I had a few hours free in the late afternoon – so headed out to Sydney Park at St Peters with my camera. Its a very pleasant place to spend some time.
I walked around the ponds to see what birds were out. Here is a Black Swan –
I saw a juvenile Grey Butcherbird –
I spent some time looking for birds around the edge of the ponds, without much luck. When you can’t find other birds you start photographing the Welcome Swallows –
And a Royal Spoonbill –
I bumped into Lorne, a local birder, and he told me about three Lewin’s Rails he had just observed. I went to one of those locations, and there was a bird around, it looked like a juvenile Lewin’s Rail. But it appearances were far too brief for photos. A little later, I went back to that area, and looked a bit more. I could see something moving in the grass and reeds, and then I saw a few metres away from that spot a larger Buff-banded Rail. I grabbed a few photos.
The Buff-banded Rail was moving towards where I thought the Lewin’s Rail was. Then all of a sudden I heard a noise, and the Lewin’s Rail shot up in the air and flew a few metres to a different spot. Again – far too fast for a photo but it was nice to see.