Gorokan

Little and Long-billed Corellas pre-dawn

Photographs cannot capture the huge numbers of corellas in the trees at Gorokan before sunrise, with more flying in. The noise when they all took flight was incredible.

Tuggerah STW

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Grey Shrike-thrush

On way way back from purchasing a ‘smart’ TV, I stopped in the at the sewerage treatment works. There were good number of birds on the water: White-headed Stilt, Chestnut Teal, Australasian Grebe, Black Swans, Little Pied Cormorants, Purple Swamp Hen, White-faced Heron, Eastern Great Egret. And more bush birds warbling in the bush, and honeyeaters feasting overhead than I was able to see, let alone photograph.

Galgabba Point

Another brief birding outing, this time on the way to work I stopped off at Galgabba Point, Swansea to see if there were any Scarlet Honeyeaters lower down in the trees than I’d been able to see them so far this autumn. I came across a group of around twenty males and females hawking for insects at eye level, within minutes and metres of parking the car.

Blackbutt Reserve

We had the first sunny day in a while so I left work early with the thought of stopping off at Blackbutt Reserve, which I temptingly pass on the commute. But of course by the time I got to Blackbutt the clouds had rolled in and the wind had picked up.

They are in the process of rebuilding the cages destroyed in the Pasha Bulker storm, and they have some new captive bird species, however I was interested in the Emerald Dove that had been spotted hanging around the cage holding its captive cousins.  It was there, but I first saw it from the walkway above, foraging on the ground, and by the time I got down to ground level I couldn’t find it again. A number of twitchers reported it over the next few days, with various explanations for its presence in downtown Newcastle.