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Hi Birders,
The central Coast Group of Birding NSW held an
outing to Picnic Point, The Entrance, Karagi Point & a Ferry
Trip on the Wyong River up to the Bridges on Saturday 30 November 2002.
Twenty-eight members attended this activity which took place after overnight
rain. Rain was forecast for the whole day, but no rain fell until after the trip
concluded and we even had some sunny breaks. Just like we wanted! As Tuggerash
Lake is very shallow at present because of the drought, there were plenty of
birds to see on the exposed mud flats at Picnic Point. This included many
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers & Red-necked
Stints, and small numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits,
Eastern Curlews, c. 14 Pacific Golden Plovers,
8 Greenshanks, 10+ Curlew Sandpipers,
Red-capped Plovers, 3 Marsh Sandpipers, a
Grey-tailed Tattler, & Turnstone, There
were also Whiskered, Little,
Caspian, Common, Crested and
a lone Gull-billed Tern, in addition to large numbers of
Swans, Grey Teal, Pelican,
Cormorants & Royal Spoonbills. An adult male
White-winged Triller called strongly from the Casuarinas, while
Magpie-larks & Galahs were feeding young,
Willy Wagtails were nesting, Yellow-rumped
Thornbills & Striped Honeyeaters were busy
feeding. A great start for the day! After morning tea were moved off to North
Entrance where two more Eastern Curlews were seen, a lone Red
Knot, and many more waders and Swans. At Karagi Point, we watched c. 25
pairs of Little Terns nesting in the fenced area along with several pairs of
Red-capped Plovers, while 2 Pied Oystercatchers were feeding
nearby in the inlet, and 50 Pied Cormorants, c.220
Little Black Cormorants & 40 Common Terns were roosting on
a sandbank.
At 12.15 hrs we boarded the ferry for a trip across the Lake
and up the Wyong River, a sausage sizzle lunch was served on route! It was a
great trip. At the mouth of the where Wyong River entered Tuggerah Lake there
were 240 Swans, a number of Great Egrets and many
Darters. Along the river we counted 12 Darter nests all contain
2-3 large young, while there were plenty of roosting Little Black & little
Pied Cormorants. At least two pairs of Whistling Kites were
seen, along with a Sea Eagle, Hobby and
Kestrel. Ten Nankeen Night Herons were seen
roosting in the trees bordering the River, along with two pairs of
Striated Herons and a lone Black Bittern.
Azure Kingfishers, Dollarbirds, a
Buff-banded Rail and a Sacred Kingfisher were
seen in the riverside vegetation and Welcome Swallows and
White-breasted Woodswallows flew overhead. Altogether 90
species were seen on the day and everyone had an enjoyable time
(AKM).
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