The first impression I had was that the Wattle Forest was alive with birds, even more so than Cairns was. We spent around 90 minutes in the Wattle Forest, where we saw Azure Kingfisher, Brown Thornbill, Bassian Thrush (similar to White's Thrush), Silvereye, Superb Blue-wren, Scarlet Robin ('only' the female, with a pinkish breast), Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Lewin's Honeyeater, Eastern Spinebill, Wonga Pigeon (I could have done with a lot more wonga, but not of the pigeon variety, on this trip, doing things on a tight budget is never a great idea), Green Catbird, Yellow-throated Scrubwren, Golden Whistler and Red-browed Firetail.
From the Wattle Forest we headed a short distance to Lady Carrington's Drive, which was a busy area, popular with walkers as well as the omnipresent fitness fanatics, including cyclists who you needed eyes in the back of your head to avoid as they rode far too fast along the track and didn't really care about walkers potentially being in their way. I swore at one idiot who rode up behind me and nearly ran me down. You don't always hear them approaching.
The best bird at Lady Carrington's Drive, for me, was a lovely Scarlet Honeyeater. Unfortunately, my grabbed shots of this fast-moving little bird don't do him any justice as they all came out blurred and I couldn't get close enough for frame-filling, or even half-frame-filling, shots. So, what I have here is an awful crop but they do show the lovely red colour on the bird's head.
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| Scarlet Honeyeater |
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| Bower of a Satin Bowerbird. The blue plastic objects aren't litter, but his treasures. |
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| Superb Blue-wren |
We also searched for the Superb Lyrebird and we saw plenty of evidence that one had been around, with disturbed ground but, unfortunately, we didn't see it.
From Lady Carrington's Drive we went to Mount Bass Fire Trail, an area of heathland with plenty of birds and impressive views back towards the city. The Central Business District (i.e. the city centre) skyscrapers looked imposing even from that distance as they are the highest points in the landscape apart from the distant Blue Mountains, which we could also see.
Mount Bass birds included the New Holland, Tawny-crowned and White-plumed Honeyeaters, Little Wattlebird, Collared Sparrowhawk and Variegated Fairy-wren.
The following day, May 17th, I met Rob again and we headed 50km west to Scheyville National Park which is out towards the Blue Mountains. This is a forest area and much easier to see birds in than the rainforest was up north. We walked along the forest path as far as the powerline cut, where the forest had been cleared to allow pylons carrying high tension wires to be put up. The most obvious birds were Bell Miners, familiar from Melbourne, with their loud 'TINK' call as they moved through the forest. I was told that Bell Miners were aggressive and scared other birds away and I suppose that, with their loud, unmelodious call and large flocks, that is probably true. Not only that, the loud 'TINK' call, cute and charming at first, grows monotonous and you find yourself wishing they'd shut up!
Scheyville Birds included Jacky Winter, Yellow Thornbill, Striated Thornbill, Crested Shrike-tit, Red-browed Finch, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Rose Robin, Grey Shrike-thrush and Golden Whistler. |
| Red-browed Finch |
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| Jacky Winter |
From Scheyville we went to Bussell's Lagoon which was an excellent place. It was hot but there were a lot of birds including Zebra Finch which we were not expecting to see so close to Sydney. It was great to see these little birds as they should be, in their own habitat and not in horrible tiny cages, hopping from perch to perch, as you see in pet shops at home.
We spent a couple of hours here and I added quite a bit to my list. Apart from the Zebra Finches were Swamp Harrier, Black-winged Stilt (which also occurs in Europe), Pink-eared Duck, Black-winged Kite, Australian Raven, Black-fronted Dotterel, Superb Fairy-wren, Whistling Kite, Grey Teal, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Great Cormorant, Pied Cormorant, Australian Darter, Australian Pelican, Australasian Grebe, Tawny Grassbird and Little Grassbird. Back towards the road we found a juvenile White-necked Heron.
