Yesterday, I had the great
pleasure of showing two American visitors, Marc Weinberger and John Mitchell
around the Hawkesbury area and the lower Blue
Mountains. The weather was glorious and so where our wildlife
sightings. Both Marc and Jon showed a very keen interest in both our native
flora and fauna and Jon had his camera ready to take many good shots just about
all the time.
I met both Marc and John at the
Penrith Motor Inn were they were staying for the 3 nights in Sydney (and
Australia, after a wonderful couple of weeks in Papua New Guinea) where we had a
number of birds just outside the motel ? many Little and Long-billed Corellas,
both Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets (4 of the later and are quite uncommon
this far west), several Red-rumped Parrots and lots of White-plumed
Honeyeaters.
As we drove to our first official
spot, I spotted an Australian Hobby perched on the power lines, a first of
several good sightings. At Shaws Creek (in Yarramundi) in the foot hills of the
Blue Mountains, it did not take long to find the much
talked about SWIFT PARROTS. We saw atleast 6 feeding on the lerps alongside a
Bell Miner colony (I was told by John deHeume yesterday that there were up to
100 present in this area). Other birds seen here included a Brown Quail, 2
Common Bronzewings, several Bar-shouldered Doves and King Parrots.
We then moved onto Blue Gum Swamp
Creek in Winmalee with the hope of finding a Superb Lyrebird. Fortunately, this
beautiful part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area did not get battered
away from last summers bad bush fires and has made a good recovery from the
devastating 1994 bush fires. We walked for a couple of km or so and back along
the main trail and saw an Eastern Shrike-tit, both Red-browed (4) and
White-throated Tree-creepers (feeding in the same Eucalypt), a few very
confiding Rock Warblers (one was seen in the ferns rather than amongst rocks or
on the trail where the others were seen), a wonderful look at a Fan-tailed
Cuckoo and a few White-browed Scrubwrens very close to our feet. Mysteriously,
not even one Lyrebird was seen or heard which is quite a common species in the
Blue Mountains are. A Pilotbird was also heard calling
briefly but too far from the track. Both Jon and Marc admired also the variety
of wildflowers along our walk, namely Banksias, Acacias and Grevilleas.
After a pleasant walk here, we
grabbed lunch and drove through the Turf farms on the outskirts of
Richmond and
Windsor were we observed a few
common species of raptors ? a pair of Whistling Kites, Black-shouldered Kites
and Kestrels as well as a mixed flock of native and introduced finches ? Zebra
and Double-barred Finches, Nutmeg Manikins and Goldfinches.
We arrived at Pitt Town Lagoon
(north of Windsor) in the early
afternoon where I heard a couple of times what sounded like a Grey-crowned
Babblers. Though still common (but declining) in NSW, these are thought to be
locally extinct from this part of the Hawkesbury and most likely what I heard
was a good imitation by some other bird? There is still however the odd sighting
of Grey-crowned Babblers along the
Hawkesbury
River. The number of waterbirds here
yesterday was much fewer than what there were a few weeks ago and the Freckled
Ducks appeared to have done a disappearing act which I was hoping to show my
overseas friends. We did see a few of the other waterfowl ? Pink-eared Duck,
Hardheads and Australasian Shoveler as well as a Swamp Harrier, Pied Stilts,
both Red-kneed and Black-fronted Dotterels and Yellow-billed Spoonbill among
others.
Before reaching our main final
destination, we stopped at the golf course at Wisemans Ferry to view one of our
more so colourful Honeyeaters, the Blue-faced Honeyeater. These honeyeaters
appear to be slowly establishing themselves in this part of the
Sydney region with breeding already
recorded over recent years.
We crossed via the ferry to get
away from the Sydney side to the
other side of the Hawkesbury
River (Central Coast Region) to visit
Dharug National
Park. Here hopefully I was able to show Marc and
John atleast one Superb Lyrebird. And to both their delight, there were atleast
10 Superb Lyrebirds roaming around the edges of the picnic areas as well as a
Brush Turkey, a few Wonga Pigeons (4), many Bassian Thrushes and Satin
Bowerbirds. John certainly used up alot of film here. It was certainly a good
part of the day to be at Dharug! We also heard a male Superb lyrebird giving
away it somewhat endless mimicry of the neighbouring birds.
Before the night time show, we
observed briefly two Glossy Black-cockatoos fly over the hillside heading to
roost and a large Common Wombat made an appearance so that we were able to have
a good look at this animal with some light. I was not really that optimistic
towards spotlighting being cold in the middle of winter (have never spot lighted
before this time of year) and with just about a full moon (not ideal for
spotlighting the elusive animals). However, despite these conditions, I though
we give it a try for atleast an hour so that my American friends can get a taste
of the Aussie marsupials and perhaps a nocturnal bird or two. It didn?t take
long till we had our next great find when an adult Powerful Owl landed in a tall
Eucalypt giving us a good view. As it was probably its breeding season, we made
our observation as brief as possible with a less powered torch and not shining
it directly all the time in its eyes. We also got a good look at one of the few
Yellow-bellied Gliders. After an hour after dusk, we decided to make a move back
to Penrith, but stopped briefly at the Hazel Dell picnic area, a kilometre or so
back up the road towards the ferry, were we heard a MASKED OWL call twice (being
familiar with Barn Owls both Marc and John knew already that it was something
different). And another few kilometres further up and adjacent to an area of
Swamp, we had our last find, a Barn Owl nicely perched on the power lines (if
only it was an Eastern Grass Owl!)
Both Marc and John had such a
wonderful and memorable experience for a such very brief stay in
Australia.
Edwin Vella
