Late last year, when I went there, there were no Magpie Geese, does anyone know when they came back?
-Nathan
On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 11:38 AM, Tom and Mandy Wilson < tomandmandy@aapt.net.au> wrote:
> Hi all > I had some work to do in Maitland yesterday morning, and rather than spend > my afternoon on the F3, I decided to take a bit of time out to visit a few > sites in Newcastle. I did not include Ash Island on my plan, as I think > that it is still closed to the general public? > > First stop, as I was in Maitland, was Walka Water Works, which I’d never > visited before. Fairly quiet there – a big flock of Yellow Rumped > Thornbills greeted me at the entrance and there were many Red Rumped Parrots > and Eastern Rosellas about. On the water, the Great Crested Grebes had had > a reasonable breeding season, as many of the birds on the water (about 20 > all up) still bore remains of the stripy heads of their juvenile plumage, > notably about the head. There was a single Hardhead on the water too – the > first one I have seen in eastern NSW this year. > > Next stop, as it was high tide, was Stockton Sandspit. The spit area > itself held lots of Eastern Curlew and Bar Tailed Godwits – several > colouring up. There were 12 Caspian terns there too, 2 Pied Oystercatchers > and several Red Capped Plovers in the samphire. There were also some Red > Necked Stints on the water line, which periodically flew up, circled round > and came back to the sand. I could see big mobs of birds over on the dykes > on the far side of the river, and fortuitously a Sea Eagle came along a > flushed a load off, many of which came streaming across to the sandspit. > Included in this movement were 2 Black Tailed Godwits and a Whimbrel. > There were still plenty of birds on the far side – would love to know if > anybody has used a boat to check them out recently. Certainly looked like > there were Greenshanks (very white and slender when the flew post-eagle) and > some shorter looking brown birds next to the Curlews and Godwits – Knot? > Anything smaller than that was not distinguishable at that distance. > > Finally, I called in at the Shortlands Wetland Centre in Sandgate and > wandered around. The egret rookery is in full swing and off limits, but > there were plenty of all 4 egrets to be seen around the place, as well as > lots of Royal Spoonbills and a single Yellow Billed Spoonbill. The > Moorhens, Coots and Swamphens have also had a good season, with many chicks > in varying stages of growth and plumage – often causing temporary burst of > excitement as small grey birds emerged from reed beds, only to be identified > as baby gallinules, not crakes! I did see a single Buff banded Rail in the > muddy pond next to the Ribbon Pond. Near the egret tower there was a single > Striped Honeyeater and a single Spangled Drongo between the Brambles Pond > and the canoe trail.There were also 6 White Breasted Woodswallow flying over > the area and a family(?) of 6 Whistling Kites too. I encountered a female > Sparrowhawk at the kill (looked like an Indian Myna – good girl), a Tawny > Grassbird in one of the reed beds and several families of Olive-backed > Orioles and Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrikes feeding big youngsters. The feral(?) > Magpie Geese here seem to have multiplied since my last visit in 2009 and > had several brown coloured youngsters with them. There was a Swamp Harrier > and a couple of Sea-Eagles seen over head and as I left a Peregrine put in > an appearance. > > The big excitement here was nearly getting locked in – after timing my > return for just after 4:30, I was told “you’re lucky – we close at 4” – I > pointed out that the sign just by the entrance door to the visitor centre > reads “Weekdays 10am-5pm” so I would not have been impressed if I had been > forced to scale the gates. After that near incarceration, it was off home > to Sydney > Cheers > Tom Wilson > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== > ===============================
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