A Day on the Cooks River – Part 1 – Birds – 16 March 2024

I went for a morning walk along the Cooks River – walking from home to Marrickville Golf Course, then crossing at Illawarra Road and continuing down through Gough Whitlam Park, and then to Waterworth Park. Then I walled back upstream to Illawarra Road where I caught a bus part of the way home.

On this visit, I had slightly more success with spotting and photographing the Sacred Kingfishers than had the day before.

It was also the Wurridjal Festival – and there was supposed to be flotilla of canoes on the river. No sign of them here –

I spotted this Australasian Darter perched on a small tree –

Then, when I was near the SWSOOS, the flottila went past. the river here is lined by mangroves, so I had a very limited view. Here is an escort vessel –

And a few stragglers –

The Tawny Frogmouths at Gough Whitlam Park were in exactly the same spot as they had been in the day before – and even in the same poses.

On the far side of the river a Royal Spoonbill was foraging –

At Waterworth Park, I spotted two Cormorants. First a Little Pied Cormorant –

And a Little Black Cormorant –

Walking back upstream to Gough Whitlam Park, I spotted an Eastern Rosella (hybrid) near the Billabong –

And the Royal Spoonbill was now on the island –

Another Little Pied Cormorant was perched on the far side of the river –

This time I managed to get some better shots of one of the Sacred Kingfishers. There were two – I saw one land in the mangroves and it flushed out another already perched there.

It seemed to almost slip off its perch.

I bumped into fellow bird photographer, Michael, and we had a chat.