A typical (?) weekend in Sydney's suburban north shore started on
Friday evening with a semillon and light meal at the newly reopened
Waratah Park, in Duffys Forest. This wildlife sanctuary is now
operated by Earth Sanctuaries.
It was an idyllic, cloudless, mild evening which showed promise when
we were greeted by a female Leaden Flycatcher and a number of
Bar-shouldered Doves, a species which is at best, uncommon in Sydney.
One of the local (wild) Swamp Wallabys was seen feeding at the edge
of the bush.
Amongst other species present were Brown Cuckoo-dove, Fan-tailed
Cuckoo, White-throated Needletail, making a bullet-like pass just
before dark, Tawny Frogmouth and 5 species of honeyeater, in a
total of 26 bird species.
After dark we were guided through this small park and saw some of its
fascinating wildlife.
Striped Marshfrogs were present but remained unseen unlike the many
Dwarf Tree-frogs roosting in the Persicaria sp. around the edge of
the pond. These tiny, delicate frogs are a delight to see. While
watching these and a dragonfly nymph, a tiny snake passed
unconcernedly by. It remained unidentified. It was (less than)
pencil-thin, 20-30 cm. long, grey-brown and banded darker brown, at
first sight looking a bit like a juvenile Brown Snake. When viewed
from above it appeared to have a tiny, yellow spot in the region of
the eye and above the top lip. Any ideas?
Shortly after, a micro-bat flew close by before settling on my shoe.
Microbat? This microbat turned out to be an Emporer Gum Moth, a furry
giant of the moth world, with a 12 cm wingspan.
Earlier we had seen young male Grey Kangaroos play-boxing but now,
after dark, the Rufous Bettongs were everywhere. Brushtail Possums,
a common local native were around as were a few Long-nosed Bandicoots
including a female with three small young, freshly out of the pouch.
Our group thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Waratah Park and all agreed
that this type of reserve deserves strong support. I have no
commercial connection with the park and these comments represent a
personal view.
Elsewhere in the area a Death Adder was found on Saturday in a
composting pile, under a black plastic sheet. This beautiful little,
russet-coloured snake was taken to a wildlife carer by its finder.
A finder who was completely unaware of its identity. It was found in
St Ives in a garden bordering Garigal NP.
Slightly further north a Brown Snake is occasionally seen at the
Ku-ring-gai Community nursery as are Diamond Pythons, while
yesterday outside our house in Roseville was a very flat, dead snake,
possibly a Golden-crowned Snake, a species which is common in the
area. A few weeks ago we had a 1.5 m. Green Tree-snake in the garden
and yesterday we discovered that our resident Bluetongue Lizards
recently had young.
And I'm getting carried away, forgetting that this is a bird forum.
So, one of our local Brown Goshawks has been roosting in and around
our back yard for about a week now and, literally as i type this
sentence, is calling from its roost.
And finally a Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen over St Ives showground on
Thursday, by Ross Rapmund.
Andy
--
Andy Burton's Bush Tours
52 Abingdon Rd
ROSEVILLE
NSW 2069
Ph. 61 2 9416 2636
Mob. 0408 937 531
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