Birdline NSW Weekly Update

Birdline NSW

Published sightings for the week ending 27 Feb 2011.

Sun 27 Feb	Powerful Owl, Grey Goshawks (pair), Regent Bowerbirds Ourimbah RTA reserve We had a great morning at Ourimbah today. Some of the nice finds include a roosting Powerful Owl with a possum in its talons (notice in the attached photo that one of it's pupils is larger than the other one - very strange!), a pair of Grey Goshawks hanging about all morning, one adult male and 2 female Regent Bowerbirds, young Catbird with 2 adults, 7 Brush Turkey's, Black-faced Monarchs and many Rufous Fantails, Rose Robin heard, Brown Cuckoo-doves and Bar-shouldered Doves. Many Lewin's Honeyeaters (very approachable), Regent Bowerbirds and Catbirds feeding low down in fruiting pittosporum. Edwin Vella, Tony and Stephanie Dawe
	Powerful Owl Royal National Park (Wattle Flat) A productive mornings birding with the following species observed: Crested Shrike-tit Green Catbird Rufous Fantail Azure Kingfisher and good views of a Powerful Owl. Anthony Katon
Sat 26 Feb	Australian Painted Snipe North of Wanganella area, Deniliquin district A morning was put in looking for the Australian Painted Snipe family recorded by my colleague, Robert, on 15 February but to no avail; however, we located a female and two males at a different location late in the day. While we didn't see them, one of the male's behaviour would suggest there were young present. Philip Maher
Fri 25 Feb	Nankeen Night Heron, Nutmeg Mannikins Triangle Pond, Bicentennial Park, Homebush Immature Night Heron seen subduing an eel. Family party of 10 Nutmeg Mannikins seen in Papyrus beds. Also Great Egret, 2 Royal Spoonbills plus usual collection of Coots, Swamphens, Moorhens and Chestnut Teal. Note that water levels are now down at the pond and conditions starting to resemble the rail/crake attractive conditions on 2008/9. Tom Wilson
Thu 24 Feb	Australian Hobby, Brown Goshawk, Brown Falcon, Nankeen Kestrel Cornwallis Road, Windsor - Richmond lanes Australian Hobby seen eating prey just above us was then bombed by a very hungry male Brown Goshawk. Four species of raptor in 40 mins down the lanes. Alan McBride
	White-throated Nightjar, Masked Owl (HC), Southern Boobook Mill Creek, Dharug NP near Wisemans Ferry Thank you, Jon Spicer-Bell 1 Nightjar HC 1945, then 4 seen over cleared area (helipad) 500 m south of picnic area, often dashing down to head height Masked Owl HC in same area repeatedly from 2030, could not be coaxed into view David Potter and Family
	Wandering Tattler, Double-barred & Chestnut-breasted Finches Soldiers Pt Norah Head & McPhersons rd Swamp Tuggerah The Wandering Tattler was still at Soldiers Point this afternoon along with 14 Turnstones, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Grey-tailed Tattler, 4 Pacific Golden Plovers , 2 Sooty Oystercatchers and many Red-necked Stints. At the McPherson rd Swamp this morning, located off Gavenlock Rd Tuggerah, there were 8 Double-barred Finches, and 7 Chestnut-breasted Mannikins along with Red-browed Finches, Cisticolas, Reed Warbler, Little Grasbird, and Tawny Grassbirds, and a banded Bush Stone-curlew was there on 16/2/11. Other local observations include 2 Square-tailed Kites 16-21/2 at Wyoming, and a Wedge-tailed Eagle at Central Mangrove 21/2/11. Alan Morris, Peter Settle & Margaret Pointer
	Little Bittern The Reedbeds, Mathoura, Deniliquin district One male Little Bittern seen, at least one juvenile Little Bittern heard begging and the alarm call heard of another. Philip Maher
Wed 23 Feb	Square-tailed Kite 33 25S 151 17E 1' Cell (Kariong, ner Gosford, NSW) One bird observed flying over heathland that occurs adjacent to the Pacific Highway at Kariong around mid-morning today. Bird seen flying north west over Wisemans Ferry Road towards Mount Penang Gardens. Deryk Engel and Stephen Bloomfield
	Pacific Baza Henry Kendall Reserve, Dunbogan, Port Macquarie An adult Baza was feeding a noisy chick in nest. Matt Hinze
