More Cooks River Tawny Frogmouths – 30 Oct 2025

I met Sue at the Leslie Muir Reserve between Close St and the Cooks River near Canterbury Road, and our plan was to walk down the Cooks River and look for birds, in particular, Tawny Frogmouths.

On our way, we spotted four sets of Tawny Frogmouths. The first was at the Leslie Muir Reserve.

Two adults were perched in one tree –

And nearby, in a different tree was an adult sitting on a nest with young nestlings.

Back to the pair of adults –

And now back to the nest –

One of the chicks is easily visible here –

Now, you can see the two chicks. One is on the left of the adult – you can make out is bill. The other is behind the branch on the right.

Then they made it easier to see both chicks and their parent –

I wonder why there are three adults? One on the nest (usually the father), and two in the other tree. I have seen this before – an extra adult being close to the nest. Perhaps it is a former chick of the pair, that has come back to assist with feeding the chicks?

We then walked downstream to the Boat Harbour.

Little Pied Cormorant 

There are often nesting Tawny Frogmouths at the Boat Harbour, but on recent visits I had not spotted any. This time, we spotted two adults with a fledgling –

Continuing down the River. Here is a male Superb Fairy-wren at the bushcare site near Ford St.

And in the River, a Royal Spoonbill was foraging –

Further down, in Ewen Park, we encountered some workmen. One as if we had photographed the Tawny Frogmouth. We said we had, but the one he was  talking about was not one we had seen. He gave us directions and we headed ashore way upstream and soon spotted it. It was sitting on a nest –

We could not spot its partner.

Nearby was a young Australian Raven being fed –

Then, just past Ewen Park, at the Cricket Nest was another family of Tawny Frogmouths that I had seen before. We soon spotted an adult with two chicks –

We could not spot the second adult.

We then headed to Marrickville Golf Course near Bruce St, another location where I have seen Tawny Frogmouths before. This visit, I could not spot any.

Laughing Kookaburra

We continued past Illawarra Road.

Welcome Swallow 

Little Black Cormorants

We looks for more Tawny Frogmouths at Gough Whitlam Park. The usual Tawny Frogmouths had moved. Probably nesting close by – but we could not spot them.

We continued to Tempe Station. Here is one last bird – a White-faced Heron at Gumbramorra Creek.