| Hi all
I took my son to Jerrabombera Wetlands (19 Jan) but was most surprised about the absence of waterbirds. There were a number of Purple swamphen and young/juv around, one Hoary-headed Grebe and in a "puddle" on the way to the bridge a Family of Hardheads (?) with 5-6 very big chicks and 2 Wood Ducks. On the way to the silt trap we saw 2 Pacific Black. That was about it, except for a darter circling overhead when we got there at about 2pm.
We saw a lot of Superb fairy wrens, a white-browed scubwren, 2 yellow rumped Thornbills, 4 grey fantails and quite a few Silver-eyes and a few LBBs. After 2 years in the UK, my eyes have to get retrained for Australian birds. One of them could have been a Brown HE, but not sure at all. There were quite a few Reed Warblers
around.
Twice wie saw a sacred Kingfisher, though that might have been the same bird. Once on the tallest tree out in Kelly's Swamp and once in the trees at the car park, where I took the photo.
On the log out in Kelly's Swamp was a lone long-necked turtle.
My question actually is, if the lack of water birds is due to the wet year and there are alternative bodies of water around? Is the Swamp too stagnant and smelly for the birds? Or are there other reasons that I am not aware off, because I was away.
I also have this feeling (never done any serious long term counting) that there are a lot less small birds in our garden in northern Ainslie. However, I did have a white-browed srub-wren here a couple of weeks ago and had never seen one of them in my garden before. But apart from a couple of silver-eyes there is a notable
absence of spinebills, wrens, etc.
Even the Magpie-Larks disappeared. Only one dropped in for a short visit last week. But then I had that Koel hanging around for a week (closely watched by a group of Currawongs).
On the way to "visiting" the Hawdon St Guinea Fowl we did find a Willy Wagtail nest with 3 very big chicks - tails and head hanging out. They were gone the next day, except for one and one parent on a tree nearby, just above a Magpie-Lark female sitting on her nest.
My son (11) actually still had a good time and was able to tick off some lifers. And on the way back we dropped in on the White faced Heron chick at Campbell Park. So, still a nice outing.
Cheers,
Susanne | 