Tony, the BSC are resident at the Manning Estuary. I do a wader survey there every month and I see them 4-6 times/year. The most likely place to see them is at Mudbishops Point (aka Farquhar Inlet) about 1.5km from Old Bar. Go through Old Bar, turn left immediately after the airport, go 1.0 km, park (there’s a parking area), then walk alongside the lagoon heading towards the inlet of the Manning River. Sometimes the BSC are roosting in the dunes along there (which is fenced off to help protect a Little Tern colony) or they can be seen on one of the islands within the lagoon. However, in the breeding season (i.e. now) they are very hard to find – their preferred nesting site is not accessible by foot (requires a boat).
For some background information about the birds at Mudbishops Point, take a look at a paper I wrote for The Whistler. It is available on-line at http://www.hboc.org.au/index.cfm?menukey=11 (this link is to a sub-section of the HBOC website – I suggest you also check out the birding routes material available there).
One of the Radjah Shelducks at Myall Lakes died last year. The other bird moves around quite a bit – it has been seen at various of the camping/picnic areas within the NP, and also on/near the river at Bulahdelah. Can be hard to find, and I have not heard any reports of it for a few months now.
Jacana are sometimes recorded at Cattai Wetlands, near Taree. It is not officially open to the public but the Taree Council workers don’t seem to mind visits by well behaved birdwatchers. Entry is via Springhill Rd, which is about 1.5km north of the Harrington turn-off from the Pacific Highway. Once you are in Springhill Rd, follow it until you come to a locked gate (2-3 km along). There’s also a jacana site near Mulbring, but that’s quite a lot further south.
Alan Stuart
