I enjoyed a pleasant morning on
Saturday 12th July around the
Newcastle and Maitland area (approx.
160 km north of Sydney CBD). A few areas checked out included:
HEXHAM
SWAMP, Leneghan
Got here quite early (approx 8
am) where with scope I scanned across over the wide area of this very large
swamp. Here I identified 58 Glossy Ibis, well over a thousand Pied Stilts, a Swamp Harrier, a couple
of Whistling Kites, an Imm. White-bellied Sea-eagle, hundreds of Black Swans and
other waterfowl (mainly Grey Teal). On a dead tree in the smaller swamp to the
south-west of the main swamp an Australian Hobby perched on a dead tree together
with a pair of Long-billed Corellas, a pair of Pied Butcherbirds and an
Australian Magpie.
SHORTLAND WETLAND CENTRE
I thought I give this place a
check and was interested to hear and see at least 2 Torressian Crows hanging
about the melaleuca swamp (the one where the Egrets usually nest in summer). On
my last visit here, a year or so ago, I also saw these Crows at Shortland and I
am now thinking that it is highly likely that there are now a few Crows now
resident in the Newcastle area (a few years ago I would have not noticed them
until reaching the Great Lakes area about 50 km north where they are fairly
common). I have had them a number of times 10 km north at Seaham and recently as
far south as Mandalong (just on the edge of the
Central
Coast region).
The grevilleas, callistemons
(bottlebrush) and a few Eucalypts (including a few Swamp Mohagoneys) were
attracting good numbers of Silvereyes, Red and Little Wattlebirds, Eastern
Spinebills as well as several Yellow-faced, Brown, White-cheeked and Scarlet
Honeyeaters. I used my scope on some of the Scarlet Honeyeaters feeding on the
flowering bottlebrushes at eyes level and notice that some if not all (both
adult and Imm. male and female) had yellow at the base of the bill (I have only
noticed this fairly recently). Water birds were a little down than usual at the
wetland centre with about 60 of the usual Magpie Geese, a small number of
Australasian Shoveler, Hardheads, a Hoary-headed Grebe, a Swamp Harrier, a
Plumed Egret (believe it or not, the only Egret I saw here) and a pair of Masked
Lapwings with 2 chicks among others. Several Tawny Grassbirds, a Fan-tailed
Cuckoo (a wonderful close up observation through scope) and an over-wintering
male Rufous Whistler were also about. One species of duck I have not seen here
for quite a while are Wandering Whistling-ducks which I have seen breeding in
the area once or twice. Has anybody seen these Whistling-ducks recently around
Newcastle?
I noticed that the Wetland Centre
still has 17 Freckled Duck in an enclosure and I was fortunate and interested to
see them quite active and vocal (making at least a couple of vocalizations they made,
possibly a different one between male and female). They were quite actively
feeding and put on a good show.
MORPETH STW
A short visit here saw 500 plus
Pink-eared Ducks, 1000 plus Hardheads, 1000 plus Grey Teal and smaller numbers
of Australasian Shoveler, Black Duck and Wood Duck.
EAST MAITLAND RUBBISH TIP
I spent about an hour here before
heading home after lunch. Upon arrival the place was very calm without a single
raptor in sight. I was just about to head home a bit disappointed after the
first 20 minutes than a Swamp Harrier passed over, followed by 2 Whistling Kites
circling over, then a Black Falcon caught my eye as it was being dive bombed by
a Peregrine Falcon than later the Black Falcon had a go at the Peregrine
(watching this was probably the main high light of the day. The male Peregrine
looked quite small compared to the Black Falcon), then a small group of
Australian Ravens were having a go at a Brown Falcon and finally 3 Black Kites
were also circling low over and joined the scene. The numbers of the Black Kites
at this Tip (as I have mentioned before) are quite variable, and their numbers
appear to range between zero and up to 50 Kites. I wonder if there are other
good places for them close by. Just before I left, there were 2 Whistling Kites,
3 Black Kites and 2 Black Falcons over the area.
My raptor list of 9 species for
this morning was as follows:
Swamp Harrier (4)
Black Kite (3)
Whistling Kite (5)
White-bellied Sea-eagle (2)
Black Falcon (2)
Brown Falcon (1)
Australian Kestrel (2)
Australian Hobby (1)
Peregrine Falcon (1)
Edwin
Vella
