|
Hi All
Chris Herbert , a member of Hunter Bird Observers
Club has produced two excellent colour brochures, sponsored by Lake Macquarie
City Council. No. 1 covers the West side and No.2 the East side of Lake
Macquarie just south of Newcastle, NSW.
Last Monday I set out to bird a few of the
locations on the Eastern side of the lake that I had never been to before. I
started at Greenpoint near Belmont, home to a family of Powerful Owls. ( They
were not to be seen when I was there unfortunately ). An excellent track follows
the fore shore of Lake Macquarie for about 3.5 kms , passing through Eucalypt
Forests and a Rainforest Gully.
Birds sighted included :
Little Pied Cormorant
Pied Cormorant
Australian Pelican
White-faced Heron
White-bellied Seaeagle
Silver Gull
Spotted Turtle Dove
Crested Pigeon
Galah
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Eastern Rosella
Cockatiel
Laughing Kookaburra
Dollarbird
Superb Fairywren
Variegated Fairywren
Spotted Pardalote
White-browed Scrubwren
Brown Thornbill
Red Wattlebird
Noisy Miner
Lewins Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Eastern Yellow Robin
Eastern Whipbird
Golden Whistler
Rufous Whistler
Magpielark
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
Grey Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Australian Raven
Red-browed Finch
Welcome Swallow
Silvereye
Common Myna
The Cockatiel, a female , was feeding on grass
seeds in the picnic area whilst I had morning tea. Whilst obviously an escapee
it was nice to see.
I then went on to Awabakal Nature Reserve and
Redhead Lagoon a bit further North and on the coast. Much of the reserve had
been recently burnt out so bird numbers were low. Managed to
add
Pacific Black Duck
Grey Teal
Chestnut Teal
Hardhead
Australasian Grebe
Great Egret
Australian White Ibis
Dusky Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
White throated Needletail
Yellow Thornbill
Little Wattlebird
New Holland Honeyeater
A speciality of the area is Tawny-crowned
Honeyeaters but none were seen this day. Perhaps as a lot of the Coastal
Banksia's had been burnt out.
Next stop Glenrock State Recreation Area which is
between Redhead in the south and Merewether in the North and runs along the
coast. It was the middle of the day when I arrived here and combined with the
fact that there are large Bell Miner colonies here as well as Noisy Miners,
other birds were scarce.
Added
Little Black Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Darter
King Parrot
Satin Bowerbird
and the days highlight came in last as sometimes
happens
LEWIN'S RAIL
I stopped on a bridge crossing a small gully which
ran down to the main lagoon, as movement caught my eye. Looking
through & under the Lantana I saw a White-browed Scrubwren and two
Silvereyes bathing in a small pool of water and then into the view wandered a
Lewin's Rail. Was able to watch it for about 10 minutes and managed some video
footage as well . Just as well nobody came past whilst I was there as they may
have wondered why I was lying under the bridge in a mosquito infested muddy
creek bed !! Unless of course they were another birder.
Cheers
Dick Jenkin
DUNGOG NSW
| 