birding-aus

NSW CBOC Outing to the Sydney Hawkesbury Area - 18th December 2005

To: "Birding-aus" <>
Subject: NSW CBOC Outing to the Sydney Hawkesbury Area - 18th December 2005
From: "Edwin Vella" <>
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 07:07:41 +1100

Today, (19th December 2005), I lead 21 members of the Cumberland Bird Observers Club to the Hawkesbury area (approx. 55 km north-west of Sydney CBD).

 

We spent most of the morning at Pitt Town Lagoon, where we saw a good variety of ducks – 30 plus Hardhead, 50 plus Pink-eared and 10 or so Australasian Shoveler amongst the other more common Ducks. Other birds of interest included 3 Hoary-headed amongst 20 or so Australasian Grebe, a Darter, 3 Great Egrets seen foraging together, a female Swamp Harrier, a Wedge-tailed Eagle soaring very high above, an Australian Hobby, only a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (350 plus were present there over a month ago), 2 Latham’s Snipe, a few Pied Stilts, Red-rumped Parrots and some finches including Red-browed, Zebra, Double-barred, Gold and Chestnut-breasted Mannikins. Inside a melaleuca on the observation mound a recently fledged Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo was being attended to by a pair of Superb Blue Wrens and also seen in the same shrub, an adult Silvereye was seen on a nest.

 

For the rest of the morning right through to the middle of the afternoon we stayed at nearby Mitchell Park in Cattai where we observed briefly a Grey Goshawk, a couple of Common Bronzewings, Sacred Kingfishers, Dollarbirds, Leaden and Satin Flycatchers, Black-faced Monarch, Variegated Wrens (possibly nesting), a recently fledged White-throated Gerygone (with yellow eye-ring and throat) being fed by a rather scruffy-looking parent and Satin Bowerbirds.

 

It was a pleasant time in Hawkesbury with several of our members adding new birds to their lists!

 

Edwin Vella

 

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU