Sorry the date of this report should read
5th March 2005.
Edwin
-----Original Message-----
From: Edwin Vella
[
Sent: Saturday, 5 March 2005 10:40 PM
To:
Subject: Curra Moors in the Royal
NP, Sydney (lots of Fork-tailed Swifts) - 5th Feb 2005
After checking out the
Bureau of Meteorology website this morning and noticing that the winds were
going to be north-westerly and ahead of a southerly change, I thought I should
take the punt to try and find some Fork-tailed Swifts at Sydney’s Royal
National Park (I wasn’t that optimistic at first, as I have been looking
out for them for many years without success, but since they had been seen there
recently, I thought I may be lucky enough this time to see them).
I arrive at the Royal NP
at about 10 am, the sky
appeared partly cloudy with little wind. I decided to do a stroll along the
Service Trail at Curra Moors to see some heathland birds, with a very
cooperative Beautiful Firetail being one of my first birds and saw several
close Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. I also heard here another Beautiful Firetail
and both Southern Emu-wrens and Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens.
It was about 11 am when the winds picked up (which were from the west)
and I noticed more lines of clouds with a front approaching from the
south-west. I kept looking at the sky to see if there were any swifts about but
there were no signs of them yet. I decided to go for a bit of a drive to Garrie
Beach to past the time and then
returned back at Curra Moors (beside Sir Bertrams
Drive) at about 12
pm with a lot more cloud build up. I waited for half an hour and
was just about to give it up and head back home when all of a sudden about 10
White-throated Needletails flew quite low over me. A few minutes after, bingo,
2 Fork-tailed Swifts flew low over showing their diagnostic fork tails, slimmer
wings and appearance, clear white rump, no white in the vent and only a pale (not white) throat. I was deeply
thrilled, as it has taken me 17 or so years to see one. But the joy was not
over yet. About half an hour later, a flock of 30 more Fork-tailed Swifts flew
quite lower over the road and I could clearly hear their shrill calls and they
then spent an hour or so soaring high and low at times over the area. I notice
the flight of the Fork-tail’s being fast but more drifting and less
powerful than the Needle-tails which also had then joined them. I ended up
seeing at least 50 Fork-tailed Swifts (but I dare say there was probably twice
as many as some were quite high and hard to see) and they outnumbered the
Needletails by 5 to 4. The Fork-tailed Swifts continued to make their shrill
calls and they stayed in the same area till it started to sprinkle with rain.
Both species of Swift then moved further north and to move more ahead of the
rain clouds about 2:30 pm when I
then decided to head home.
Edwin Vella
