At Castlereagh Nature Reserve
(approx. 55km NW of Sydney CBD) today (13/6/05), I was very surprised to find a
CHESTNUT-RUMPED HEATHWREN a species normally found on the sandstone ridges
surrounding Sydney. I first took notice of the heathwren
when I heard it’s scolding alarm calls and with
a few squeaks brought it in full view. It also was heard briefly singing. Also very
close to where the heathwren was, were
3 Variegated Wrens (another bird
more typical of sandstone habitat) comprising of a nicely plumaged male. Other
interesting birds at Castleregah NR was a single BLACK-CHINNED
HONEYEATER (a scarce resident or nomad of Castelreagh
NR) amongst the abundance of Fuscous Honeyeaters (probably the most numerous
species present at Castlereagh NR); Brown-headed, White-eared
and Scarlet Honeyeaters (also very surprisingly there appeared to be not a
single Yellow-faced or White-naped Honeyeaters or a Noisy
Friarbird), Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Peaceful Doves, Crested Shrike-tit, Buff-rumped Thornbills, many Striated Pardalotes (lots of the Tasmanian subspecies with 6 seen
together in a small eucalypt), Double-barred Finches, Dusky Woodswallows
etc. A few Mugga Ironbarks were in full blossom in and
just outside the Nature Reserve but I did not observe any of the honeyeaters feeding
in them and all the honeyeaters were observed well away from those trees.
One the edge of the Dept. of Defence
land at Londonderry (end of Torkington Rd), there
were much more Mugga Ironbarks in blossom attracting
several White-cheeked, White-eared, Scarlet, Brown-headed, Fuscous but very few
Yellow-faced Honeyeaters (maybe many of the later have gone further north!) and
Eastern Spinebill.
I also had a look around the Windsor - Richmond turf farms and
lagoons (60 km NW of Sydney CBD) were near the Orange Orchard towards Windsor along
the Cornwallis Rd, I saw a flock of 300 plus Zebra Finch and 20 plus
Double-barred Finch as well as 11 Bar-shouldered Doves amongst the Crested
Pigeons and Spotted Turtle-doves.
At the end of Onus Lane Richmond, there were
a flock of around 400 Corellas (mainly Little with a
few Long-billed amongst them). This is the largest flock I think I have seen in
Sydney. They were
all put to flight when a Brown Goshawk appeared and circled above them.
At Fernleighs Lagoon (at the end
of Triangle Lane) there were
143 Hardhead, 5 Pink-eared Ducks and 7 Australasian Shoveler,
a Yellow-billed Spoonbill, an Azure Kingfisher, a few Pied Stilts as well as 4
Red-kneed and 2 Black-fronted Dotterel.
And finally at Pughes Lagoon in Richmond were 90
Plumed Whistling-ducks, a Plumed Egret and a Nankeen Night Heron.
Edwin Vella
