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A HUNTER ESTUARY AND WETLANDS
WEEKEND 6-7 MARCH 2004
Follow That Bird Tours organised a
weekend tour of the estuary and wetlands of the Lower
Hunter Region on Saturday and Sunday 6-7 March 2004 and as luck would have it
for the wetlands, it rained buckets! While the participants were pretty soggy by
Saturday evening when it finally stopped raining, we had all had a good days
birding despite the rain and on the Sunday we had a basically a dry day So
overall a pretty successful weekend, although because of the rain on the
Saturday, the bush birds were hard to find and even harder to hear!
Our first stop was Pambalong Nature
Reserve at Minmi which was pretty full and there were no muddy margins. All the
common coastal waterbirds were revelling in the high water levels, all the feed
and the rain and there was plenty of courtship observed amongst the Black Ducks,
Chestnut Teal and Swamphens. Some soggy White-breasted Woodswallows were found
on the power lines and a pair of Wandering Whistle Ducks were located. On many
previous trips to Pambalong, I have only seen on two occasions Plumed
Whistling-Ducks, and never the former. We crossed to Lenaghans Flat
Swamp where the previous day there had been a Black-necked Stork, but alas
not today, although we again saw a few Wandering Whistling-Ducks and a pair of
Plumed Whistling-Ducks with a little duckling. In the long grass at the edge of
this wetland there was a flock of about 70 Chestnut-breasted Mannikin feeding on
seed heads and were very busy flying back and forwards. There were plenty of
White and Straw-necked Ibis feeding out over Hexham Swamp.
We managed a walk down Wagtail Way,
Ash Island in the rain, and while we saw both Marsh Sandpipers, Common
Greenshanks and many Chestnut Teal, the wind and rain made birdwatching very
difficult. There were however plenty of Pipits to see, several hundred Welcome
Swallows were roosting on the road and Black-fronted Dotterals and White-fronted
Chats were foraging on the road. Whistling Kites were seen on the Island. We
lunched at the Wetland Centre, Shortland and from a dry position were able to
watch the Magpie Geese revelling in the rain. Brown & White-cheeked
Honeyeaters were foraging in the Grevilleas here, some of the few passerines
that could be readily seen. After lunch we did a walk in the wet, and located
more Wandering Whistle-Ducks including a pair with 2 small ducklings. Grey
Fantails, Grey and Pied Butcherbirds and Yellow Thornbills were willing to be
seen along the walks.
The rain was easing by the time
we reached Nobbys Head in the late afternoon although the wind was coming in
strong from the sea and at the rocky reef on the harbour side of the breakwater,
there was a group of roosting terns to be seen. These turned out to be 1 Little
Tern in breeding plumage, 40 Common Terns, 10 Crested Terns and a White-winged
Black Tern in non-breeding plumage. The four species could be seen in the
binoulars/scopes at the same time and it was a good lesson in observing the
differences especially in respect to identifying the WWBT. Also feeding on these
rocks were 13 Sooty Oystercatchers and 8 Ruddy Turnstones, along with Cormorants
and Silver Gulls. Well worth the trudge out in the rain!
First thing on the Sunday morning we
had a few sunny breaks and even though the clouds came back in, we had no more
rain until driving back to Sydney in the late afternoon. At 8.30 we boarded the
Lady Joy for a Newcastle Harbour & Estuary Tour that includes
checking out the Kooragang Dykes for roosting waders on the high tide and a trip
up the north arm of the Hunter river and then into Moscheto Creek, that
seperates Moscheto Island and Ash Island. It was a big tide this day, the water
was lapping over the dykes at different points, but there were plenty of waders
still roosting there. Between the up trip and the return trip an hour later, we
probably saw on the dykes about 400 Eastern Curlews, 1000+ Bar-tailed Godwits
200+ Black-tailed Godwits, a Sooty Oystercatcher, 5+ Pied Oystercatchers,
Whimbrel, Common Greenshank, Curlew & Marsh Sandpipers, Stilts, a few Knots,
Caspain Terns , Royal Spoonbills, many Pelicans, all the Cormorants,
many Masked Lapwings and both Little and Great Egrets. Further
upstream and into the mangrove lined Moscheto Creek, we saw 5 adult and one
immature White-breasted Sea-eagles, including 3 adults perched together, a
number of Whistling Kites, Mangrove Gerygones were heard calling, a few
Whimbrels were roosting in mangrove trees, 2 Striated Herons and plenty of
White-faced Herons and White Ibis. We searched every marker buoy for
White-winged Black Terns but only came up with Common Terns but it was a great
cruise and we saw plenty of waders , particularly the Godwits in their brilliant
red summer plumages.
We lunched in a pavilion on the beach
near the Stockton Surf Club where just ofshore amongst the surfboard riders
and the swimmers, small fish were shoaling and were being preyed upon by 100+
Common Terns, 6+ White-winged Black Terns and 2 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. It was
spectacular to watch this feeding frenzy by the terns amongst the waves and the
people! Further out there was an Arctic Jaeger, more shearwaters and Pied
Cormorants. We returned to Stockton Sandspit to check out on the waders now
feeding on the falling tide on the sand flats and were rewarded with seeing 3
Avocets amongst a flock of Black-winged Stilts, a Great Knot in breeding
plumage, 4 Terek Sandpipers, 8 Knots, a few Curlew Sandpipers, and feeding
Godwits, Curlews and Whimbrels. A lone Lesser Sandplover was located but we did
not see the Double-banded Plovers that some other birdwatchers there had
reported to us. We returned home via Lenagans Flat Swamp just to check whether
those Balck-necked Storks had returned but we were out of luck, but did manage a
few more Wandering Whistling-Ducks. 105 species were seen for the
weekend.
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