Birds at Sydney Olympic Park – 13 May 2020

After the Greenway bird survey, I caught a train to Strathfield North and walked down to Mason Park. In the wetlands I spotted a single Black-fronted Dotterel.

Nearby, in Powells Creek a White-faced Heron was hunting. It would stir up the sediment with one of its feet and then try and grab any escaping animal that might be tasty.

I then continued on to Bicentennial Park. I first visited the Bennelong Wetlands at the far end of the mangrove boardwalk. There I found a Pied Cormorant, a Pacific Black Duck having a splash, an Australian Grebe and a Great Egret.

I back-tracked and then headed on to the waterbird refuge pond. Near one of the smaller ponds were some Superb Fairy-wrens.

And these Purple Swamphens seemed on a mission –

In the main pond, these Teals were huddled together on a small island –

There were plenty of Black Swans –

tHen I heard a kerfuffle – a lot of the Pied Stilts had taken off. I looked around for a raptor, but there wasn’t one. It was a Raven tiring them up.

They settled back down.

A fair way out was a single Caspian Tern.

From the bird hide, I photographed a juvenile Pied Stilt.

And it a good place to photograph Superb Fairy-wrens –

I then headed into Wentworth Common. It was pretty quiet, so I continued on to the Brickpit. But it was closed for maintenance, so I returned to the Ship Wreck Lookout. There an Australasian Darter was drying its wings.

It then demonstrated some interesting behaviour. It picked a splinter of wood off its support, and then started throwing it up in the air and catching it. It did this quite a few times.

I don’t know if the Darter did it for amusement, or whether it was practicing for when it catches fish and has to show them up of its beak and then swallow them.

This Pied Cormorant was impressed!