Hi all
it turned out be a pretty wild weekend weatherwise in Sydney's north, but
between the thunderstorms and jobs around the house, I managed to see quite a
few birds.
Saturday saw several trips out into the garden to check out activity as the
Noisy Miners went off and netted a Pacific Baza (twice), the local Brown
Goshawk, a Wedge-tailed Eagle (bit late on that one but the going away profile
was distinctive enough) and a Collared Sparrowhawk that was chasing something
just as the late storm hit. Plenty of lorikeet activity with Musk Lorikeets
quite frequently overhead. Had Eastern Rosellas and King Parrots in the garden
and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were busy dismantling the cones on the pine
tree in my neighbour's garden. (The tree is referred to as the "boiled egg
tree" due to the way the cockies take the top off the cones.)
On Sunday morning, I walked the Lovers Jump Creek Track in North Turramurra,
which is only about 10 minutes walk from my house. If I have a local patch,
this is it, and I'm going to try and walk it several times as the year
progresses (this was my 2nd go for 2014). 37 species was 7 fewer than my
Australia Day walk, but some changes too - although I was expecting to see all
the summer migrants gone, I was surprised by a Leaden Flycatcher, which was one
of the first birds I saw. A good feeding flock had Scarlet Honeyeaters, Eastern
Spinebills, Lewins Honeyeaters, Brown Thornbill families (the big juveniles
look odd until you see a full adult stuffing lerps into its beak), Spotted
Pardalotes, Golden Whistlers, Grey Fantails and a Grey Shrike-thrush joined in
that group too.
Back at home, a pair of Grey Goshawks passed over at about 10am, and a single
bird came back at about 10:30. 45 minutes later the local Brown Goshawk went
over. While I was watching that I saw a flock of 30 or so swallows/martins
passing over very high up, heading north. They looked "squared off" at the
tail, so I think they were Martins, but they were too small even with the bins
to call them as to species. This afternoon ahead of the storm front that came
through at 12:45, I saw a flock of 70+ White-throated Needletails. They were
quite tightly bunched and moving with the weather and went through pretty
quickly about 20/25 minutes before the rain arrived. There may have been one
forktail in with them but I wasn't sure as I only 1/2 saw it as it flashed
across my binocular view. That's the biggest flock I have seen this year and
getting late for them too. Just as the rain hit a Spotted Pardalote was calling
from a tree at the back of the house.
Late in the afternoon the Sparrowhawk and the local Peregrine put in an
appearance (making it 6 raptors for the weekend) and with my walk total added
in, about 50 species overall. Who says one needs to go a long way from home to
see good birds?
Cheers
Tom Wilson
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