Myself and David Walker (from
Tasmania) visited a few wetland
sites in the NSW Hunter Region (approx 150km north of Sydney CBD) over the
weekend (13-14th December
2003) as follows:
Woodberry Swamp (beside Woodberry
Rd and south of Greenways Creek) ? here we saw a pair of adult (male and female)
Black-necked Storks; Little, Plumed, Great and Cattle Egrets; several
White-faced and 3 Pacific Herons; 3 Yellow-billed and 32 Royal Spoonbills; 400
plus Grey and 50 plus Chestnut Teal and a pair of Australasian Shoveler amongst
them; 90 plus Pied Stilts; 16 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers; a Little Eagle
(light-phase) flying over and a pair of adult Swamp Harriers patrolling the
area.
At Seaham Nature Reserve, 200
pairs of Cattle Egrets were nesting around this swamp with many having chicks to
raise. A female Collared Sparrowhawk was causing disturbance to the local bird
population (including 3 adult male Satin Bowerbirds and 5 Blue-faced Honeyeaters
all surrounding the Sparrowhawk) around suburban Seaham. Also seen flying high
in a thermal in the middle of the day over this Nature Reserve were 30 plus
White-throated Needletails, 3 White-breasted Woodswallows, Fairy Martins and
Welcome Swallows.
At
Hexham
Swamp there were 45 Whiskered Terns,
400 Black Swans, Tawny Grassbirds, 4 Swamp Harriers, 2 adult White-bellied
Sea-eagles and Whistling Kites.
At Lenaghan Swamp (next Hexham
Swamp) there were 9 Wandering Whistling-ducks and 90 Hardhead and at Pourmalong
Nature Reserve (on the other side of the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway) a pair of
each Plumed and Wandering Whistling-ducks, 40 more Hardheads, several
White-breasted Woodswallows and a male White-winged Triller.
We also spent the night at
Gloucester (approx. 300km north of Sydney CBD) were we visited nearby Copeland
Tops SF for some good spotlighting. During our spot light we saw a few Mountain
Brushtail Possums (including one with a baby), a number of Red-necked
Pademelons, Greater Gliders (both light and dark morphs), Sugar Glider, many
small unidentified bats, 2 Pink-tongued Lizards (Hemisphaeriodon gaerradii),
Stephens Banded Snakes (Hoplocephalus stephensii), numerous Red-eyed Tree Frogs
(Litoria chloris) amongst 7 species of frogs) etc. Though we did not try hard
for nocturnal birds, we did see a Tawny Frogmouth and heard Owlet Nightjars and
several Boobooks. We did see a pair of Russet-tailed Thrush roosting in a tree
at night near the Gold mine.
At the Gloucester Caravan Park
were we stayed, there were lots of White-headed Pigeons (some perching on tops
of the caravans themselves), Brush Cuckoo, a pair of Leaden Flycatchers and we
saw 2 (Immature male ?) Satin bowerbirds having a brawl (with both tails coked
up) near the reception office.
We also had good views of a
Pacific Baza and Wedge-tailed Eagle near Limeburners Creek (beside the
Bucketts Way).
Edwin Vella
