REPORT ON LAST OUTING – CENTRAL COAST GROUP, BIRDING
NSW
Central Coast outing to Morisset Hospital, Woods Point &
Myuna Bay 27 April. 24 members met at Morisset on a very grey morning, and
started their sightings at Pourmalong Ck in the Hospital grounds. After a slow
start, we eventually saw 6 honeyeater species, Brown-headed, Yellow-faced,
White-cheeked, White-naped, Lewins Honeyeaters & many Eastern
Spinebills. Also seen were Jacky Winter, Buff-rumped & Yellow
Thornbills, Varied Sitella, Mistletoebird, Fantailed &
Shining Bronze-Cuckoos. At Woods Point, our next stop, we soon sighted 2
Ospreys sitting in a tree near a nest, also recorded were Azure
Kingfisher, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Golden Whistler, Scarlet
Robin (unusual for this site), Darter, Yellow and Striated
Thornbills. Feeding on the mistletoe growing in trees along the bank of the
creek were Scarlet, Lewins & Yellow-faced Honeyeaters.
Chestnut Teal, Black Duck Wood Duck and Little Pied
Cormorants were to be seen along the creek.
We moved onto the lake foreshore reserve and before lunching,
we observed White-winged Choughs, Rainbow & Musk Lorikeets,
Pied Butcherbirds and Olive-backed Oriole feeding young. A
Sea-Eagle circled overhead, later being joined by a Whistling
Kite. After lunch we proceeded to Dora Creek where we saw Swan, Cormorants
and 2 Black-winged Stilts. Our last stop for the day was at the Eraring
Power Station outlet at Myuna Bay, where a Great Egret, White-faced
Heron and many Crested Terns were seen. Overhead a pair of Whistling
Kites circled above their nest which was in a nearby pine tree also higher in
the sky was a pair of Sea eagles.
If the Ospreys are proved to be nesting at Woods Point, it will
be the first nesting in Lake Macquarie since 1991 where they nested for about 10
years (1982-1991) near the Eraring Power Station. For a very grey day, with rain
always threatening, we managed to record 80 different species (Val
Moon).
