It had been a few months since I had visited Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. I had been wanting to go for a fair while – but it had either been too hot or too wet, or something else was on. I finally made it!
One of the birds I look forward to seeing at Nurragingy Reserve are Azure Kingfishers. On this visit, despite a lot of looking, I did not see any. I did see a pair of Sacred Kingfishers bringing back food for their family which was nice.
It was a fairly warm day, and I eft early in the afternoon when the temperature started climbing towards the mid thirties.
I did not see the full range of birds I often observe here. Perhaps it was too hot, or the loud noise from the cicadas made it hard to hear where birds cold be. But here are some of the birds I did see –
Eastern Rosella
Australian Wood Duck
Grey Butcherbird
Little Pied Cormorant
Robber Fly
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Sacred Kingfisher
Little Pied Cormorant
Turtle
Musk Lorikeet
Eastern Spinebill
Wandering around, I had seen a raptor – probably a Pacific Baza. But I did not manage to get any photos.
This Sacred Kingfisher had a small skink.
It was feeding young in a nest hollow –
And the second Kingfisher of the pair was nearby and also bringing in food.
Both parents have skinks –
Opening up the shadows on the computer reveals at least one chick in the hollow.
To feed their young, the Kingfishers had to run the gauntlet of a flock on Noisy Miners. They would often make dummy runs past the nest hole and cycle around and wait for the Noisy Miners to leave.
Another skink –
It is interesting that I only observed the parents bringing in skinks to feed their chicks. Perhaps the skinks are high grade food that is good for feeding the young or perhaps it was because there are plenty available for locally for catching? But there were also plenty of cicadas around. And I have seen adult Sacred Kingfishers catching and eating them.
Despite plenty of shade at the Reserve, it was now getting very hot. Time to head home.