A groovy pair of gulls
Silver Gulls, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Sydney Trip Report June 2011
On our trip to Sydney earlier this year we visited Darling Harbour in the heart of Sydney. Many people were gathered there for the Jazz and Blue Festival. In addition to the human audience, these two Silver Gulls seemed to be enjoying the free music too.
In addition to the many Silver Gulls around the harbour, I also saw plenty of White Ibis, Australian Ravens, Rock Doves and those pesky Common Mynas.
This just proves the versatility of this hobby called birding; you can watch birds anywhere.
Sometimes, I feel that the birds are watching us!
Silver Gulls, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Jazz & Blues Festival, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Road trip to Sydney
Yellow Rosella, Balranald, NSW
We have just returned from a two week road trip to Sydney. In all we covered 2840 kilometres over five days. The remaining 9 days were spent in Sydney visiting family. We had the privilege of spending most of that time with our 20 month old grandson, so there were limited opportunities for birding.
On the trip over and back I listed the birds seen or heard whenever we stopped for a break: lunch or a cuppa. Because of the vast distances we needed to cover each day, birding time was limited. I’ll be sharing some of these times here on this blog in the coming days, including a few photos taken at the time.
In all I managed to record a total of 81 species, not bad for limited opportunities. One of the highlights was the beautiful Yellow Rosella shown in the photo above. He posed beautifully for me while we were enjoying lunch at Balranald in far western New South Wales on our return journey. You can read more about this species here.
Noisy birds in Chatswood
This afternoon my wife and I accompanied our 19 month old grandson and our son on a visit to Chatswood on the Sydney North Shore area. The Chatswood CBD is an easy twenty minute walk from his home. We found a good spot to have a delicious lunch and later did some shopping.
It was dark when we left on the homeward walk. My attention was drawn to an extremely noisy group of birds calling just outside the doors of one of the shopping precincts. In three medium sized street trees there must have been several hundred birds, all calling raucously as they settled down to roost. In the little light coming from the shops I was able to determine that they were Rainbow Lorikeets. I can’t ever recall seeing so many together in such a small area.
Earlier on when heading for Chatswood we saw two Rainbow Lorikeets feeding near the footpath. I regretted not having my camera with me. I would have got some excellent shots. You’ll have to put up with photos taken elsewhere some time ago.
Rainbow Lorikeet, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
Lizards, lizards, lizards – where are the birds?
Eastern Water Dragon, Lane Cove National Park
While visiting my son and daughter in law in Sydney last Christmas we went for a family picnic to Lane Cove National Park. It had been many years since our last visit here – over 30 years in fact.
Before lunch several of us went for a walk along one of the walking tracks there. I was hoping for a good birding list plus a few good photos of birds.
The day was hot, humid and being around lunch time, rather quiet. I was amazed, however, at the large numbers of lizards in that part of the park. There seemed to be dozens of Eastern Water Dragons, all quite happy to come out and pose for my camera.
Eastern Water Dragon, Lane Cove National Park, Sydney
Distractions while birding
Lace Monitor lizard in Lane Cove National Park
On our recent trip to Sydney we had a family picnic lunch in the Lane Cove National Park. Before lunch several of us went on a long walk through the park. I was there to get a good list of birds plus the odd photo or two of birds.
As we walked along my daughter spotted a rather large Lace Monitor lizard crossing the track in front of us. It quickly decided to take refuge on the trunk of a nearby tree and was decidely camera shy. Because of the steep terrain I was unable to get around on the side of the tree to get a better view.
It was a nice distraction from the birding that morning.
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