Day 48 of lockdown. I was worried that the radius for exercise might change from 10 km, so I thought it may be good to visit Centennial Park which is close to my limit in the north east direction. I arranged to meet up with Sue and we would walk around the park looking for birds.
So I cycled over to the park, and met up with Sue at the location where a pair of Powerful Owls have been nesting. Both the adult owls are out of the nest hollow. By the time I arrived, Sue had already spotted both the adult owls – perched quite high in a tree.
We then looked for Tawny Frogmouths in the Paperbark Forest. But had no luck. Here is a Grey Butcherbird –
Not far away was a large flock of Corellas. There were mainly Little Corellas –
But also a few Long-billed Corellas –
Quite often the whole flock would take to the air. We looked around for raptors but could not spot any.
In the Busby Pond – we saw a lot of these large fish. Perhaps a type of carp?
There was also a Black Swan family –
One of several turtles –
The White-faced Heron was hunting –
A Pacific Black Duck comes in for a landing –
And another flies past –
we saw some Australasian Grebes –
And we finished our walk with another look at the Powerful Owls.
One coughed up a pellet.
It was quite special to be able to see these magnificent birds.
I then farewelled Sue. It had been great to catch up with her for some exercise. On the way home, the cycleway took me past Sydney Park, so I had a quick look for Rails. This was a bit frustrating. When I went up to the spot I had seen a Lewin’s Rail on a previous trip, I spotted one straight away – but I had spooked it and it ran off before I realised it was there. Later, I heard it calling from several places (or there could have been more than one) – but it never showed itself for a photo. A Buff-banded Rail did make a very brief appearance –
