Nurragingy Reserve – 19 January 2025

I had intended to visit Rookwood, but on the train, the weather looked good enough for a longer and more remote trip, so I made a visit to Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside, and despite some bad weather, I was fortunate to spot some nice birds.

When I arrived, I heard the call of a Sacred Kingfisher, and soon spotted the bird –

It looked like storm was approaching, so I decided to do the walk around the perimeter fire road straightaway, in case it started raining later. Here are some birds I saw –

Superb Fairy-wren

Sacred Kingfisher

Then I spotted a juvenile Pacific Baza –

It was eating a small insect –

Then it flew to another tree.

Nearby was one of its parents. It had an insect –

The adult didn’t eat the insect, but must have been preparing it for the juvenile.

It gave the food to its chick –

Here is the juvenile –

And the parent –

There were not too many small birds about. Here is an Eastern yellow Robin –

There were a lot of Bell Miners –

On the walk back towards the ponds, I spotted this Red-bellied Black Snake –

And now back near the ponds.

Eastern Rosella

Olive-backed Oriole

Willie Wagtail

I then sat out a big storm. I had gone to the kiosk and bought some lunch, and was able to eat under shelter while the storm raged.

Some more birds after lunch –

Sacred Kingsfisher

This is one of the resident turtles. My friend Ken Griffiths identified it as a Saw-shelled Turtle, which is not native to the area. They are found in northern Australia.

White-faced Heron

Water Dragon and Turtle –

I then bumped into Wayne, a local Nature expert and vlogger. We had an interesting chat about Nurragingy Reserve and started walking around the perimeter fire road.