Quick update

Hi there,

Well it's certainly been a while since I've posted. Just got back from a work trip to Melbourne, complete with 3 days of birding to kick things off. Saw a tidy 103 Birds for the trip, which takes me to 236 for the year, and 362 for life. So only 38 off making 400 for life, and I've exceeded my target of 200 for the year. Have got another trip to Melbourne (hopefully) in December, which will include 3 days at Werribee, so if that goes exceptionally well, I should be on target to make 400. To be honest I'm not too fussed if I make that, I aimed modestly for 200 for the year and whipped it!

In local, Erko birding news, there is a pair of Figbirds about at the moment, although they are only turning up in the evenings, and a female Common Koel has been calling loudly outside our back window. The males have been calling off in the distance (at least 3 of them). They may be a bit late though, as the Wattlebirds which hosted the Koel chick next door have already bred, and there's 3 of them flying around now, whereas in Koel years there has usually only been 1. So unless they breed again, there may not be any Koel baby to wake me up early on Summer mornings. Damn. :)

SO yeah - taht's it. I've got bucketloads of assignments to do over the next 6 weeks, so I don't know how often I'll get out birding.

Watch this space.

ErkoBirder

Rock Warbler

Had a trip out to Wattamolla Beach at the Royal National Park this morning, was pretty good indeed! One of the best moments was where I nearly stood on a Rock Warbler, a bird I've only seen once before. It was at the top picnic ground. Saw it first feeding in a clearing, and then it dropped over a ledge. I walked over to it with my camera at the ready and it popped up into a small bush and gave me plenty of opportunity to photograph it. It then got bored and flew off to lower ground. I picked up my scope (I'd gone there for a sea-watch, but the conditions weren't conducive to anything sea-birdy) and walked back, and then it was there again. Too good.

Year count is 169 and Life count is 345. So I'm well on target to get 200 for the year (my guestimate is that I should probably get to 230 without trying too hard), and depending on whether I go to Queensland and/or Melbourne, there's a good chance I'll get to 400 for life by the end of the year.

So long 2006

So, a new year, a new year list. In 2006 I clocked up 172 birds - not a huge tally in the scheme of things, but good enough for me. I wanted to get to 200, but I didn't quite get there. My life list is now at 318. My aim for 2007 is to get the life list up to 400, so i just need to find a lazy 82 new birds... Hopefully the first will be Regent Honeyeater - I'll be heading up to Capertee and surrounds next weekend to try and get that, and Hooded Robin, and anything else that's interesting. Have got into Uni @ Wagga, so I'll hopefully get onto Superb Parrot and a few other things. The drought could work in my favour, or against it.

Anyway - have a good year.

New photographic blogs

Just got a shiny new camera, so I'm taking lots of pictures from the spots I go birding at around Sydney. Bird photography - particularly of bush birds - is harder than I thought. There'll be some non-bird photos in there as well, mainly of other wildlife and plants. Anyway here they are. I'll add more photos and locations as time goes by.

Birds of Bicentennial Park
Birds of Eastlakes Golf Course
Birds of Erskineville
Birds of the Kurnell Peninsula
Birds of Maroubra
Birds of Penrhyn Estuary
Birds of Riverine Park Wetlands
Birds of the Royal Botanic Gardens
Birds of the Royal National Park
Birds of Sydney Park
Birds of Thirlmere Lakes
South Coast Trip, December 06
SouthWest Slopes and Riverina, Jan/Feb 07

"Complete" list of birds seen in Erskineville

I'll try to make a complete list of everything I've seen while living here. The area that I'll include as being in Erskineville for this purpose is basically Sydney Park as the southern boundary, to King Street as the western, the train line from MacDonaldtown Station to Newtown station as the northern and Mitchell Road as the eastern boundary. It's an area thats probably a couple of square km's, and has a variety of habitat.

Sydney Park has some scrubby bush, some stands of Eucalypt, lots of wide parkland, and most importantly, some wetland areas for birds to breed and feed. As a result, there's quite a variety of birdlife that you can find there.

Erskineville itself is also a reasonably leafy suburb, with several small parks in a pretty heavily built up location. Like most areas of Sydney, you will find a large amount of introduced species - Common Myna, Common Starling, Pigeon, and House Sparrows. But there is also a reasonable number of natives in the area. Anyway - here we go.

It is in taxonomic order and with names consistent with the Birds Australia Draft Working List of Birds of Australia and Australian Territories (10 September 2003). I will be adding to this over time. This is far from being an exhaustive list of every bird in the area - one day maybe, but not quite now.

Australian Wood Duck - Chenonetta jubata
Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos
Pacific Black Duck - Anas supercilliosa - Pic 1 Pic 2
Grey Teal - Anas gracilis - Pic 1
Chestnut Teal - Anas castanea - Pic 1
Hardhead - Aythya australis - Pic 1
Australasian Grebe - Tachybaptus novaehollandiae - Pic 1
Hoary-headed Grebe - Poliocephalus poliocephalus
Little Pied Cormorant - Phalacrocorax melanoleucos
Little Black Cormorant - Phalacrocorax sulcirostris - Pic 1
Australian Pelican - Pelecanus conspicillatus - Pic 1
White-faced Heron - Ardea novaehollandiae - Pic 1
Australian White Ibis - Threskiornis aethiopica
Brown Falcon - Falxo berigora
Purple Swamphen - Porphyrio porhyrio - Pic 1
Dusky Moorhen - Gallinula tenebrosa - Pic 1
Eurasian Coot - Fulica atra - Pic 1
Red Knot - Calidris canutus
Black-winged Stilt - Himantopus himantopus
Double-banded Plover - Charadrius bicinctus
Black-fronted Dotterel - Elseyomis melanops - Pic 1
Masked Lapwing - Vanellus miles
Silver Gull - Larus novaehollandiae
Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon) - Columba livia
Spotted Turtle-Dove - Streptopelia chinensis
Crested Pigeon - Ocyphaps lophotes
Galah - Cacatua roseicapilla
Little Corella - Cacatua pastinator
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - Cacatua galerita
Rainbow Lorikeet - Trichoglosses haematodus
Crimson Rosella - Platycercus elegans
Red-rumped Parrot - Psephotus haematonotus
Common Koel - Eudynamix scolopacea - Pic 1
Laughing Kookaburra - Dacelo novaeguineae
Superb Fairy-wren - Malurus cyaneus
Brown Thornbill - Acanthiza pusilla
Red Wattlebird - Anthochaera carunculata
Noisy Miner - Monorina melanocephala
White-plumed Honeyeater - Lichenostomus penicillatus
New Holland Honeyeater - Phylidonyris novaehollandiae
Magpie-lark - Grallina cyanoleuca - Pic 1
Willy Wagtail - Rhipidura leucophrys - Pic 1
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike - Coracina novaehollandiae
Figbird - Sphecotheres viridis
Pied Butcherbird - Cracticus nigrogularis
Australian Magpie - Gymnorhina tibicen
Pied Currawong - Strepera graculina
Australian Raven - Corvus coronoides
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus
Welcome Swallow - Hirundo neoxena - Pic 1
Fairy Martin - Hirundo ariel
Tawny Grassbird - Megalurus timoriensis
Red-whiskered Bulbul - Pyconotus jocosus
Silvereye - Zosterops lateralis
Common Starling - Sturnus vulgaris
Common Myna - Acridotheres tristis