Day 5 of lockdown. After a nice bike ride the day before, I though another bike ride for exercise would be good. This time after riding down to the Cooks River, I headed in the other direction – upstream – and ended up riding to Homebush Bay and Sydney Olympic Park.
But before I started, I heard a Laughing Kookaburra outside my unit. I looked out windows and saw it perched on a tree outside my bathroom. I went for my camera and saw it was still there.
And then it was joined by a second one.
I was able to get some nice sequences of them taking off. I will post the photos at the end of this blog entry.
I had a nice ride along the Cooks River Cycleway. Along the way, I had a look at the new pond at Hudson Park at Homebush. I think this area used to be a golf course. Its now a lovely park with a large pond and nice surroundings. There were some birds in the pond, but I stopped to photograph some stinkhorns growing in the wood chips –
Lysurus mokusin –
At Mason Park Wetlands, I had another brief stop to photograph a Black-fronted Dotterel.
I then continued on to the Waterbird Refuge in Bicentennial Park. I could see some sleeping Spoonbills and a Little Egret –
Further along was a Great Egret –
Further along the path, I could see another cyclist with a camera. She was pointing the camera into the mangroves. I looked that way but couldn’t see anything. She pointed out a Sacred Kingfisher –
I am sure I would not have seen this beautiful birds if it hadn’t been pointed out to me.
From near the hide I could see the usual Red-necked Avocets and Pied Stilts –
I didn’t see too many birds of interest in Wentworth Common. I did see one nice fungus.
Coprinus comatus –
At Woo-la-ra I saw a pair of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos –
On Parramatta River, I saw a gulp* of Little Black Cormorants.
Heading towards home, I stopped to photograph a Royal Spoonbill feeding the Waterbird Refuge.
And now for those Kookaburra take-off sequences –
Take-off 1
Take-off 2
Take-off 3
- Gulp -collective noun for Cormorants