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| Australian Darter |
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| White-necked Heron (juvenile) |
After a couple of days messing about in Sydney - went to the Botanic Gardens, Opera House, met some friends from the States, etc, etc - I went west, to Coonabarabran. This was supposed to be an astronomy trip, to a star party that my American friends (who I know from the Texas Star Party) were attending.
Unfortunately, I could only stay one night as I had booked myself on a pelagic trip from Wollongong. Even more unfortunately, the weather was atrocious and it poured all night so we didn't get any observing done. However, on the train to Dubbo, I did manage to see Little Eagle, Black-shouldered Kite, Red-rumped Parrot, Musk Lorikeet, Superb Parrot, Common Bronzewing, Brown Cuckoo-dove, Australian King-parrot, Australian Magpie, Magpie Lark, Galah and Bar-shouldered Dove and there was an Echinda walking alongside the tracks. The following morning I went to Warrumbungles National Park and added Emu to the list.
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| Emu |
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| Grey Kangaroo |
I had to leave for the 1300 bus back to Lithgow, in order to catch the train back to Sydney, so I bade a reluctant farewell to my friends and, after a long journey, I got back to Sydney late in the evening.
The next day I left for Wollongong. The weather was utter crap with lashing rain and force 10 winds; in fact a lot of NSW and southern Queensland were under water thanks to the typhoon. It was horrendous, so I phoned the SOSSA representative and asked if the pelagic was still going ahead. She said it was, so I boarded a coach and headed for Wollongong where I had a hostel booked. The journey 80km south was marked by torrential rain and winds buffeting the vehicle and things did not look good for the next day. On arrival in Wollongong, I had a bit of a walk to the hostel and got soaked to the skin; even my bag and its contents were wet through and, by then, I was thinking "How dare Australians take the piss out of British weather when theirs can be just as shit?". Things got worse when the room I was given proved to be dirty and with rubbish thoughtfully left by the previous tenant so I complained at reception and, after being made to wait in the lounge, was moved to another room. A couple of hours later, I was told I'd have to move again as they'd tidied up the other room. I told them to forget it as I was staying put and fed up with being buggered about. The omens, by now, were not good and the filthy weather gave me the feeling it would be a miracle if the following morning's trip went ahead.
Suffice to say that, the weather did not sufficiently improve and, although the worst of the winds had died down by the following morning, the seas were mountainous and the pelagic was put back to the following week, which wasn't much good from my point of view as, by then, I would be in Thailand. To be honest, while it was totally galling ('...why in the name of arse did there have to be a typhoon this weekend?!') I also did not fancy heading out into those seas, especially when I saw a large cargo ship from Port Kembla pitching and rolling badly so I was also relieved, especially when I saw the small and not very well maintained boat that was to be used. Get hit broadside on exiting the harbour and you go over, and most likely be drowned. I certainly wasn't looking forward to being tossed around, we would not have seen much due to the movement of the boat, and I fancied the thought of drowning or, at the very least having my camera gear end up at the bottom of the Tasman Sea, even less.
Because of this, we decided to head for some cliffs at Five Islands and Maroubra - and, I went back to the hostel and collected my stuff as I decided not to stay a second night - for some seawatching. There were at least four Black-browed Albatrosses as well as Giant Petrels, Cape Petrel, Australian Gannet, White-fronted Terns and Silver Gulls. The views, while good, weren't as great as they would have been if the weather had been kinder and the pelagic had gone ahead, but at least it was not raining and the sun had finally come out.
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| Mountainous seas |
Back in Sydney on the 24th, the storms had died down and I decided to go on a whale-watching trip as consolation. These trips had been affected by the storms and only resumed that day. I joined mine at Circular Quay, and we headed out through the Heads into still-choppy seas. However, there were Humpback whales and there were Black-browed Albatrosses, although the latter weren't that close.
That was the end of my time in Australia. I flew to Thailand the day after the whale-watching trip and a new adventure was about to begin.
Many thanks to Rob Hynson for the lifts to good Sydney birding spots and for showing me the birds!
