It’s a standard birder story–caught in a metropolis in your technique to one other metropolis with time to chicken however little preparation on the place to chicken. I used to be on this state of affairs two years in the past, sitting in an airport lodge in Sydney, Australia, on my method early the subsequent morning to Darwin. I used to be in Australia and wished badly to see birds NOW, regardless of the jetlag, regardless of the pouring rain. A fast perusal of eBird confirmed that there was a park, Centennial Park, a few 20 minutes drive away and that there have been birds there, so I put my digicam collectively and grabbed my bins and referred to as an Uber. The primary query was the place to inform the Uber driver to go and I had no thought. Centennial is a really massive park and the eBird experiences didn’t specify a selected place (not like Central Park in NYC, the place each few steps is a unique hotspot). I spied some ponds within the southwest of the park and directed the motive force there.
This turned out to be a good selection. There are a selection of ponds, notably the Duck Pond, the place you could find geese (Pacific Black Geese, Hardhead, Chestnut Teal, Australian Wooden Duck also referred to as Maned Duck), cormorants (Little Pied Comorant, just like the one above, Little Black, generally even Pied Cormorant), and lots of different water birds (Black Swan, Australian Pelican, Australasian Grebe, Australasian Swamphen, Australasian Darter, Dusky Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, and, if you happen to’re luck, a rail). The rain had let up a bit, and I used to be capable of take some pictures, although if you happen to look intently you may see some drops, like with the Silver Gull under. I hoped that the pictures would assist me determine the birds as a result of, being me, I had not finished as a lot finding out as I ought to have and what I had finished didn’t stick.
It was quick getting darkish and the rain was gearing up once more to pouring standing and I had no thought how I might get again to my lodge (for some purpose, Uber was telling me the park was outdoors its jurisdiction), however I couldn’t go away the park as a result of the white noisy birds have been descending quick–Sulpher-crested Cockatoos and Corellas, Lengthy-billed and Little–and I needed to see them. My pictures received grainer and murkier, however I used to be in heaven. (And, with the assistance of my lodge, I did finally go away safely.)
Two years later, simply final month, I traveled to Sydney for an extended go to. I used to be capable of get pleasure from Centennial Park within the solar and uncover extra of its avian pleasures. I found with the assistance of Andrew Patrick, a neighborhood chicken information, Lachlan Swamp, simply north of the Duck Pond. How did I miss this on my first go to? Lachlan Swamp is understood for 2 issues: Flying Foxes and Tawny Frogmouths.
The flying fox colony was surprisingly energetic after I visited early one morning. It’s made up of each Grey-Headed Flying Foxes (nearly all of residents, numbering 5,000 to 45,000 in keeping with the Centennial Parklands web site) and Black Flying Foxes, a extra tropical species (lower than 1,000). The colony has been there since 2010, in keeping with the web site, and is signed and guarded by park employees. It’s common to see flying fox colonies in Australian parks, however to my North American eyes, this was magic. Leaving the park after nightfall on one other day (my AirBnb was shut by, so no Uber worries), I noticed the sky stuffed with their massive silhouettes as they flew out from the swamp.
The second treasure in Lachlan Swamp was a nesting Tawny Frogmouth. That’s the nest, with a mother or father and pretty grown chick, on the duvet picture. I went to see the Frogmouths a number of instances throughout my go to, and every time they have been in a unique place, seen from the roped off entry technique to the wooded part of the swamp, however seemingly not bothered by their admirers (which included a college group one afternoon). One early night, the nest seemed empty, however from the surface path I noticed a candy Frogmouth nestled within the criminal of a department, most likely ready for full darkness so it may hunt.
However wait! There’s extra. An area birder warned me towards viewing the Tawny Frogmouth nest, telling me there was a Grey Butcherbird nesting close by that was attacking him. I discovered the nest simply by watching the Butcherbird fly to it, however the chicken didn’t appear bothered in any respect by my presence. Actually, he properly posed for me later. Regardless of their highly effective payments, topped off with a hook like our Shrikes, Grey Butcherbirds have apparently adopted to city and suburban areas .Once I bumped into this native birder once more and instructed him the chicken was fairly pleasant, he concluded that the assault was private.
Being the center of October, spring, there have been many nesting birds within the park. Here’s a Magpie-lark on a stunning bowl nest in a tree overlooking one of many smaller ponds. Not a Magpie and never a Lark, Magpie-Larks are thought of a part of the monarch flycatcher household, however they’ve an insouciance all their very own. I generally noticed them in different parks attempting to find meals scraps on the meals bars, reminding me of the warblers in New York Metropolis’s Bryant Park. This nesting pair periodically switched off incubation responsibility and although they’re identified, like their namesakes, for attacking individuals close to their nest, they beautiful a lot ignored me.