After the Mudlarks survey, I joined Sue, who had joined us at the Mudlarks, for a visit to Sydney Park. It was such a beautiful day that it would be shame to be indoors! At Sydney Park I was hoping to see some Quails and Rails. We had no luck with the Quails, but the Rails were very good.
When we arrived at the park, we first looked for the Tawny Frogmouths, but had no luck. They do move around and are hard to spot. Then we headed to the ponds.
At the large pond, a Royal Spoonbill was feeding along the far shore.
A Black Swan was cruising around.
And there was a single Australasian Grebe.
Here is a Pacific Black Duck.
A Nankeen Kestrel flew high overhead.
We noticed some Gymea Lillies starting to flower.
Here is a Grey Butcherbird –
The Island Pond was fairly weedy. Here is a Turtle –
And this is one of many Welcome Swallows wizzing over the water of the large pond.
And another Turtle =
Back to the Australasian Grebe. It was stretching its wings.
The Royal Spoonbill had moved to the Island of the Island Pond.
We had earlier spotted a Rail, near the Frog Pond. But had been too fast for a photo. We had returned to that area again, and not seen anything, but just before we decide to leave, we made another last look. This time we were much sucker. We spotted a Buff-banded Rail foraging in the undergrowth.
Then we spotted a second one.
And a third one. Three Buff-banded Rails all foraging in the one area.
This one, near a fence, seemed intent on digging.
It came up for air!
Here are the other two –
Back to the digger –
It pulled out a nice fat worm.
It didn’t eat the worm, but instead went through the fence. I would not have thought it could fit.
Perhaps it was feeding some chicks? It soon returned to that same area.
This had been a very interesting and pleasant visit.
