Trip Report – A Wet Day in Hunter Wetlands
On November 24th, Lyall Weber and I accompanied Chris Herbert and Liz Crawford of Hunter Bird Observers Club on their weekly survey of migratory birds in the North Arm of the Hunter River Estuary, followed by visits to the Hunter Wetlands Centre at Shortland, Ash Island, Leneghans Swamp, and Pambalong Nature Reserve. The sky was overcast, with intermittent wind and rain throughout the day. Highlights included, but were not limited to, great knot, a breeding black-tailed godwit, and a glimpsed painted snipe.
We started on the western side of the North Arm with a visit to the Kooragang Dykes by boat, in heavy rain, a little after high tide. We crossed the Dykes and travelled on the ponds, where we saw more than 200 roosting Pacific golden plover, 50 common greenshank, 14 pied oystercatcher, 9 sooty oystercatcher, 40 common tern, 20 little tern, 6 crested tern, a royal spoonbill, great cormorant and pied cormorant. Mangrove gerygone was heard.
After 45 minutes, we returned to shore as a pair of yellow-tailed black-cockatoo flew overhead. We drove across the Stockton Bridge to The Wreck on the eastern side of the channel, hoping for more golden plover, but there were none. Fourteen common tern were perched on a green channel marker nearby.
We then visited a section of shoreline situated about 300 m north of the Stockton Bridge, where there was a single grey-tailed tattler among rocks at the water’s edge. As we watched, a flock of more than 20 tattler flew in to join it. A lone mangrove nearby yielded 7 whimbrel and 8 grey-tailed tattler.
We then spent more than an hour at Stockton Sandspit, initially using a scope from near the car park, where we saw more than 500 red-necked avocet in a salt marsh pond. Behind them was flock of some 700 bar-tailed godwit, with a group of about 50 black-tailed godwit in its midst. Surprisingly, one black-tailed godwit was in full breeding plumage. About 80 eastern curlew were roosting individually nearby in the grass. Terns seen from here included gull-billed, common, little, Caspian, and crested. As the tide fell, the birds and their observers moved onto the beach in front of the Sandspit where we saw about 20 red knot, 2 great knot and 14 red-necked stint foraging on the mudflats along with juvenile bar-tailed godwits.
We had lunch at the Hunter Wetlands Centre at Shortland and briefly checked the birds from the balcony, where magpie-goose and wandering whistling-duck could be seen. We then drove to Ash Island (my first visit since it reopened) where highlights of the flooded grass paddocks were: great, intermediate (in breeding plumage), and little egret at the one place, together with magpie goose, chestnut teal, Pacific black duck and white-necked heron. We were hoping to see painted snipe, but dipped. A drive in the rain along Wagtail Way yielded Latham’s snipe, white-fronted chat, black-winged stilt, swamp harrier, and a lone sharp-tailed sandpiper. Black-fronted dotterel was present on the road out.
We headed further west to Minmi. A stop on the hill overlooking Hexham Swamp yielded whistling kite, and numerous white-necked herons while a stop at Leneghans Swamp yielded distant views of a grey goshawk. We flushed a painted snipe from roadside reeds at Pambalong Nature Reserve. Also seen were white-bellied sea-eagle and white-breasted woodswallow. .
Thanks to hosts Chris and Liz, for their information, guidance, and especially for picking the pair of great knot.
Carl Weber
PS The Hunter Bird Observers Club has a great website, from which several Birding Location Guides can be downloaded.
http://www.hboc.org.au www.hboc.org.au
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