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A good day's birding in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs NSW 120103

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Subject: A good day's birding in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs NSW 120103
From: "Edwin Vella" <>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 20:34:04 +1100

Today myself, Graham Turner, Trevor Quested and Simon Blanchflower enjoyed a good summer sea watch from the fabulous Magic Pt at Maroubra. We were expected sea watching conditions to be good today following a serious of southerlies during the week. Our main highlight today was good views of an adult Wandering Albatross (possibly Gibsoni) which is quite unusual from this location at this time of year. Other good finds included 6 species of Shearwater ? hundreds of Wedge-tailed, Short-tailed and Fluttering Shearwaters and a few Fleshy-footed, Sooty and Hutton?s Shearwaters. There were also a few of both Pomarine (2 light-phase harassing the gulls) and Arctic Jaegers (both dark and Intermediate phase).

 

At one stage I thought I was looking at the ?Maroubra Monster?, when we saw a couple of fins sticking above the surface a few hundred metres out at sea. It ended up being a Fur Seal resting on its side and occasionally revealing its head above the surface. It stayed in this position for at least half an hour before diving down.

 

We observed a number of shorebirds at Penryhn Rd on the north side of Botany Bay including 20 plus Red-necked Stints, 11 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 63 Bar-tailed Godwits and saw on the sand spit 4 Little Terns amongst 163 Common Terns.

 

Before heading home, myself and Graham checked out the East Lakes Gold Course (almost next door to Sydney Airport) and had great views of 20 plus Latham?s Snipe all out in the open (feeding or resting), a Darter, a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, a Baillon?s Crake, 3 Whiskered Terns and an uncommon introduced bird for Sydney (and usually only seen in the Eastern suburbs), a Greenfinch (amongst 2 others heard).

 

A great day birding in the Eastern suburbs.

 

Edwin    

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