Hi Edwin,
I saw 2 Chestnut-breasted Finches today at Prospect Reservoir. They
were on the road between the closed off top car park and the lower
(smaller) carpark. A new bird for me. Are they common here ?
There is also a group of Flame trees (?) on the left as you enter the
reservoir area. The trees are just starting to flower and swarming with
HE's.
Seen there were
Noisy Friarbirds
Red Wattlebirds
Little Wattlebirds
Noisy Miners
New Holland HE
White Plumed HE
White Naped HE
Eastern Spinebills
Also
Peaceful Doves
Bar Shouldered Doves
Double barred Finches
Fan Tailed Cuckoo - Heard
Red Browed Finches
Eastern Yellow Robin
Red Whiskered Bulbuls
A nice way to spend a Lunch break.
P.S. I keep returning to Prospect to try to chase the Scarlet HE, but no
luck yet !
Kind Regards,
Simon Hayes
Merchandising Specialist
Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd
Ph. 0418 367477
Fax. 02 9807 7907
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"Edwin Vella"
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[BIRDING-AUS] Prospect Reservoir (40 km west of Sydney CBD) - 2nd
cnet.net.au August 2003
02/08/03 00:55
This morning, I managed to get a few hours off to check around my local
area for any Swift Parrots for this weekend's survey. I drove around the
suburb of Greystanes (approx. 40 km west of Sydney CBD) for half an hour (a
site where I have seen them a few years ago) and heard/saw Rainbow and Musk
Lorikeets, New Holland Honeyeaters etc but no Swifties. The Spotted Gums
(Eucalyptus maculate) appear now in flower in this area and other parts
around my local area.
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I spent also 2 hours looking around Prospect Reservoir for the Swift
Parrots (again another site where I have seen Swifties spend the winter).
No sign of Swift Parrots or Regent Honeyeaters here as well, despite seeing
one good tree in full blossom, dominated mainly by White-plumed and New
Holland Honeyeaters. Both Little and Red Wattlebirds, several White-naped
Honeyeaters, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns
= "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Eastern Spinebills and of
course, Noisy Miners, were also about the picnic areas. The Scarlet
Honeyeaters and Noisy Friarbirds are often present here towards the end of
winter.
I searched the top picnic area (on the hill) for Swifties but saw the Mugga
Ironbarks not in flower. Here Red-browed Firetails were abundant feeding on
the ground on the seeding Kangaroo grass with 3 Peaceful Doves, several
Eastern Yellow Robins (many tame birds out in the open), Red-whiskered
Bulbuls (at least 6 on the ground. Have seen these Bulbuls feed here on the
ground before and I wonder what they might eat!) and Superb Blue Wrens. One
of a few Fan-tailed Cuckoos (trilling away nicely) and a family of 3
Crested Shrike-tits (this place is usually very reliable to see the later
species) were showing very well. This upper picnic area offers one of
Sydney's best lookouts overlooking the Reservoir and with the Blue
Mountains in the background. Going down the hill I also saw 2
Bar-shouldered Doves and small groups of Nutmeg Mannikins, Double-barred
Finches and loads more Red-browed Firetails.
>From here with scope (and with 2 very tame Eastern Yellow Robins by my
side), I was able to see the Reservoir with loads of water birds including
3 species of Grebes ? 100 plus Hoary-headed, 5 Australasian and 120 plus
Great Crested Grebes (saw a single tight raft of about 60-80 Hoary-headed
Grebes and a fairly loose raft 100 of Great Crested Grebes), 1000 plus
Coots (probably heaps more amongst the far away dots (water birds) about
the western side of the reservoir), several Little Black and Great
Cormorants, Australian Pelicans, Black Swans, Silver Gulls and a new bird
for my local shire list, a Caspian Tern. There were also good numbers of
raptors with a nice adult White-bellied Sea-eagle, 14 Whistling Kites seen
at the same time (9 about the southern reservoir wall and 5 on the northern
side. There could have been more Whistlers, but this is what I could
positively count as being present at the same time. Has anyone seen large
numbers of Whistling Kites like this before?), 3 Black-shouldered Kites and
a Swamp Harrier flying near the reservoir (coming from the new Nelson Ridge
estate next door which looks much like a big ugly hole with a few
buildings). From this hill I could also see both Straw-necked and Sacred
Ibis soaring high towards the Blue Mountains but probably just over the
Eastern Creek Tip (a place I should check out for Black Kites and Black
Falcons!). Fairy Martins have also arrived and as I tried to whistle in a
Golden Bronze-cuckoo one of the Crested Shrike-tits came in instead after
hearing me from all the way from the top picnic area.
A good relaxing 2 hours in my local area.
Edwin Vella
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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