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Hi everyone,
I had an interesting but frustrating weekend of
birding this weeken, at a few different spots around and about the place. I
found myself going to Sydney for the day on Saturday, so I decided to do a spot
of birding at Magic Point, hoping to run across the Lewin's Rail. I left
Canberra early, and decided to stop at Roses Lagoon, a large swamp between
Canberra and Goulburn to see if I could hear any bitterns, on the advice of John
Leonard. It was still dark (about 0545) when I stopped, and as soon as I got out
of the car, I could here several Australasian Bitterns. The
call was very strange but distinctive, and one I had never heard before. There
seemed to be many different birds calling, but it is a hard call to put a
direction on, so I couldn't be sure how many were calling.
When I arrived at Maroubra, I headed out to the
point first to do some seawatching (which i have never done before) and found
myself totally at a loss! I only had a pair of binoculars, and not much idea, so
all I saw was Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. My luck changed when
Rod Gardner turned up, bringing his scope and a wealth of knowledge, and so soon
I had White-fronted Terns, Huttons and Fluttering
Shearwaters. Not a good day by Rod's standards (especially after an
Antarctic Petrel!), but I was suitably impressed. We wandered back after a
while, along the track where Rod had seen the Lewin's Rails only that morning,
but could not find one. We did hear several though, especially in the bitou near
the carpark, where we could hear them literally within metres of us. So it
seemed I was going to miss out, but after Rod left, I hung around for a while,
and after 15 mins, was rewarded with a small dark shape moving through the
bitou. I thought this was as close as i was going to get, but of course about 30
secs after I had put my camera away, a Lewin's Rail wandered
out from the bitou quite casually, no more than 3 metres away.It got half way
across the track before it ducked off, never to be seen again.
On the way back to Canberra this morning, I made
another stop at Roses Lagoon, where I saw 2 male(?) Swamp
Harriers doing their spectacular display over the swamp. One of the
birds it seemed was an immature bird, as its display was much less spectacular
than the other, which included all manner of aerobatics and calling, as it
dipped its way down to the reeds - and here ended my weekend
birdwise.
Nick
Leseberg
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