoo. These regular visitors to Australia breed in Fiordland, New Zealand.
Musk Lorikeets range across the south-east corner of Australia and are regular Autumn visitors to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. They are usually feeding high in flowering eucalypts or malaleucas and the height combined with their rapid movement makes them difficult subjects to photograph.
These Musk Lorrikeets were photographed at Frog Hollow in Centennial Park, Sydney last week, feeding on flowering eucaplyts.
The Musk Lorikeets stay high at the very top of the canopy, perhaps thus avoiding competition with the more aggressive Rainbow Lorikeets feeding lower on the same trees.
Musk Lorikeet at Frog Hollow in Centennial Park, captured in a rare moment of repose.
This week’s BirdingNSW club meeting featured a presentation on this subject by Janet Gardner from the Australian National University. Janet and her team have been studying the effect of increasing heat on a community of Jacky Winters in the arid Mallee country, north east of Adelaide, South Australia.
This study from 2019 – 2020 covered some of the hottest conditions ever recorded in the Mallee. Birds normally have a body temperature around 40 degrees Celsius. As the temperature rises they attempt to cool themselves, first by opening their wings and seeking out the breeze and other cool air. As the temperature rises further they begin to pant, cooling through evaporation of precious water. In the study some birds found shade amongst the roots of mature Mallee eucaplypts.
Jack Winters get all their moisture from their insect food and need to rehydrate as soon as the temperature goes down again. Sadly, temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, with some as high as 49 degrees, took their toll on the young and a proportion of the adult birds. Alarmingly, the number of days with these high temperatures has risen rapidly over the past fifty year. Australian birds, living in one of the hottest and driest continents, face serious challenges as temperatures rise in coming years.
This Jacky Winter, enjoying a cool 25 degrees Celsius. As temperatures rise they fluff their feathers to make the most of the breeze, then raise their wings to cool beneath. They will start to pant at over 40 degrees.
Wingham Brush Nature Reserve is a spectacular 9 hectare sample of the subtropical lowland forest that once covered much of the Manning River valley. A tangle of towering Moreton Bay figs and vines the undergrowth features rarities like the giant stinging tree. Located on a town block in Wingham in the Manning Valley NSW, this well looked after reserve with its boardwalks is refuge for a large range of birds and home for Grey-headed Flying Foxes.
This small patch of bush, dominated by giant Moreton Bay figs, is looking healthy despite the recent years of drought, perhaps benefiting from its proximity to the Manning River.
The reserve was at one time logged for red cedar and by 1980 was badly infested with weeds. Through the efforts of the Wingham Brush regeneration team the rainforest has returned to a natural state. The pioneering methods used to do this are now recognized internationally as the “The Wingham Brush method”.
Thousands of bats roost in the reserve; predominantly the Grey-headed Flying Fox (pictured) but also the rarer Little Red and Black Flying Fox.
The Russet-tailed Thrush is found in wet eucalypt forest and rainforest of eastern Australia. It is distinguished from its cousin, the Bassian Thrush by the larger white tip on its outermost tail feathers (not really visible here), its shorter tail and the more coppery colouration of its back.
Persons unknown evidently introduced the Australian Brush-turkey to this site and it has flourished in the healthy bush environment.
Our stay in the Manning Valley was in a bungalow at “Mansefield on Manning” just west of Taree, NSW at Tinonee. The 18 hectare park-like grounds have tall gum trees, patches of denser trees, an orchard and large vegetable garden bounded by a small wetland on one side and the Manning River on the other. I counted over 50 bird species on the property itself ranging from Yellow Thornbills and Scarlet Honeyeaters to King Parrots, Brown Quail, Spangled Drongo, Wedge-tailed Eagles and Australian Pelican. The cabins are well separated around the property and there was a serenade from Pied Butcherbirds each morning.
This Spangled Drongo was seen each day at our bungalow at “Mansefield on Manning”, Tinonee, NSW.
And this Brown Quail was seen from the deck in long grass under a nearby tree. There was a group of four Quails that were later seen crossing the road into the site.
One of a family group of Australian King-Parrots.
This Black-fronted Dotterel was keeping very clean in the mud in a roadside pond near Coopernook in the Manning Valley, NSW. A week later this same area was under water, blocking the highway for three days.
Female Regent Bowerbird at Saltwater National Park near the mouth of the Manning River, NSW.
