Today (17/12/06)I had another fantastic morning in the Hawkesbury area.
At the "same time" I had great views of the Ruff, 2 Pectoral, 6 Wood and
400 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. There may have also been another Wood and
Pectoral Sandpiper about as I saw them on their own and not with this
large group of waders. Also seen was a single Red-necked Stint, a
Greenshank, 4 Marsh Sandpipers, 10 Red-necked Avocets, 8 Red-kneed and
25 Black-fronted Dotterels, 4 Australian Crakes, 2 Black-tailed
Native-hens, a Whiskered Tern, a Pacific Heron, 30 Glossy Ibis, 40
Pink-eared Ducks, 10 Australasian Shoveler, and many other water birds.
There was also an adult White-bellied Sea-eagle, a pair of Swamp Harrier
(calling) and a female Peregrine went a fast speed low over the water.
The water is disappearing fast and may be all gone in a few weeks! The
Shelducks and most of the Coot have disappeared as the water is getting
too low.
Along Cornwallis Rd, Windsor, the young Banded Lapwings are about the
size of the adults which they were with.
Along Edwards Lane in the Richmond Lowland, the small number of
White-browed Woodswallows was still feeding 3 or 4 recent fledglings
(the young have yellow eyes unlike the dark eyes of the adults).
White-winged Trillers, Singing Bushlarks are still present in the turf
farms.
At Pughes Lagoon, Richmond, 2 Latham's Snipe was flushed beside the
road.
Rainbow Bee-eaters and a few Zebra Finch were also around the turf
farms.
Finally, on my way home I had a juvenile Spotted Harrier fly over and
perch on a small tree in the grounds of the University of Western Sydney
(Hawkesbury campus) beside the Blacktown-Richmond Rd. I have now seen
juvenile Spotted Harriers 4 weekends in a row in western Sydney in (1 in
Windsor, 2 around Richmond and 1 at Prospect).
Edwin Vella
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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