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Australian Special Interest Tours (ASIT)
Trip to the Lower Hunter Estuary 1-2 March 2003
A party of 12 birders from Sydney and
the Central Coast spent two delightful days birding in the Lower Hunter Valley
and had an enjoyable time and saw plenty of interesting birds. The first stop on
trip on Saturday morning was at Pambalong Swamp Nature Reserve at Minmi
where recent rains had partly filled the grassy wetalnd and birds were all very
active. The highlight was a flock of 12 Glossy Ibis feeding
with 3 Yellow-billed Spoonbills amongst all the Grey and
Chestnut Teal in the shallow ponds. Black Swans were pairing
off and dispolaying to one another and the Shoveler count was
10. A female Leaden Flycatcher was busy on the overhead
powerlines while Yellow-rumped Thornbills were busy around the
edges of the wetland. An adult Sacred Kingfisher was seen
feeding a dragon-fly to an accompanying juvenile and White-breasted
Woodswallows swooped over the wetland.
Our next stop was the Ash Island
Ponds. Alas no Yellow Wagtails but c. 300 Marsh Sandpipers,
1000+ Sharp-Tailed Sandpipers, 50 Red-necked Stints,
66 Pacific Golden plover, 12 Eastern
Curlews and 20+ Greenshanks along with plenty of
Avocets and Black-winged Stilts were a
real highlight of the day! White-fronted Chats were new for
some participants while a lone Double-banded Plover and 12
Red-capped Plovers were a surprise. Overhead
Sea-eagles, Marsh Harriers and
Whistling Kites kept the waders changing position regularly! We
moved off to nearby Shortland Wetland Centre where we lunched with the
Magpie Geese and Rufous Fantails, and we had great close up
views of Shovelers and a Latham's Snipe and
more distant views of a Baillon's Crake. There were two more
Yellow-billed Spoonbills here, feeding with juvenile
Cattle Egrets and & Royal
Spoonbills.
We went into Newvcastle and walked
out to Nobbys Point and on the rocks below the breakwall amongst about 60
Common Tern, were 2 White-winged Balck Tern, 6
Ruddy Turnstone & 8 Sooty Oystercatchers.
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters could be seen off the Point. We
finshed the day at the Stockton Wreck where near to it, we found 3
Common Sandpipers, 6 Grey-tailed Tattlers and
4 Golden Plovers all roosting together.
An early start on Sunday saw us
depart from Queens Wharf at 8.30 am on the ferry Lady Joy for a 3 hour
trip up the Hunter River, past the Kooragang Dykes (one of the wader high tide
roosts) and into Mosqueto Creek on Kooragang Island and return. Again another 2
White-winged Black Terns were feeding with Common Terns near the dykes and a
Striated Heron was roosting near the Bridge. Good numbers of
waders were seen along the dyke with atleast 2000 Bar-tailed
Godwits, a few Black-tailed Godwits, 20 Pied
Oystercatchers, 150 Greenshanks, 60+ Curlew Sandpiper,
50+ Eastern Curlew, 40+ Marsh Sandpipers, many Stilts and 10
Whimbrel being the highlights. 4 adult and one immature
Sea-Eagles were seen on the trip along with 4+ Whistling Kites and a
Brown Goshawk. One Sea-Eagle made a swoop at the birds on the
dykes and departed with one wader struggling in its feet but the species could
not be determined. In Moscheto Creek there were 100s of White
Ibis to be seen on the saltmarsh flats, a few Royal
Spoonbills, 26 Eastern Curlews, 8 Whimbrel and another Common
Sandpiper.
Following the boat trip we moved onto
the Stockton Sandspit to check up on the waders that were not on the dykes! We
estimated 3000 Avocet, 100 Stilts, 350 Eastern Curlew, 800+ Bar-tailed Godwit,
200 Black-tailed Godwit, 20+ Great Knot all looking magnificent in their newly
acquired breeding plumage and sundry Curlew Sandpipers & Red Knots. Amongst
the waders were 8 Gull-billed Terns, Little Terns, Caspain Terns and Crested
Terns! Good viewing of the birds is possible at the Sandspit now that the
mangroves have been removed and the weeds removed from the sandy
islands.
We lunched at the Newcastle Botanical
Gardens at Heatherbrae where we had good views of a variety of bushbirds
including nesting Red-browed Finches, a feeding Crested
Shrike-tit, Golden & Rufous Whistlers,
Musk Lorikeets and Yellow Robins etc. Our
final stop on the day was at Leneghans Flat Swamp, Minmi, hoping for one of
Edwin Vella's Freckled Ducks but alas we saw nothing new other than some
Tree Martins. We finished with 127 species for the weekend,
which was a good result for some new birders! (Alan
Morris).
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