Tue 22 Feb	Australian Painted Snipe North of Wanganella area, Deniliquin district A group of somewhere between five and seven Australian Painted Snipe seen north of Wanganella. Robert Nevinson per Philip Maher
	Striped Honeyeater, Spangled Drongo Shortlands Wetland Centre, Newcastle Singles of both species seen on a short visit to the wetland centre this afternoon. Also 6 White Breasted Woodswallow, a family(?) of 6 Whistling Kites, a female Sparrowhawk at the kill (looked like an Common Myna), a Tawny Grassbird, a Yellow-billed Spoonbill (and about 50 Royals), plenty of all 4 Egrets and a Buff-banded Rail and several families of Olive-backed Orioles and Black-faced Cuckoo- Shrikes feeding big youngsters. Tom Wilson
	Beautiful Firetail (2), Variegated Fairy-wren (16ish) Jersey Spring, Royal NP 2 Beautiful Firetails and a large-ish party of Variegated Fairy-wrens approx 200m north of Jersey Spring at the Royal NP, along Lady Carrington Drive. I've never seen Firetails or VFW's in this part of the park in all my visits. Other good birds near Jersey Spring were 10 or so Black-faced Monarch, a group of 4 young lyrebirds carrying on and bickering, and 2 Azure Kingfishers patrolling and perching the river. Troy Mutton
Mon 21 Feb	Major Mitchell Regents Park, NSW Two Major Mitchell cockatoos in my front yard! This one came close enough to see that there were no leg tags. I saw them about 2 weeks ago but couldn't get the camera in time. I live near a bushy Sydney Water site that might be their home. Or perhaps they are escaped pets? Either way, they are a rare sighting in Sydney. David Baker
Sun 20 Feb	Wandering Tattler, Grey-tailed Tattler Long Reef 2 Wandering Tattlers, 7 Grey-tailed Tattlers, 15 Pacific Golden Plovers, 30 Ruddy Turnstones and > 200 Red-necked Stints were sighted during high tide in the morning. Two trilling notes were heard from the darker WT. The other WT, although had relatively more extensive supercilium and pale throat, was often associated with the formet WT and had similar dark and uniform plumage. Tun Pin Ong
	White-eared Monarch Iluka Nature Reserve rainforest Just off the Iluka Bluff Rd that passes through the Iluka Nature Reserve rainforest, Greg Clancy heard a White-eared Monarch calling and alerted other people to the call. After a few minutes a pair of White-eared Monarchs were observed feeding on the outer upper branches of some rainforest trees. Greg Clancy, Mike Kuhl, Alan Morris and others
	Double-banded Plover, Eastern Curlew Shoalhaven Heads Double-banded Plover: (2) - first returns we have observed this season. Eastern Curlew: (53) - the highest number we have recorded at this site. Martin & Penny Potter
Sat 19 Feb	Greater Sand Plover and Lesser Sand Plover Back Beach, Woody Head, Iluka On Saturday 19/2/11, roosting on the sand and adjacent rocks at Back Beach were 39 Large Sand plovers and 4+ Lesser Sand Plovers. Grey-tailed Tattlers, Ruddy Turnstones, Sooty Oystercatchers, Red-necked Stints and 100s of Common Terns and Little Terns were also present. 39 LSP is a large number for NSW. An Arctic Jaeger wa sobserved to be harassing the Common Terns. Alan Morris & Mike Kuhl
	Black-necked Stork Pacific Highway Johns River Three Black-necked Storks observed flying high over the Pacific Highway a few kilometres north of Johns River on Saturday afternoon. The birds were heading north east. Tom Schmidt and Eugene Dodd
	Ground Parrot, Eastern Bristlebird Griffiths Trail, Barren Grounds Nature Reserve 1x Ground Parrot flushed where the Kangaroo Ridge walk splits from Griffiths Trail. 2x Eastern Bristlebirds sighted amongst some large logs, just east of the Stone Bridge. Jon Spicer-Bell

Birdline NSW is sponsored by Birding NSW, Birds Australia - Southern NSW & ACT and Cumberland Bird Observers Club and co-ordinated and hosted by Eremaea Birds.

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