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Brian Everingham wrote on 2 January of his visit to
Bicentennial Park. I presume that he was in the group that my brother and
I met at about 9am at the main waterbird refuge. In addition to Brian's
sightings, my brother and I think that there was a Pectoral Sandpiper on the far
western shore of the refuge (ie furthest away from the viewing spots). The
bird was feeding with 2 Sharp Taileds, but was very aggressive towards them
(which is not something that I have noticed within groups of Sharp Taileds
alone). It had a much deeper breast marking, stretching down to the belly
and looked a little bit bigger than the other 2. I did mention this to the
ranger, but she said that she hadn't heard of or seen any herself.
Walking back to the car park, we heard a small
finch call - not a Red Browed, it sounded more like a Double Banded to me - but
we couldn't locate the bird (it appeared to be on the salt water side of the
mangroves and wouldn't be squeaked out!) Have Double Barreds been reported
from Homebush before?
We also visited Mason Park in Strathfield, where
there were lots of Sharp Tailed Sandpipers (300+? - it was hard to count as
several big groups came in as we were watching), Curlew Sandpipers (about 30), 6
Golden Plover, Black Fronted and Red Kneed Dotterels, a Great Egret with lovely
breeding plumes and lots of Grey Teal.
Cheers
Tom Wilson
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