Thinking About Birds

I only update the gallery photos occasionally. Sorry about that, too busy. See my Sri Lanka gallery though and also  the latest additions to my UK and Denmark galleries.

September 2024

23-25 September

Ten of us were in the Gloucester Tops for three days, to do the annual Rufous Scrub-bird surveys. We camped at the Sharpes Creek site within the national park. This had some pretty good birds! By day we had all the usual low altitude rainforest types (Australian Brush-turkey, Superb Lyrebird, Golden Whistler etc) plus some more interesting ones - such as Black-faced Monarch, Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo and Green Catbird. I heard Tawny Frogmouths both nights, and a Masked Owl on the first night. On the second night there was a Greater Sooty Owl and a Southern Boobook. Some of the others actuallysaw the Greater Sooty Owl late on the first night (I was fast asleep at the time).

Up at high altitude, we found 16 Rufous Scrub-birds (I heard seven of those).  Other birds I had in the Tops included Olive Whistler (several), Crescent Honeyeater (many), Red-browed Treecreeper (a few) and Flame Robin (a few). The rain event only started after we left - we were so lucky!

20-21 September

After a week of babysitting the grandkids, I headed up to Newcastle. On Friday I did a walk around the Wetlands Centre then had lunch there with James Wilson and Andrea Griffin, and a lovely woman, Margaret, who has decided to sponsor a PhD studentship with Andrea's team. The aim is a project that involved the uni plus the Wetlands Centre plus Hunter Bird Observers Club. Then I went to the NPWS offices in Newcastle, to review the equipment etc that we will use for next week's Rufous Scrub-bird surveys.

15 September

I took the grandkids on a ferry ride from Woy Woy to Davistown and back. It was a diversion for them, with not really any birdwatching opportunities for me - but, I did see a Far Eastern Curlew foraging near Davistown and later, saw a group of 16 Australian Pied Oystercatchers foraging together.

9 September

I did my monthly surveys of the Warrah Trig section of Brisbane Water National Park. As I drove in, a group of five Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos were flushing from the roadside trees - there were another five or more of them just a bit further along. The first  2ha site had good numbers of New Holland Honeyeaters and New Holland Honeyeaters, but not much else. The second site also was quiet but then at the third site I had a family group of three Glossy Black-Cockatoos. It was almost exactly where I had a group of three of them in December last year. The highlight at the fourth site was a flock of four Red Wattlebirds, travelling together. Afterwards I went to Patonga, where there were 30-40 Greater Crested Terns roosting on some of the moored boats and an adult male Satin Bowerbird in the scrub near the playground. As I drove out, there was a Whistling Kite too.

8 September

I bussed into Woy Woy and then walked home via the Brisbane Water path. There was a group of three Caspian Terns on one of the sand islands, with several Great Pied Cormorants and a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers.  I saw another pair of those later, on the island wih all the Australian Pelicans. There was one large assemblage of Pacific Black Ducks - 38 of them together. I also had a few more of those, and two pairs of Grey Teal. There were a few groups of Little Corellas, and within one of those groups there were two Long-billed Corellas.

6 September

I went to a couple more of my sites in Brisbane Water NP, which were queit although I did see two more Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos. plus there were some Waratahs in full flower. Then I went back to Pearl Beach, and walked through the Arboretum. I saw a total of four Australian Brush-turkeys plus I had very nice views of a pair of Variegated Fairy-wrens. Afterwards I went back to where I had seen the Rockwarbler the previous day, armed this time with my camera. Alas though, the bird did not appear.

5 September

I went to Pearl Beach early morning and walked up to the caves area. One highlight was a White-throated Treecreeper - I don’t find them often locally. But the absolute highlight was a Rockwarbler, which was carrying a feather (that looked to be a breast feather from a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo). Clearly the bird was nest-building but it absolutely did not want to go to its final destination whilstever I was watching. I tried shifting position a couple of times but it wasn’t fooled and eventually I left it to its own devices. Afterwards I went to the Coora Swamp area of Brisbane Water NP. Things had quietened down a lot since my previous visit; in particular there was hardly any honeyeater activity. However, I did see briefly a group of four Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos and heard a Pheasant Coucal. Also, there were several Rufous Whistlers, all newly returned.