Day 24 of lockdown. A nice day was forecast, so I had organised with local friend Valerie for another morning walk down the Cooks River to Tempe and back. We met at the Lang Street Bridge and then started walking downstream.
On the way, we were on the lookout for birds. Not far down,we watched a Pied Cormorant fishing. After a few dives, it surfaced with this nice fish –
David Sinnott, a friend, commented on Facebook – “this one is a Bullrout. Notesthes robusta. Dorsal spines deliver venomous stings”.
We had timed our walk for the low tide, hoping that some of the Sacred Kingfishers might be out and active – hunting for mud crabs. We were not disappointed. We spotted our first one jus downstream from Illawarra Road. It had a crab in its beak.
That crab was soon eaten, and it dived down to catch another –
It now had a third crab.
Crab #4
Crab #5
This dive was unsuccessful –
Crab #6
Crab #7
Crab #8
We lost sight of the Kingfisher at this point. We had been watching for about 40 minutes and in that time had caught and eaten 8 mud crabs.
Continuing on our way, we spotted this Little Black Cormorant –
And here is one of the many Noisy Miners in the trees at Gough Whitlam Park.
In Waterworth Park, near the confluence of the Cooks River and Wolli Creek, we spotted ur second Sacred Kingfisher.
An Australasian Darter was nearby drying its wings.
At one point, I was watching this Kingfisher, and I spotted second one fly past. So now I can confirm that there are two overwintering at the junction. When they both flew to the far side we walked back to the Bayview St Bridge. On the bridge we watched the Australasian Darter. It had caught a fish –
I didn’t get photos, but the Darter was harassed by a Raven, and returned back to the river.
Near the railway bridge, we saw the sad sight of a dead Pelican. We had no idea how it had died.
We looked across to Fatima Island and saw a few Silver Gull and Cormorants, then started walking back upstream. We stopped at the kiosk at Gough Whitlam Park for a snack, and then watched a pair of Grey Butcherbirds.
Walked back upstream was less eventful. Here is a Royal Spoonbill. It looks like is has some plastic rubbish.
And a Wood Duck on the golf course.
It had been good exercise and an interesting walk. Thanks to Valerie for the company.
Fabulous photography! Thanks for sharing.