Hi Everyone
John Reidy, Neil McCumber and I left for Grafton on Thursday evening
staying overnight at Coffs Harbour arriving at Cowans Pond, South
Grafton at 7.30am on Friday 11 August. We had excellent views of the
Northern Pintail and left at approximately 8.30am to search for the
South Island Pied Oystercatcher ( SIPO ) at South Balina.
With the assistance of a very helpful local who had been fishing we
covered 15 km of beach in his 4wd and eventually found 2 SIPOs with 2
OZPOs making identification easier.
A very successful days birding was completed with the sighting of 4 +
Mangrove H/E at Hickey Island Yamba. Many thanks to Greg Clark for his
local knowledge and excellent directions. Three new birds for John and
Iand two for Neil was a very pleasing result.
The update on the Northern Pintail is that is it was seen by Mike
Carter and several others after Mike mid afternoon on Friday 11 August ,
but was gone when Mike returned late in the afternoon.
The bird was still not present the next morning much to the
disappointment of a number of birders who had traveled from Sydney and
further afield. We left at 11.45am to return home but others were
planning to stay the night in Grafton and check the site the following
morning.
It was interesting to note that when we observed the bird on Friday
morning there was a good collection of ducks on the lagoon including
Hardhead, Black, Woodies and Chestnut Teal. When we returned on Saturday
they had all gone with the exception of a few Black Ducks. One assumes
that the Pintail left with the other ducks and may possibly be located
in the Grafton area or may return to the same pond.
Congratulations to the locals for their work in establishing the Cowans
Pond Reserve.
Regards
Robin Benson
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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