Taking Wootton Way just north of Buladelah on NSW’s Mid North Coast, you come to a dirt road leading to the “The Grandis”. This Eucalpytus Grandis (or Flooded Gum), stands at over 70 metres tall and is reputedly New South Wales’ tallest tree. A bit further up the Wootton road is O’Sullivans Gap Picnic Area. Here among cathedral like “grandis” grow tall palm trees, ferns and areas of dense rainforest.
The dense forest provides little light for photography, this photo of a Rufous Fantail taken at 1/160 seconds, f/5.6 at ISO 2000!
I was enticed to this spot by the description in Ted and Alex Wnorowski’s “Australian Good Birding Guide: NSW-ACT”, which promised Noisy Pitta, Pale-yellow Robins and Australian Logrunners. Although I did not see any of these this place is well worth a visit. If you take the bush track wear gumboots sprayed with copious Bushman Repellant to discourage the leeches!
The beautiful Eucalpytus Grandis provide a majestic setting with the dense undergrowth that surrounds O’Sullivan’s Gap Picnic Ground in Myall Lakes National Park.
This Sacred Kingfisher was high in a Eucalpytus Grandis. Other canopy birds included Topknot Pigeons and White-headed Pigeons.
Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets (pictured) raced through the canopy. There were also small groups of Glossy Black-Cockatoos and Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos.
This Spectacled Monarch was my bird of the day, feeding in Lantana at the fringe of the picnic ground.
I was not sure what this bird in the dark understory was until the photo was developed on the computer. One of a pair of Yellow-throated Scrubwrens.
Numbers of Brown Gerygones (pictured) as well as Red-browed Finches, Superb Fairy-wren, and Silvereyes buzzed through the Lantana that grows around the picnic area and on the roadside.
The Myall lakes wind through an ancient riverbed where the New England Fold belt meets and overthrusts the Sydney Basin rocks - bounded seaward by sandhills that were laid down 60,000 years ago and a coastal sand belt formed 6,000 years ago. The national park covers 44,000 hectare and is 50 km north of Newcastle in NSW. Its wetlands are Ramsar listed with 18 different wetland types. Black-necked Storks, Comb-crested Jacanas, and White-bellied Sea-Eagles are among the 280 species of bird reported here. And the park is home to 41 species of mammal, 15 amphibians and 16 reptiles.
Several Brown Cuckoo-Doves were regular visitors to the pond side trees opposite our Tiny House on Bombah Point Road.
Our accommodation for the weekend was a Tiny House on Bombah Point Road, set in spacious and bushy grounds. The visit started well with two Glossy Black-Cockatoos and a pair of Tawny Frogmouths roosting close by. Bird watching from the Tiny House deck added Blue-faced Honeyeaters, Lewin’s Honeyeaters, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Eastern Spinebills, Brown Cuckoo-Doves, and a Wonga Pigeon, with several endlessly busy Grey Butcherbirds feeding on the lawns.
One of the Grey Butcherbirds feeding on prey exposed by what was a very wet lawn (gumboots recommended).
At Mungo Beach were groups of Crested Terns, two Pied Oystercatchers and the usual Silver Gulls. There was a White-cheeked Honeyeater calling in the car park.
Noisy Friarbirds commanded the taller trees, competing with a small group of Noisy Miners.
A day wandering down farm lanes and exploring the remnant bush around Cowra in the NSW Wheatbelt is a pleasure rewarded with sights of many birds; larger birds that thrive in the open farmland, aggressive Noisy Miners and Rainbow Lorikeets expanding their territories, honeyeaters that have to travel further and further to feed, and small birds surviving in the remaining thickets of bush.
Eastern Rosellas were everywhere, thriving after last years drought breaking rains.
This bee-eater was “working the air currents” around the Cowra lookout. Was it coincidence that someone was keeping bee hives at the base of the hill?
The locals were noting the increase in Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and blaming rain on the coast for their presence. Another explanation for the high numbers could be the good rains around Cowra?
Flocks of Silvereyes were feeding in the hedges around the camping ground in which I was staying.
Present as always and adding a splash of colour were the Red-rumped Parrots.
A group of Tree Martins land in the tree by a farm gate. A few hours before the same tree was full of Dusky Woodswallows.
