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Hi Birders,
The Central Coast Group (CCFOC) of
Birding NSW had a mid-week outing on Wednesday 13 March 2002 to the lower Hunter
wetlands and 7 people participated. Permission had been given by the Bartram
Group to walk through the Steggles Swamp at Beresfield near Maitland. John
Carpenter and Arthur Biggs had visited the swamp 12 years ago and had had good
birding then. Alas, the cumbungi was too high, the wet areas too swampy and the
paspalum too high and too wet in the rain to make walking easy so we eventaully
had to give up. Not before having good views of 4 Latham's
Snipe, Cisticola, Reed Warbler,
Little Grassbird, a pair of Red-rumped Parrots
feeding dependent young, and many Straw-necked Ibis. 22 species
were seen despite the rain.
We next moved on to the Railway
Swamp, Tarro where despite the drizzle, more waterbirds were present including
Royal Spoonbill, a pair of Darters, a
Sacred Kingfisher, Pied Butcherbird and about
8 White-breasted Woodswallows. From here we travelled via
Woodberry Swamp where we picked up a Yellow-billed Spoonbill, a
Hobby on the wires and another Sacred Kingfisher. Between
Woodberry Swamp and the town of Morpeth were many White-necked
Herons, Black-shouldered Kite, some
Intermediate Egrets and another Hobby.
Arriving at Morpeth we spent some
time at the Morpeth Common where eventually we had lunch under cover. Around the
ponds and in the adjoining woodland, there were plenty of birds to see including
a Nankeen Night Heron, 2 more Sacred Kingfishers & another
Hobby, a Swamp Harrier, Brown &
Yellow Thornbills, many Figbirds including one
feeding dependent young and a Rufous Whistler, Grey
& Pied Butcherbirds.
We moved to Morpeth STW where the
raptores were representred by Whistling Kite, Black-shouldered
Kite and Swamp Harriers. Among the ducks there were plenty of Hardheads
and Black-winged Stilts were feeding around the edges
of some of the ponds. Tawny Grassbirds were very easy to see,
and there were Great, Cattle & Intermediate Egrets feeding
in the flooded pastures.
Our final stop for the day was at
John Brown Lagoon , Mulbring where we were able to scope up 2 Jacanas
on the water lilies, we watched a group of Choughs and
saw several Nankeen Kestrels. An injured Black-shouldered Kite
was found at the edge of the road and was captured and taken to a WIRES carer
and another Snipe was seen. All up we saw over 75 species during the miserable
wet conditions.
Finally I understand that at the Ash
Island Ponds, the Ruff was last seen on Saturday 9 March and
the Yellow Wagtails on 7 March, and there have been no reports
since.
Alan Morris
CCFOC
Alan
Morris.
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