G'day G(?) and other birdlovers
I was on Lady Carrington Drive for the first time since early February on
Sunday and picked up good numbers of many species, with plentiful Rose Robins,
Azure Kingfishers, Golden Whistlers (a number in territorial disputations),
Varied Sitellas and Acanthizids (Little Brown Birds) except for Rockwarblers
which were a little quieter than usual with several calls and only three or
four sightings - it was a busy day for the mountain-bikers, who were abundant
8-(. Red-browed Finches and Silvereyes are very abundant too. Satin Bowerbirds
are very active currently.
Wonga Pigeons are very quiet at the moment as are fairy-wrens . Catbirds very
quiet too and so are all of the parrots. My birding companion for the day,
Madeleine Murray, got a Satin Flycatcher at around the 4.5km mark from the
northern gate of the drive. This is pretty unusual for this time of year and
very unusual to find one along this part of the trail (a "bird on the move" is
my conclusion).
The Superb Lyrebirds appear to be much later than last year in getting their
courtship under way as they were extremely quiet. Only a few sightings and only
one calling stridently ("space invaders" and plenty of mimicry), but very
briefly. I did note that there are plentiful display mounds which appear to be
nicely cleared so an explosion of courtship cannot be too far away. The
cock-birds are all in extremely fine feather.
If you were in the Royal NP early yesterday numbers may have been down due to
the sudden onset of cold mornings. This means that birds are not so actively
feeding until a little later on, especially insectivores. This has been most
apparent in a "survey methods" assignment which I am currently undertaking for
Uni.
Black-faced Monarchs have now all departed for the north and wont be back until
Spring.
Brown-headed Honeyeaters are more commonly found in Heathcote NP than the Royal
NP, according to my records. Good sites for them are along the "Pipeline Trail"
(see a park map - south of Waterfall) and occasionally on the "Kingfisher Pool
Trail" at Waterfall, where I've had a few of them nesting. My only sightings in
the Royal NP are Flat Rock Creek (near the bridge) and downstream at Winifred
Falls.
Happy birding
Ricki Coughlan
Belrose, Sydney
www.rickicoughlan.com/aussiebirds
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