Hi all
A beautiful mild spring day yesterday 7 Sept in the foothills and
Hawkesbury, c 70 kms + nw of Sydney. Started off in Kurrajong Hills with
an early walk around the house and adjacent tracks and bush from 6am.
First bird of the morning was a Scaly Thrush outside the kitchen window.
This bird has returned to the garden in the last fortnight but
historically it is not a spring migrant here, hard to pin any pattern to
its appearances. Other early species of note included a Collared
Sparrowhawk, Wonga Pigeon, Little Corella, Bar-shouldered Dove,
Yellow-throated Scrubwren and an Azure Kingfisher was heard. Little
Wattlebirds have fledged in the garden. Satin Bowerbirds are very vocal
and conspicuous at present. Eastern Rosellas are in their highest
numbers in around 2 years; Rainbow Lorikeets are still in the area. Bird
of the morning was my first local sighting in ten years birding here of
Swift Parrot, despite always keeping an eye open for them. I thought I
heard these birds here a few weeks back but couldn't get a clear
sighting of a passing group of parrots obscured by the canopy, but this
morning 2 birds landed briefly right above me in the early sun -
beautiful. A third bird passed overhead shortly afterwards.
Mid morning visited Browns Road off nearby Comleroy Rd. This road offers
some track access to Wollemi National Park and has an interesting mix of
roadside vegetation and well-wooded farmland before the track starts.
The highlight here was the very healthy numbers of Jacky Winter, quite a
localised species in this area. There were at least 4-5 pairs along the
last 200 metres of the road. A family of 3 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
were extracting something from the bases of eucalypts by the road. 4
Dusky Woodswallows were feeding on and over the road as we left. Common
Bronzewings and Peaceful Doves were also seen.
From the beginning of the track, the remarkable feature was the huge
numbers of 4 species - with relatively little else seen. Yellow-faced
Honeyeaters, prob on migration, were everywhere from canopy down, esp in
a thickly flowering low species of prickly acacia, associating closely
with large numbers of the Tassie race of Silverye. Grey Fantails were
also in very high density, with 4-5 birds often present in the one tree.
I don't recall seeing fantail numbers like these before, despite them
being common in the area, and wondered if it might be part of a spring
movement? Eastern Spinebills were the other species in very good
numbers.
Apart from these masses of birds, diversity was low but there were quite
a few Buff-rumped Thornbill groups around, outnumbering Striated, Yellow
and Brown in that order, and a few White-naped Honeyeaters in amongst
the Y-faceds. Fan-tailed Cuckoo were the only cuckoo species heard all
morning - no sign of migrant arrivals in the area.
Several male Scarlet Honeyeaters were seen near the start of the Putty
Road in a roadside clearing late morning, and nesting Brown Gerygone,
but nothing else of note down there.
Eric Finley
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