This morning and around noon in the Hawkesbury area NSW with Graham Turner and
Matt (sorry I didn?t get your last name), we saw a number of interesting species
including the following:
PITT
TOWN:
Brown Quail (1)
Pink-eared Duck (only 2)
Baillons Crake (5)
Australian Crake (2) (very good views with 2 of the former)
Marsh Sandpiper (6)
Wood Sandpiper (1)
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (140 plus)
Whiskered Terns 45 plus (all but one or two were in breeding
plumage)
Rufous Songlark (2) (one feeding in some ones garden near the lagoon and
another along Pitt Town
Bottoms Rd
Singing Bushlarks (along Pitt Town Bottom
Rd)
Collared Sparrowhawk (great views of an adult bird perched in the planted
trees close to the north-western end of the lagoon)
Brown Goshawk (1) (soaring with a catch in its talons)
Whistling Kite (1)
Marsh Harrier (1)
White-winged Triller (male)
Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (20 plus with a few Nutmeg
Mannikins)
The water level is going down and if the drought continues till the
summer, I think the lagoon will be completely/almost dried out.
RICHMOND TURF
FARMS
Stubble Quail (one small immature bird flushed, others heard)
Brown Quail (a few heard)
Singing Bushlarks (3 plus)
Brown Songlarks (a pair seen and others heard)
Rufous Songlark (atleast one)
Horsfield?s Bronze-cuckoo (2 Juv/Imm birds)
Pallid Cuckoo (1)
Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (another 20 plus also with a few Nutmeg
Mannikins)
All the above were seen along Cupitts
Lane at
Richmond.
Rainbow Bee-eaters
Pacific Heron (1 nicely plumaged adult)
Zebra Finch (3)
Also on my way home, 2 pairs of Dollarbirds seen perched in dead
Eucalypts at Glenorie.
Edwin Vella
