Hi all it turned out be a pretty wild weekend weatherwise in Sydney’s north, but between the thunderstorms and jobs around the house, I managed to see quite a few birds. Saturday saw several trips out into the garden to check out activity as the Noisy Miners went off and netted a Pacific Baza (twice), the local Brown Goshawk, a Wedge-tailed Eagle (bit late on that one but the going away profile was distinctive enough) and a Collared Sparrowhawk that was chasing something just as the late storm hit. Plenty of lorikeet activity with Musk Lorikeets quite frequently overhead. Had Eastern Rosellas and King Parrots in the garden and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were busy dismantling the cones on the pine tree in my neighbour’s garden. (The tree is referred to as the “boiled egg tree” due to the way the cockies take the top off the cones.) On Sunday morning, I walked the Lovers Jump Creek Track in North Turramurra, which is only about 10 minutes walk from my house. If I have a local patch, this is it, and I’m going to try and walk it several times as the year progresses (this was my 2nd go for 2014). 37 species was 7 fewer than my Australia Day walk, but some changes too – although I was expecting to see all the summer migrants gone, I was surprised by a Leaden Flycatcher, which was one of the first birds I saw. A good feeding flock had Scarlet Honeyeaters, Eastern Spinebills, Lewins Honeyeaters, Brown Thornbill families (the big juveniles look odd until you see a full adult stuffing lerps into its beak), Spotted Pardalotes, Golden Whistlers, Grey Fantails and a Grey Shrike-thrush joined in that group too. Back at home, a pair of Grey Goshawks passed over at about 10am, and a single bird came back at about 10:30. 45 minutes later the local Brown Goshawk went over. While I was watching that I saw a flock of 30 or so swallows/martins passing over very high up, heading north. They looked “squared off” at the tail, so I think they were Martins, but they were too small even with the bins to call them as to species. This afternoon ahead of the storm front that came through at 12:45, I saw a flock of 70+ White-throated Needletails. They were quite tightly bunched and moving with the weather and went through pretty quickly about 20/25 minutes before the rain arrived. There may have been one forktail in with them but I wasn’t sure as I only 1/2 saw it as it flashed across my binocular view. That’s the biggest flock I have seen this year and getting late for them too. Just as the rain hit a Spotted Pardalote was calling from a tree at the back of the house. Late in the afternoon the Sparrowhawk and the local Peregrine put in an appearance (making it 6 raptors for the weekend) and with my walk total added in, about 50 species overall. Who says one needs to go a long way from home to see good birds? Cheers Tom Wilson _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org