I joined the Tempe Birdos for their monthly early morning bird survey. The group meets at Tempe wetlands at 8 am, and then splits up. This time I joined the group surveying the wetlands. After the survey finished and morning tea, I walked upstream along via Cooks River to Canterbury.
The survey went well, with a lot of bids being recorded, but nothing unusual this time. Here are a few of the birds we saw –
Pacific Black Duck
Grey Teal
This Australasian Grebe was having a shake down –
The survey finished as usual with morning tea at Tempe Reserve. After that I set off up the Cooks River along the path.
Here are some birds I saw –
Little Pied Cormorants
Masked Lapwing
Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike
Chestnut Teal
My friend Valerie lives near the Cooks River, and I sent her a text to see if she wanted to join me for the last part of my walk. This was where I was hoping to see the Tawny Frogmouths.
We met on the Lang Street Bridge. and then went to Ewen Park. We soon spotted the nesting Tawny Frogmouth –
It was hard to get a view of the chick this time.
Upstream, we were surprised to see a Dusky Moorhen rafting on the river –
And then at the Boat Harbour, we eventually spotted the Tawny Frogmouth family –
It was good to see these quirky birds!
Continuing upstream –
Great Cormorant
Pelican