With long weekend plans cancelled, I decided to spend the day in the local area taking photos of birds. I started off with the Tempe Birdos for their monthly bird survey, then joined Micheal from the Greenway Birdos to photograph a pair of Sacred Kingfishers on the Cooks River at its junction with Wolli Creek. Then I made my way to Barton Park and had much better session than the day before.
At Tempe – things were fairly quiet for the bird survey. being a long weekend, the number of people in the group was smaller than usual – so we only surveyed the wetlands. Here are some of the birds we saw –
Australasian Grebe
Magpie Lark
Spotted Pardalote
We saw quite a few Spotted Pardalotes flying gig hut in the trees.
Grey Butcherbird
We finished, as usual, with morning tea at Tempe Reserve. And at the end of that, as we were leaving, we saw a small group of Crested Terns hunting for fish.
Thanks to Micheal for his text message. He was at the junction of Wolli Ck and the Cooks River at Waterworth Park, and had spotted a pair of Sacred Kingfishers. It was only a short distance from Tempe Reserve, so I made my way there.
On the way, I saw a Great Egret perched in a mangrove.
And below the mangrove, was a Little Egret.
I met Michael at the junction. One of the Sacred Kingfishers was still around, but it was perched a fair way away on the railway bridge. We did not have to wait long for it to come back to our side.
I always like to get some photos of these birds in flight.
Michael then had to leave, so we walked to the road, and looked for a Tawny Frogmouth, another birder, Mark, had told us about. We soon spotted it perched in a tree near the velodrome.
It is probably one of the pair from Gough Whitlam Park.
Heading back to the junction and the Kingfishers again, I stopped to photograph a Little Pied Cormorant.
I soon spotted a Kingfisher.
Now, there were two. One was perched on the railway bridge –
And the other on my side.
The close one then flew across the river and caught a crab.
It was time for me to start towards Barton Park. Walking to the Princes Highway, I spotted the Little Egret again at Gumbramorra Creek.
I was going to catch a 422 bus to Barton Park, and that allowed me enough time to cross the Cooks River and go into Cahill Park.
A Darter was drying its wings –
And there was a Sacred Kingfisher perched in a Casuarina. It could have been one of the two upstream, or a third one.
My bus came, and I was soon at Barton Park. This session was a lot more productive than the one I had the day before, even though it was still quite cold and windy. Here are some of the birds I saw –
White-faced Heron
Nankeen Kestrel
I spent a fair bit of time watching this raptor while it was hunting in the old sporting fields.
Then, with the aid of my binoculars, I spotted a Grey Goshawk perched on a distant post. I walked closer.
It seemed to leave the area, so I went back to the Nankeen Kestrel.
And then the Grey Goshawk returned.
The Grey Goshawk seems to fly towards the Wetlands, so I made my way there. I could not spot it, so waited for a while to see if any raptors would turn up. Meanwhile, I turned my lens to the Pied Stilts –
And a last photo of a Teal.
It was only early afternoon, but I was keen to head home for a late lunch.