September at Maroubra

[Rod Gardner <>]

Edwin asked a few days ago where all the Sydney birders were. Well, this one has been working his local patch, Maroubra Beach and the Malabar Headland, in the southern part of the eastern suburbs of Sydney. This area featured in an article on Kestrels in the last Wingspan. The last month has been pretty good, with several records of dry country birds.

By 30th I'd scored 99 species for the month and was looking for the century. During a seawatch on that day a giant petrel came in close, and it seemed to have a dark tip to the bill, but try as I could, I couldn't pick out a reddish tinge, so it had to pass as perhaps 0.79 of a species. But a bit later a Yellow-nosed Albatross passed the point, bringing up the ton. Actually Dave Mitford had seen four species I'd missed, so the month total was a best for the patch at 104.

Highlights:

A White-winged Triller on 4th September near Lake Malabar was the first sign of inland birds extending to the coast - a rare bird in this part of Sydney. Records of Little Corella and even Cockatiel got me asking whether these could also be refugees rather than local ferals or escapes.

Baillon's Crake were present at Lake Malabar and at a small swamp to the north-east of the rifle range from 11th to the end of the month. Also Buff-banded Rails at both sites. The regular Lewin's Rails were present at two sites, about three/four birds at each.

Bar-shouldered Dove on 26th calling at the edge of the eastern bushland - another rarity for these parts.

Rufous Songlark then really got things moving: a male on 24th and a female on 28th in the area just east of the rifle range (behind the targets!). This is, as far as I know, a first record for the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

Pioneer Park, near Malabar, is a public park where people like to walk their dogs. It has probable breeding Australian Pipits at the moment. I called the council a couple of days earlier to ask them to stop mowing the area, or at least leave some areas with long grass for the pipits, which they did. Not a bad council, Randwick. An unexpected payoff came very quickly, with another first record for the Eastern suburbs: a pair of Brown Songlarks in the unmown long grass on 30th.

The month wasn't very good for seabirds, with only two windy periods, but in the middle of the month (17th, I think) Dave Mitford saw an Arctic Tern, and a late Antarctic Prion passed Magic Point on 29th. A Sooty Shearwater on 17th September preceded the first Short-tailed Shearwaters, which weren't recorded until 29th. The first Arctic Jaeger was on 21st, and the last Brown Skua on 2nd.

Finally, just outside the month, on 1st October, I flushed an immature Spotted Harrier, yet another first for the eastern suburbs. I only got good views of the underparts before it disappeared over a ridge. They showed fingered, solid black wing tips, and a strongly barred tail, and relatively uniform underparts. I realise that harriers can be very variable, so if any raptor experts out there can say whether Swamp Harriers sometimes look like this, I'll revise the record.

These records bring the total number of species for the site to 194, with 187 of those recorded since 1996. I wonder how many species have been recorded in comparable areas in Sydney, such as Long Reef/Dee Why Lagoons?

Cheers,

Rod

--
Dr Rod Gardner
Senior Lecturer
Department of Linguistics
School of Modern Language Studies
University of New South Wales
NSW 2052
Australia

Tel: ±61 2 9385 1454
Fax: ±61 2 9385 1190

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