Today I spent the morning and the
early afternoon visiting a number of my favourite spots in the lower Hunter
region of NSW (near Newcastle). The locations and some
of the interesting bird were as follows
ASH
ISLAND, Hunter Estuary (approx 160km
north of Sydney CBD or 10-15km west of
Newcastle)
Here I easily found the adult
(and nicely plumaged) Australian Pratincole that has been
present for at least a week. It was great to see this smart and elegant looking
wader again after a number of years, and I had some great views as close as 5-10
metres from this bird. I was surprised how approachable the pratincole was, and
at one time it flew and landed very close to me. The pratincole spent quite a
fair bit of time just staying in one spot on the dry mud on the shores of Swan
Pond catching and feasting on the abundance of small insects flying around it.
Swan Pond (beside Wagtail Way) and the other swamps on Ash Island also had many
other waders including 150 plus Red-necked stints, 300 plus Sharp-tailed and 200
plus Marsh Sandpipers, 80 plus Curlew Sandpipers, 3 Red Knot, 4 Eastern Curlews,
at least 6 Greenshanks, 20 plus Red-capped Plovers, 2 Red-kneed Dotterels, 8
Pied Stilts and 200 plus Red-necked
Avocets (many of the migratory waders were seen coming out of breeding plumage
and 1 saw 2 red flagged waders ? a Sharp-tailed and a Curlew Sandpiper). Other
birds seen included 14 Hoary-headed Grebes (on the deeper pond on the other side
of the railway line), 2 Little Egrets, a Pacific Heron, a male Swamp Harrier,
1-2 Whistling Kites, 35 Whiskered Terns (most if not all were in very smart
breeding plumage), atleast 10 White-fronted Chats, White-breasted Woodswallows,
Reed Warblers, Tawny Grassbirds and Mangrove Gerygones (which were common).
I also met fellow
Newcastle and Birding Aus birdo Jim
Smart while at Ash
Island. It is great to put a face to
a name.
I must comment that they are
doing a very good job with the tree planting on
Ash
Island and one day there will be new
areas of forest. A big pat on the back for all those volunteers!
EAST MAITLAND (approx 160km north
of Sydney CBD)
At mid morning, I then drove to
East Maitland to find the access to the back of the tip. From what I have heard
on NSW birdline, due to public liability reasons, it is no longer freely
accessible to birdos. I have now found a track which runs from the end of
Kimberly Close (in the suburb of Green Hills) and goes along the back of the
East Maitland tip (only a 200-300 metre walk from the end of this cul-de sac).
>From this side of the fence, there is still a good vantage point to see the
raptors over the tip and the surrounds, and I recommend that birdos to try this
area (as just described) as the raptors do fly over to this side of the fence
and quite often (and it is where a pair of Black Falcons were displaying a few
weeks ago). From this side of the fence today, I had two Black Kites circling
low over me and saw another 4 Black Kites over the tip as well as a Brown
Goshawk and one or two Brown Falcons for the 20 or so minutes I was there. This
area is also potentially good for bush birds in the
Spotted
Gum
Forest (where I heard White-throated
Gerygones calling) and the Acacia scrub.
MORPETH STW (approx 170km north
of Sydney CBD)
I made a brief visit here and
there appears now to be much less water birds than there were a month or so ago.
I did see 200 Hardheads, over a hundred Pink-eared Ducks, a few Australasian
Shoveler, many Grey Teal (the most common duck there) and 5 Darter. Where I was
standing I had some very good looks at both Tawny and Little Grassbirds and Reed
Warblers all together in small patches of weed growing beside one of the
sewerage ponds. I heard a Brown Quail call nearby and I thought I heard the
distinctive ?chiff iff iff? calls of a Wood Sandpiper on the other side of the
pond but I could not see the bird.
Yes it?s been a great weekend
visiting rubbish tips and sewerage ponds!
SEAHAM (approx. 200km north of
Sydney CBD)
During a brief but pleasant stop
here for lunch, I watched for a while a Latham?s Snipe stand on the edge of one
of the freshwater swamps. I also saw some Satin Bowerbirds (including one or two
brilliant adult males) flying into the trees on the edge of Seaham Swamp NR
where I also saw a few Olive-backed Orioles and heard both Striped and
Brown-headed Honeyeaters calling. Both Blue-faced Honeyeaters and Grey-crowned
Babblers were fossicking in peoples gardens nearby (yes these Babblers are
garden birds here).
I also saw a Channel-billed
Cuckoo fly over the road when driving through nearby Eagleton.
STOCKTON, Hunter Estuary (approx
180km north of Sydney CBD or 5km north of
Newcastle)
I managed to arrive at the right
time to see quite a number of waders utilising the new high tide roosting area
below Stockton bridge. I managed to
have good and fairly close views (with the aid of my scope and mainly from the
car park so as to not disturb the birds) of a variety of waders with many also
moulting out of breeding plumage. There were about 150 Curlew and a few
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 200 plus Red and 1 Great Knots, 200 plus Bar-tailed and
35 Black-tailed Godwits, a Whimbrel, 150 plus Eastern Curlew, a Grey Plover, a
few Red-capped Plovers, a Pied Oystercatchers and 1000 plus (though many were
still arriving) Red-necked Avocets. Further down stream, I saw 5 Grey-tailed
Tattlers roosting on a wreck beside the
Hunter
River.
Edwin
Vella
