Birdline New South Wales Weekly Update

Birdline New South Wales

Published sightings for the week ending 10 Mar 2013.

Sun 10 Mar	Square-tailed Kite Plumpton/Oakhurst While at home I heard a interesting kerfuffle coming from a small stand of casuarina nearby. On further investigation the large raptor causing the commotion turned out to be the Square-tailed Kite, great to find it at rest rather than the usual flight shots. Mark Fuller
	Brown Cuckoo-Dove Royal National Park (Wattle Flat) 16:00 - 17:00. Fine. Some fruiting Sandpaper Figs. Brown Cuckoo-Dove (4) Surprised to see these birds at this location. Greg McLachlan
	Spotted Harrier Castlereagh Adult seen hunting in paddock west of Castlereagh Rd near West Wilchard Rd this morning at 08:45. (sorry about the photo quality, it's only barely good enough for ID) :-( Ákos Lumnitzer
	Spangled Drongo Scarborough Park Ramsgate on a tall leafless tree with a Dollarbird for company - my first sighting since June 2008 (in the same location) Oliver Williams
	Topknot Pigeon (1) Stan Moses Reserve Sans Souci Oliver Williams
Sat 9 Mar	White-throated Needletail Megalong Valley, Blue Mountains 10+ feeding 10-20m above DryRidge Vineyard Andrew Taylor
	Glossy Black-Cockatoo, White-throated Needletail cnr Fingal St and Oyster Close , Nelson Bay Three Glossy Black-Cockatoos feeding in Forest Oaks in a small parch of Bushland, close to the boundary of Tomaree National Park, being mobbed by Noisy Miners. Close by, 8 White-throated Needletails were seen arounf 745 hrs and later at 1030 hrs. Alan Morris
	Spotted Harrier Castlereagh Near the corner of Castlereagh and West Wilchard Road intersection, at around 18:30. Looks like a juvenile bird, but distinct tail barring, long yellow legs, spotting along body and the black primary tips are all good ID features. Ákos Lumnitzer
	Australian Brush-turkey (juvenile) Bobbin Head Rd, Turramurra Definite evidence that the north shore Australian Brush-turkeys are breeding - a single juvenile bird (about Grey Teal size, mostly brown tones, no "wafer" tail, "fluffy" appearance) busy re-arranging my flower beds over the last few days. Also 30+ White-throated Needletails over the house today approx 3:30pm - headed South-West Tom Wilson
	Budgerigar, Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, Collared Sparrowhawk, Little Grassbirds Farm Properties, 10-20km North West of Moree, NSW With huge weekly rainfall in the area for the past few months, all dams and wetlands in the area are full. We were cut off to some properties because of the roads. Black Kites were in hundreds, Both Spoonbills were in large numbers, Spotted Harriers, Tree Martins in hundreds everywhere we went, Striated Pardalotes - (have been scarce for a while), Rufous Whistlers in large numbers, 30+ noisy Budgerigars in vegetation along part of a property, Zebra, Double-barred and Plum-headed Finches, 4 Caspian Terns (only tern present for the whole day, all seen on one farm dam), immature Collared Sparrowhawk, noisy Tawny & Little Grassbirds and Golden-headed Cisticolas. The Chesnut-breasted Mannikins nesting, carrying bits of nesting material seen over 2 months back (we missed February visit) are still present, still collecting nesting material. Curtis Hayne
	White-tailed Tropicbirds, White Tern Offshore Sydney Highlights of today's Sydney pelagic trip where water temperature peaked at over 27degC were two White-tailed Tropicbirds and a White Tern. Shy Albatross, Black-browed Albatross and an early returning Providence Petrel together with the absence of Arctic and Long-tailed Jaegers were an indication that autumn is underway. Roger McGovern and all on the Halicat
	Budgerigar Eulah Creek, 20 km east of Narrabri 2390 Today is the day to see Budgerigars in the Narrabri area! 6 first heard this morning, now with visual ID (no photo; too quick!). Michael Dahlem
	Southern Boobook Long Reef Aquatic Reserve Partly cloudy, warm morning visit to count the shorebirds. Falling tide. Southern Boobook (1) Roosting in Casuarinas near the steps leading out of the top carpark. Seemed completely unfazed by our attention! Jenny Stiles
	Brolga Kempsey (North Street) A pair seen feeding in a field on the northern edge of North Street Karen Smedley
