I spent a couple of productive hours early this morning at
Pitt Town Lagoon in the Hawkesbury (approx. 60 km NW of Sydney CBD) with a
number of interesting sightings – a fairly obliging juv.
Brown Goshawk; a juv. Swamp Harrier; 10 Brown Quail;
3 Australian and 4 Baillons Crakes; 53 Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper (mostly adults mouting out of breeding plumage);
2 juv./Imm Curlew Sandpipers (almost blended in well
with the Shapies but they did not fool me); 50 Pied
Stilts; a few Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoos (one
seen chasing another); Channel-billed Cuckoo; Rainbow Bee-eaters; Tree and
Fairy Martins; a pair of Crested Shrike-tits in the small patch of planted
Eucalypts nearby the lagoon); an Eastern Whipbird in
the same area as the Crested Shrike-tits. These birds certainly can move
about!); Reed Warblers, Nutmeg Mannikins as well as
both Double-barred and Zebra Finches.
Also at home this morning heard another and my first
Channel-billed Cuckoo this season for my area in Seven Hills (approx. 40 km
west of Sydney CBD).
Edwin Vella
