After checking out the Bureau of Meteorology website this morning and
noticing that the winds were going to be north-westerly and ahead of a
southerly change, I thought I should take the punt to try and find some
Fork-tailed Swifts at Sydney’s Royal National Park (I wasn’t that
optimistic at first, as I have been looking out for them for many years without
success, but since they had been seen there recently, I thought I may be lucky
enough this time to see them).
I arrive at the Royal NP at about 10 am, the sky appeared partly cloudy with little wind. I
decided to do a stroll along the Service Trail at Curra Moors to see some
heathland birds, with a very cooperative Beautiful Firetail being one of my
first birds and saw several close Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. I also heard here
another Beautiful Firetail and both Southern Emu-wrens and Chestnut-rumped
Heathwrens.
It was about 11 am when the winds picked up (which were from
the west) and I noticed more lines of clouds with a front approaching from the
south-west. I kept looking at the sky to see if there were any swifts about but
there were no signs of them yet. I decided to go for a bit of a drive to Garrie
Beach to past the time and then
returned back at Curra Moors (beside Sir Bertrams
Drive) at about 12 pm
with a lot more cloud build up. I waited for half an hour and was just about to
give it up and head back home when all of a sudden about 10 White-throated
Needletails flew quite low over me. A few minutes after, bingo, 2 Fork-tailed
Swifts flew low over showing their diagnostic fork tails, slimmer wings and
appearance, clear white rump, no white in the vent and only a pale (not white) throat. I was deeply
thrilled, as it has taken me 17 or so years to see one. But the joy was not
over yet. About half an hour later, a flock of 30 more Fork-tailed Swifts flew
quite lower over the road and I could clearly hear their shrill calls and they
then spent an hour or so soaring high and low at times over the area. I notice
the flight of the Fork-tail’s being fast but more drifting and less
powerful than the Needle-tails which also had then joined them. I ended up
seeing at least 50 Fork-tailed Swifts (but I dare say there was probably twice
as many as some were quite high and hard to see) and they outnumbered the Needletails
by 5 to 4. The Fork-tailed Swifts continued to make their shrill calls and they
stayed in the same area till it started to sprinkle with rain. Both species of
Swift then moved further north and to move more ahead of the rain clouds about 2:30 pm when I then decided to head home.
Edwin Vella