Fri 8 Mar	Budgerigar, Rainbow Bee-eater, Spotted Harrier, White-throated Needletail Narrabri - Private Property 26km west of township 58+ Budgerigars observed roosting in box tree and possibly foraging in adjacent pasture which is heavily seeding. Six Budgerigars seen over several days on the same property. 13 Rainbow Bee-eaters hawking near homestead. Spotted Harrier hunting over open paddocks next to homestead late in afternoon. At least 20 White-throated Needletails seen feeding above canopy on this one occasion. Large mixed flocks of Needletails, Fork-tailed Swifts, and Tree Martins intermittently seen over past 4-6 weeks between 10-30 km west of Narrabri flying at low level above and at canopy level in Box woodlands. James Faris
	Eastern Yellow Wagtail Hexham wetlands Seen on an outing with Illawarra Birders late in the evening David Rower
	Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, Magpie Goose, Plum-headed Finch Narrabri Lake, Narrabri 2390 Narrabri Lake has filled up to capacity again after recent rainfall, with several bird species returning that had temporarily left. There are at least 30 Magpie Geese (got photos), which flew in from elsewhere at about 9 am. Also seen were two Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (photo) and two Plum-headed Finches (got photos of a male). Michael Dahlem
Thu 7 Mar	Glossy Ibis, Pink-eared Duck, White-necked Heron Dairy Swamp, Central Coast Wetlands, Tuggerah (restricted Access) Today at the Dairy Swamp, there were no Freckled Ducks, presumably gone following the heavy rain of last weekend. However there were still 14 Glossy Ibis, 24 Straw-necked Ibis, 38 White Ibis, 4 White-necked Herons, 22 Cattle Egret, 2 Great Egrets, 2 Pink-eared Ducks, 16 Black-winged Stilts, 4 Royal Spoonbills, 34 Black Swans, 32 Masked Lapwings, 70 Coots, usual ducks and plenty of Little Black and Great Cormorants so that when the White-breasted Sea-eagle made a past over the wetland on 3 occasions, there were many birds put to flight!! Alan Morris
	Musk Duck Pond with fountain beside houses Warriewood Wetlands Female Musk Duck seen diving amongst usual bunch of floating and resting Pacific Black Ducks, Chestnut Teal, Eurasian Coots, Dusky Moorhens, Purple Swamphens and Little Black Cormorants around 9 am today. Rae Lister
	Plumed Whistling-Ducks Fernleighs Lagoon Richmond Lowlands of powells lane There were about 20 Plumed Whistling-Ducks at Fernleighs Lagoon Tony Dawe
	Royal Spoonbill and Australian King-Parrot Charles Sturt University, Albury campus Single Royal Spoonbill flew right over campus this morning at around 8:00 am, first record for the area; Yellow-billed occasionally feed in the wetlands on campus. Also heard an Australian King-Parrot calling--routinely in remnant woodland on campus in the winter, but rarely later than October David M Watson
Wed 6 Mar	Glossy Ibis and Latham's Snipe Eastlakes Golf Course A Glossy Ibis was seen today and also 3 Latham's Snipe, 1 Peregrine, 1 Little Tern and an Australian Spotted Crake. David Mitford
	Bush Stone-curlew Davistown Wetlands The Gosford Friends of the Bush Stone-curlew has a small study project in the Brisbane Water area of Gosford LGA whereby we monitor the local breeding population of 4-5 pairs of Bush Stone-curlews. On 6/3/2013 we colour-banded the 4th chick for the season at Davistown wetlands, so that this summer we banded 4 chicks and knew of a 5th, making it the most productive season since we began our project in 2002. The confirmed resident pairs are at Umina, Davistown, Kincumber and St Hubert's Island, so together with 8 known adults, 5 chicks and single birds at Saratoga, Bensville, Veterans Hall, we have a known population of 16 birds. Birds have been seen at other locations but there are access problems so confirmation of their resident status is difficult. In addition there are at least 3 birds, part of this population, in the Careel Bay area of Pittwater. (Obviously the actual location of the birds is not being provided here). Two annual evening call back surveys are also carried out each year, volunteers to assist are welcome! Alan Morris, Doug Hocking & Jay Nicholson (photo)
	Grey Goshawk, Crested Shrike-tit, Pied Butcherbird, Green Catbird Hidden Valley, Ourimbah State Forest, Ourimbah. Hidden Valley is the last property on the Ourimbah Creek Rd before it enters Ourimbah State Forest. This was the regular half day outing of the CCGBNSW and a Grey Goshawk was seen to fly over the Forest, a White-necked Heron circled over the farm, a Crested Shrke-tit was feeding on the access road into the forest as were Golden Whistlers, Crimson Rosellas, Brown Cuckoo-doves & King Parrots. A pair of Pied Butcherbirds were in the farmland, while all 3 species of Scrub-wrens , Rufous Fantails, Wonga Pigeon and 3+ Rose Robins were found in the Forest. Christina Port and Alan Morris & 18 members CCGBNSW