Pioneer farmers cleared forests, woodlands and grasslands from Queensland to Victoria to develop the eastern wheatbelt farmlands that have contributed so much to the prosperity of Australia. More than 90 per cent of the forest cover was removed and what remains is highly fragmented; many species, plants, animals and birds, are endangered. Now a reverse effort is underway to restore vegetation types so as to maintain the local flora and fauna for future generations.
The extent of land-clearing can be seen from the Cowra lookout in the city’s centre. This small tree’d hill is in fact a good place to see many bird species, including Eastern Rosellas, Rainbow Bee-eaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Rufous Songlarks, woodswallows and raptors.
In the Cowra district the forest cover has been largely removed. Only small pockets of the original grassy woodlands and dry sclerophyll forests remain – on inhospitable steep and rocky hills, on TSRs (Travelling Stock Reserves), and by the road-side. Small patches of riverine forest are seen on river banks. The Cowra Woodland Birds Program encourages re-vegetation and protection of existing woodlands and conducts quarterly surveys to monitor bird numbers.
The Golden Valley Travelling Stock Reserve is one of 6,500 across New South Wales. The TSRs are common land owned by the government to aid movement of livestock across the state. They are too often the only local remnants of original bush and their old trees often provide nesting places for parrots including the vulnerable Superb Parrot.
This dry patch of callitris (cypress pines), ironbarks and other eucalypts is typical of residual hill top bush of the Cowra region. It remains home to many rare and vulnerable species of plants and birds.
Access to Conimbla National Park in the NSW wheatbelt is 15 km from the Cowra to Grenfell highway. The 8,000 hectare park forms a bush island around Yambira mountain rising 500metres above the surrounding cultivated plains. The vegetation is mainly “Western Slopes Dry Sclerophyll Forest” consisting of ironbark eucalypt, other eucalypts and callitris (cypress pines). The park is home to Glossy Black-Cockatoos, Turquoise Parrots, and several species of honeyeaters and robins. It is known as a refuge for Painted Button-quail and for Spotted Quail-thrush.
White-throated Treecreepers were calling at all the sites visited in Conimbla National Park last week, this bird feeding on an Ironbark coloured by lichen.
This view of the Wallaby Walking Track shows the Ironbarks, other eucalypts and callitris typical of the park’s vegetation.
On last week’s survey we saw both Brown and White-throated Treecreepers and three Speckled Warblers at the park entrance. On the Wallaby Walking Track we saw White-eared and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Red-browed Finches, White-browed Scrubwrens, Superb Fairy-wren, Grey Fantails, whistlers and a flock of six Varied Sittellas.
Red-browed Finches were nesting in a low shrub in the picnic ground at the foot of the Wallaby Walking Track.
This White-eared Honeyeater was looking for company and stayed near the track for several minutes before flying off.
A highlight was the sudden appearance of a group of six Varied Sittellas in a flock that included treecreepers and fantails.
Lake Wallace near Lithgow in NSW is a good place to see rare ducks and Great Crested Grebes. Over this summer there has been a deficit in duck numbers on the east coast of NSW and last week there were only a few ducks on Lake Wallace. But these included Blue-billed Ducks, Musk Ducks, Australian Wood Ducks and Hardheads, making my stopover there worthwhile as always.
There were numerous Great Crested Grebes on the lake, most of them like this one were accompanied by one or more juvenile chicks.
This Great Crested Grebe chick is well camouflaged against the lake in its juvenile colours.
There were two Blue-billed Ducks lurking in dense vegetation at the lake shore and emerging every now and then for a photo. In a particular light, these blue bills show almost fluorescent light blue colour, highly visible through the reeds.
The reeds were also alive with Australian Reed-Warblers flying back and forth.
Lake Wallace is popular inland holiday spot with campers and caravanners who can park close to the lake. A beautiful place on a crisp summer’s day like that of last week.
It was just over a year ago that the Currawon bushfire raged through Conjola National Park south of Sydney, burning most of the park. At the survey sites I monitor the rains of the last year have meant a faster recovery than expected, but progress varies greatly depending on the terrain. Where the hottest fires struck in tall eucalypt forest there is a mix of trees recovering through epicormic growth and other trees, usually the smaller ones, that appear to be dead at this stage. In coastal scrub there are large areas where all the trees are dead but the undergrowth is renewing.
