I got up early and headed to Sydney Park at St Peters to see what birds were out.
Like some previous visits to this park, I was on the lookout for Crakes and Rails, and wondered if early morning maybe better than the late afternoon? Also, on a recent visit, I ws talking to another birder and he had seen a Little Bittern in the morning a few days before. I didn’t see any of these birds, but I still had an interesting time.
Four Royal Spoonbills were busy searching for food along the side of one of the ponds. Nearby was a Little Pied Cormorant trying to catch some fish that the Spoonbills may have disturbed.
Two fo the Spoonbill denied to search a bit further along.
A Pelican was also feeding.
I was waiting, and watching around the pool with binoculars looking for the rarer birds, and occasionally photographing some birds flying past.
Galahs
Noisy Miner
Little Pied Cormorant
Royal Spoonbill
Australian Swamphen
Pacific Black Duck
The Little Pied Cormorant was still teaching for fish amongst the reeds.
And so was a Little Black Cormorant
Back to the Pelican.
I decided to go for a wander around, and spotted a whole lot of stinkhorns that had recently emerged from the wood chips.
These stinkhorns attract a lot of flies that then spread their spores. I saw two species, the one above are Phallus rubicundus. The one below is Lysurus mokusin.
Here are some more –
Back to the birds.
These Eurasian Coots have some newly hatched chicks –
And here is a family of Pacific Black Ducks –
The Little Pied Cormorant was now resting.
In the Island Pond was a pair of Black Swans –
Bak to the lower pond, a Spoonbill and Australian White Ibis were having an altercation.
The Little Black Cormorant had returned to the water, but was now leaving it.
And this Eastern Long-necked Turtle was also having a rest –
A small flock of Musk Lorikeets flew past.
The Pacific Black Duck family was now on the shore.
The Pelican was doing its stuff –
One of the Spoonbills decided to have a wash.
And the Little Black Cormorant in flight –
This Dusky Moorhen has two chicks of different ages.
The parent gets some food for the little chick.
But the larger chick grabs it.
And then west scolded!
It was time to go. It had been an interesting morning.