Cooks River and Barton Park Bike Ride – 28 July 2021

Day 32 of lockdown. My exercise for the day was a morning bike ride along the Cooks River to Barton Park and back. As usual, I packed a camera.

No Sacred Kingfishers this time. I wonder if they are still around? They migrate to coastal mangrove areas during winter, and with recent warm weather perhaps they are moving back to the usual territories. But, I think a more likely explanation is they are not out feeding due to the high tide. They may have been out much earlier in the morning.

So I kept on riding to Barton Park, where I first visited the Landing Lights Wetland. Here is a White-faced Heron –

Around the wetlands are a lot  of small birds. Here is a Superb Fairy-wren –

And the Yellow Thornbills that I had seen before were out –

I had counted 7 Pied Stilts in the main pond.

But then a Brown Goshawk flew over.

The Goshawk disappeared  into the trees near the Golf Firing Range. The Pied Stilts and all taken to the air, and I noted there were a lot more than I had seen earlier.

There were at least 11 of them. They took a long time to resume their feeding, being very watchful.

In the top area, I saw a huge flock of Red-browed Finches. I would think at least 50 of them.

Otherwise the top area was pretty quiet. Down at the creek outlet into Muddy Creek I took few photos of the Welcome Swallows.

And further along the path, a New Holland Honeyeater –

Riding  home, I photographed a Great Egret hunting in the Eve St Wetlands.

Most of this wetland is fenced off – making it hard to photograph birds.

At Gough Whitlam Park, again I was looking to see if any Sacred Kingfishers were out. No, but I did hear an Olive-backed Oriole. I soon spotted it high in a tree –