Hi everyone
Visited Shortland Wetlands Centre (32 52 42 S, 151 41 41 E - Newcastle, 2 hours
drive north of Sydney) 28 October. Also the
markets swamp across the road. Plenty of good birdwatching including:
Pacific Black Ducks with tiny (cute) chicks
Ditto Australasian Grebe - lovely stripes on the immatures
Brown Honeyeaters calling very stridently
2 Black-fronted Dotterel including chasing away 2 Red-kneed Dotterels
Nankeen Night-Heron - adults and highly mottled immatures sitting around like
statues in the paperbarks. The more you
looked, the more you found!
200 Cattle Egret in resplendent orange colours
Latham's Snipe - 4 in grass next to the water, giving some fabulous views as
they moved around, but generally otherwise just
their head popping up above grasstop level and disappearing again in peek-a-boo
fashion
Wandering Whistling-Duck - a few at Shortland, 50 at Markets Swamp. Beautiful
plumage
80 Hardheads at markets swamp
Ash Island 32 52 00 S, 151 43 09 E a little quiet, windy as always - but
produced Eastern Curlew and 7 Marsh Sandpipers.
White-fronted Chats and lots of Richard's Pipits on the tracks in front of the
car.
Saw a bird having a dustbath on a track and thought it might have been a quail,
but getting closer showed it to be a
Richard's Pipit. I've never observed this behaviour in this pipit before.
Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike on nest, and was able to observe the adults changing
over minding duties.
Irene Denton
Concord West, 12 km from Sydney city, NSW Australia
33 50 17 S 151 05 25 E
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