This Rufous Whistler is feeding in the epicormic growth on medium sized eucalypts, in an area that is recovering well from the fires.
Bird numbers are recovering but still not to the pre-fire levels. The most noticeable absence is the large honeyeaters, especially the Red Wattlebirds.
The shrubs in this coastal scrub are dead. The thick mat of regrowth is now over a metre high and looking very healthy. The weeds that grew earlier have now been overgrown. A few birds hawk for insects in the regrowth.
In this patch of burnt medium sized eucalypts the regrowth is a mixture of acacias and eucalypt. In places it forms a thick mat that is now up to two metres high. The mix of species seems to be encouraging a wider range of birds.
The parks are quiet in the heat and our bird number count is down. Rumour has it that the water birds have left for inland waters this year; Kensington Pond at Centennial Park had only one solitary Eurasian Coot that had to join a flock of Pacific Black Ducks for company. The total species counts at Centennial Park were only one or two down on normal but total numbers were well below average. The morning’s survey was enlivened by two Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos squabbling with an agitated Sulphur-crested Cockatoo.
Although I associate Yellow-rumped Thornbills more with the open fields of the country they are seen quite regularly at Randwick Environment Park. Here two birds were foraging amongst the litter in the parks well maintained gardens for insects and the occasional seed.
The lake at Randwick Environment Park is bone dry, it has only had fleeting partial water fills since the drought. More worryingly the creek is running at a trickle. The count included a solitary magpie, even the Noisy Miners were down to two. There were more birds on the bushy side of the park, including Yellow-rumped Thornbills, New Holland Honeyeaters and Superb Fairy-wrens.
Randwick Environment Park is a surprising oasis of green in Sydney’s east. The flat area pictured was a well populated lake and water bird refuge before the drought.
There is always something to see in the city’s parks and bush reserves and always something interesting to photograph. The photos below are from around Sydney the past two weeks.
Magpie-larks, also called Peewees after their distinctive call, are seen throughout country Australia, on the ground at the road-side searching for insects. They are just as at home in the city parks and gardens, this Magpie-lark is resting on a park bench.
The Long-billed Corella is a native of South Australia but in Sydney released cage-birds have joined with flocks of Little Corellas. They are easily distinguished from the Little Corellas by their distinctive coloured throats and of course their long bills.
This Powerful Owl is avoiding attention, a world removed from the dog-walkers and dogs on the path directly below the tree it is roosting in.
Even when you know which trees the Tawny Frogmouths are roosting in they are extremely hard to see, well camouflaged to hide in their favourite Melaleuca trees.
Brown Quail have been noted from time to time in Centennial Park, Sydney, but it is quite a few years since the last sighting. A single bird was reported a week ago and now two birds have been confirmed, residing on the grassy banks of one of the park’s ponds.
It was 5pm, raining and the camera was safely in its waterproof bag when these two Brown Quail appeared for their photograph.
The parks around Sydney are good places to photograph birds. Sometimes the birds are not the rarest or the most exotic. But this is made up for because the birds are tamer and you can get closer. And the open spaces have good light for photography. Not to mention that parks provide a handy place to get outdoors and take some pictures!
This odd gathering of birds was seen in Sydney’s Centennial Park.
Even the much maligned Noisy Miner can look quite handsome in a certain light.
This close up view gives a new perspective on a young Superb Fairy-wren.
The beaches and lagoons of Conjola National Park are popular holiday destinations, with excellent surfing and swimming. The park includes parts of Conjola Lake and Berringer Lake as well as Swan Lake, Berrara Creek lagoon and Nerrindillah Creek lagoon.
Kingfishers frequent the park’s streams and lagoons. This Sacred Kingfisher patrols a small pond that has formed during recent rains.
The coastal region has four endangered ecological communities: these are the Coastal Saltmarsh, Swamp Sclerophyll Forest, Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest and Bangalay Sand Forest communities. Endangered Hooded Plovers and Pied Oystercatchers nest on the park’s beaches and Little Terns nest at Lake Conjola Entrance.
Pied Oystercatchers are an endangered species in New South Wales. A number of pairs were breeding within the park this year.
Hooded Plovers are closely monitored and nest sites are protected to prevent beach goers inadvertently destroying the nest. Hooded Plovers are highly endangered in New South Wales with the population estimated at only 50 birds in total.
