Yesterday, Saturday
18th December 2004, I lead a group of about 14 member of
the Cumberland Bird Observers Club to the Hawkesbury area. We visited two well
know Sydney birding spots in this area – Scheyville National Park and
Mitchell Park (which are located close to the NW fringe of the Sydney region
– approx. 60 km NW of Sydney CBD).
At Scheyville National Park (which is close to Pitt Town) we saw or
heard a good assortment of woodland/forest birds including Painted
Button-quail; Peaceful Doves; Little Lorikeets; Fan-tailed Cuckoo; Koel; Sacred
Kingfishers; Ciacadabird; a pair of Crested Shrike-tits, Rufous Whistlers (one
male on a nest); Noisy Friarbirds, Brown-headed, Yellow-faced (one making a
nest), Fuscous and Scarlet Honeyeaters; Olive-backed Orioles and Dusky
Woodswallows. The Painted Button-quails were heard making their booming calls in
the early part of the morning but none of the group managed to get a sighting
of one.
After a good satisfying couple of hours or so at Scheyville, we spent
the rest of our outing at Mitchell Park in Cattai (from mid-morning till about
the middle of the afternoon).
At Mitchell Park, the bird activity appeared to have quietened down from
previous visits, but was nonetheless still quite productive. Here we saw 5 or more
Common Bronzewing; several Sacred Kingfishers; Dollarbirds; a male Cicadabird
(and heard another one call); a pair of Leaden Flycatchers nesting (in a
typical position on a small horizontal branch under another parallel and above
the one with the nest. Maybe this is to provide some shelter against rain and
possibly predators!); Rufous Fantails; Variegated Wrens; Brown and
White-throated Gerygones (one of the later was seen taking nesting material
from an old cup-shaped nest probably to build its own dome-shaped nest); very
obliging Scarlet Honeyeaters at eye level (though we saw quite a few of these,
many of these gems along with the White-cheeked Honeyeaters appeared to have
gone quiet. They either have move on or are quiet while nesting) and Satin bowerbirds
(with one female seen feeding a young bird). We also saw 2 White-necked Herons
feeding in a paddock on private land adjacent the Mitchell Park.
And after all this, we ended our outing on a very high mote. As we were
heading back to our cars, I noticed a thrush sized bird land in some small
trees (as I looked back at the other member trailing behind) and beside the
rainforest walk in Mitchell Park, and yes there it was, an Australian Owlet
Nigh-jar in broad daylight. It was almost at eye level and only about 2 metres
from our face, giving us very good views as much as we wanted. Snap..snap went
my camera!
Edwin Vella
