It had been a while since I had visited Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. I caught a train to Doonside and then walked the short distance from the station to the Reserve.
Whenever I go to Nurragingy, I always look for the Azure Kingfishers. They are such photogenic birds, but challenging to photograph as they are shy and only seem to appear perched in the darkest places above the pools. On this visit, despite a lot of looking, I could not spot any. But I did find a wide range of other nice birds – but most of them I saw a bit later in the day and for a very short time period.
My usual plan, when I go to Nurragingy is to first go to the pools where I have seen the Azure Kingfishers and make repeated visits to those spots. But I also take regular slow walks around the perimeter trail. The most remote part of this, where the trail follows a fence is often good for birds. On my first walk I did see a few birds along this section – Grey Fantails, a Rose Robin and a Eastern Yellow Robin. This was around 10:30 am.
The Rose Robin was very flighty and did not stay in the area for long. I have seen one here before and it is always hard to photograph.
A few Superb Fairy-wrens were around –
And a Butcherbird –
Back at the main duckpond, I had lunch. I looked around a bit more, and then started another slow walk around the perimeter. This was around 1 pm. The creek part was relatively quiet. I managed to photograph a Grey Fantail.
A little further around, all of a sudden a host of birds appeared in the one spot. It was hard to chose which one to photograph first. Here are some of what I took –
First a pair of Crested Shrike-tits –
Then a Spotted Pardalote –
Next, a Brown Thornbill –
Last, a beautiful male Rose Robin made an appearance –
I then continued along the trail. Back near the Blacksmiths Hut, I heard a rather large bird being rather noisy as it searched the bark of a tree for insects.
It was one of the birds I had been looking for several times at Nurragingy, but with no luck – a Blue-faced Honeyeater. However, the noise it made attracted the attention of a pack of Noisy Miners. A confrontation broke out –
The Blue-faced Honeyeater then flew off to another tree and resumed its pecking around looking for insects….. but not for long.
The honeyeater flew off to avoid the Noisy Miners. I was very pleased to finally spot this beautiful bird. The first I have seen not in captivity.
I finished the day off back at the duck ponds – photographing some Welcome Swallows –
And a Cormorant and Grebe –
