A good morning’s birding was had today (7th November)
by fellow Melbourne
birdos, Richard Nowotny and Diana Bryant as well as myself in Sydney’s
Hawkesbury area (approx. 55km north-west of the Sydney CBD).
Mitchell Park at Cattai was alive this morning with a nice pair of
Pacific Bazas (they should be nesting soon further along Cattai Creek), Brown
Cuckoo-doves, Wonga Pigeon, Common Bronzewing, Peaceful Doves, very noisy Brush
Cuckoos (2 adults chasing each other with another juvenile bird with them), several
Sacred Kingfishers (pair mating near termite mound), several Dollarbirds, a
cooperative male Cicadabird, Leaden Flycatchers, Brown and White-throated Gerygone (one of the
Brown Gerygones was seen nest building), heaps of Scarlet Honeyeaters, White-cheeked
and Noisy Friarbirds (amongst other Honeyeaters) all attracted to the flowering
Eucalypts, Olive-backed Orioles and Satin Bowerbirds. I also thought I glimpsed
one of the resident Black Bitterns slip away out of sight.
After well satisfying morning at Mitchell Park, we then moved off to
the Windsor-Richmond Turf Farms were we saw a female Swamp Harrier, lots of
White-winged Trillers, both Rufous and Brown Songlarks, Singing Bushlark,
Stubble Quail, Rainbow Bee-eaters and Zebra Finches. There were at least a
hundred Sharp-tailed Sandpipers in a flooded paddock beside Cornwells Rd and in
Fernleighs Lagoon (the lagoon at the end of Powell’s Rd, whatever you
want to call it!), 8 Red-kneed Dotterels, a male Darter, Hardheads and a
Caspian Tern (in full breeding plumage) being mobbed by about 50 Masked
Lapwings.
A good long morning birding in the Hawkesbury.
Edwin Vella