	Wedge-tailed Eagle, White-throated Needletail Bellawongarah, Berry Mtn. 2 adult WT Eagles soaring low over house yard with 6-8 WTNT flying in the background at 4:45pm. Carla Jackett
	Southern Boobook Balmain A Southern Boobook found roosting in Ballast Point Park just before sunset this evening. (Moderator';s Note: There is a known history of Boobooks coming into the suburbs during autumn and winter, presumably post breeding disperal of juvenile birds.AM). Robert Griffin
	Rufous Fantail Annandale, Inner West, Sydney A juvenile Rufous Fantail feeding on insects in Camelia in my tiny front yard. Presumably passage migrant - sightings in inner Sydney very uncommon. Andrew Taylor
Tue 5 Mar	Rufous (Nankeen) Night-Heron Bicentennial Park, Glebe Glebe harbour-side 4pm in tree above public path, in backyard of Oxley St house for sale. Tim Peach
	Beach Stone-curlew Orient Point One Beach Stone-curlew on the western end of Orient Point beach off Seagull Street. Michael Crosland
Mon 4 Mar	Southern Giant-Petrel Port Stephens, 8nm offshore A single Southern Giant-Petrel approached boat whilst game fishing in about 100m depth - some ordinary photos confirmed ID. [Moderator's note (NH): Any GP at this time of the year and even more so a Southern GP are quite unusual.] Ben Bright
	White-throated Needletails (100's??) Plumpton/Oakhurst I didn't make it to the park with my dog this morning as we were distracted by small groups of White-throated Needletails, as the flocks grew in size (with about 50 in view at any one time) I opted for a short trip to the shops instead, the sky still full of swifts. I probably looked weird, looking up to the sky with a telephoto lens by my side - but I didn't care, it was a great way to start the week. Mark Fuller
	Glossy Black-Cockatoo Yerrinbool 2 Glossy Black-Cockatoos seen crossing the Hume Highway not far north-east of Yerrinbool this morning at 7:15am. The first GBCs I've seen over the Hume in over three years of regularly driving this stretch. Lorne Johnson
Sun 3 Mar	Eastern Osprey, Spotted Harrier Wnidsor and Richmond Lowlands The joint outing of the CBOC and BMBO got off to a slow start, with a couple of White-throated Needletails being the highlight at Windsor Downs. Lunch at Windsor proved more fruitful as an Eastern Osprey was seen flying along the river. Later at Richmond Lowlands, we increased our tally of raptors to nine, including my favourite, the Spotted Harrier. Mark Fuller and members of the CBOC and BMBO
	Spotted Harrier Penrith Lakes area At around 09:00 this morning I observed an adult Spotted Harrier hunting in the field alongside Smith Road, Castlereagh. It was quite busy hunting thus was not perturbed by me standing some 60 meters away. Ákos Lumnitzer
Sat 2 Mar	Light phase adult Arctic Jaeger Lake Illawarra estuary Southern Side A cold wet morning in early March with near on gale force winds a Light phase adult Arctic Jaeger came in on the wind seeking shelter or a rest, unusual sighting for me especially on the beach. I was over the beach to check if the Double-banded Plovers had started to arrive and yes so far 3. The Red-necked Stints are still around with the Red-capped Plovers but not much around in the heavy conditions. [Moderator's note (NH): This bird was initially reported and accepted as a Pomarine Jaeger. This was triggered by the following: deep black hood reaching into the malar area, the breast band, the fat bulging belly and the size described as similar to Kelp Gull. However, a number of other field marks point towards Arctic Jaeger: bill shape, head shape and, most importantly, short, straight & pointy central rectrices, which can be appreciated in the additional pictures kindly provided by Charles Dove. This is yet another example how difficult the identification of jaegers can be!] Charles Dove
Fri 1 Mar	Little Penguin River Street, Birchgrove A pair of Little Penguin chasing very small bait fish off the end of the garden and then 'yapping' loudly. At the same time several Crested Terns flying around. Graham Buchan

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