Sydney Olympic Park

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Hi Everyone,

An afternoon cycle/birdwatch with mum at Sydney Olympic Park this afternoon produced some nice birds and an unusual sighting. The first stop was the Brick pit. There were the usual waterbirds: Chestnut Teal, Australasian Grebe, Eurasian Coot, etc, etc. A short break at a large pond off Wentworth Common had a nice Black Swan, a Royal Spoonbill with some Ibis, Hardhead and some Dusky Moorhen's. Near the entrance to Wentworth Common on the NE side a small flock of brown finches stopped us. They flew into some dry reeds and didn't show themselves for about 2 minutes. When they became brave enough to fight each other on the stems of the reeds I was able to have a good look. I was surprised to see that they weren't Sparrows but more like Mannikins they had quite triangular black beaks and a completely light, brown plumage, almost the same colour as the reeds. I watched them for a while and was convinced that there was no difference in male and female plumage. A mystery, your ideas would be greatly appreciated.
>From there we spotted a couple of Goldfinches around the birdhide at the Waterbird Refuge and on the lake the birds included: Black-winged Stilt, Pelican's, Royal Spoonbill's, Red-necked Avocet's, a pair of Black Swan's, Black-fronted Dotterel, Chestnut and Grey Teal and a couple of White-faced Heron's. We then headed back and didn't really see anything until we had just come off the Brickpit walk. A Peregrine Falcon swooped down from a tall beam-tower into some fenced off trees. I could make out the speckled breast and black face mask.

So, I nice ending to a beautiful day.

Max.
Sydney...

P.S. The mystery Mannikins looked like juv. Chestnut-breasted Mannikins, but with darker beaks.
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