Another nice day of bird photography. This time at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. When I arrived, things were very quiet. I looked for Kingfishers with no luck, checked out the ponds – nothing special, then did a walk around the perimeter fire trail without spotting anything much. And then things improved….
The first birds I saw when I arrived were a pair of Galahs –
And then the quiet period. Nothing special seen despite a lot of looking in places I had seen interesting birds before. I ventured back to one of the small ponds where I had often seen Azure Kingfishers on previous visits. Again none seen. But I heard a bird higher up in the palm trees. It was a Blue-faced Honeyeater. It stayed around for a while – searching for food.
I had to move around a bit to follow the bird as it moved from palm to palm. It was often obscured behind fronds. Finally it found some food – a nice caterpillar.
Nurragingy Reserve is the only place in the greater Sydney area that I have seen Blue-faced Honeyeaters. And I certainly don’t see them every visit. I think this is the fifth time I have seen them there.
Not long after, I had had my lunch and then again searched the ponds looking for Kingfishers with no luck. It is probably too late for Sacred Kingfishers to still be around, so I was hoping for some Azure Kingfishers. I finally saw one – in the same general area that I had seen the Blue-faced Honeyeater.
It did not stay for long, but I managed to get a few photos.
That was the last I saw of it.
My second walk around the perimeter fire road was a lot better than the first. Near the creek I spotted a lot of small birds. Here are some –
Silvereye
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Spotted Pardalotes
Red-browed Finches
Red-browed Finches and Superb Fairy-wrens
Eastern Rosella
Olive-backed Oriole
Then back to the ponds to finish up. Here are a pair of Masked Lapwings –
Little Pied Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Australian Wood Ducks
And I finished, the way I started, with a pair of Galahs –
And I also spotted this nice bolete –
