Central Coast (20th August '06)

Another glorious weekend and another jaunt up to the central coast with Jarrod. This time to the South Wyong sewage treatment plant, the inland side of Tuggerah Lake and a quick stop at Strickland State Forest on the edge of Gosford.

Sewage plant ponds - quite nice actually

First stop at the sewage treatment plant was supposed to be a top place for ducks and grebes and indeed it was. Not the vast range that could have been present but large numbers of hardhead mainly with several australasian shoveler, chestnut and grey teal and a few pacific black ducks. Quite a few grebes about too in little mixed flocks of the australasian grebe and also Hoary-headed Grebes #248. The roll continues! And for the first time I managed to bag the day's target bird. At this time of year its not so easy for inexperienced me to pick the non-breeding grebes but mixed flocks do help a little. The hoary-headed being slightly bigger, slightly lighter and greyer with a subtle black patch on the back of the slightly longer neck. Luckily one of them also had the beginnings of the streaky breeding plumage emerging on its head. A couple of raptors flying about were probably a swamp harrier and a brown goshawk.

Black-winged stilt

Down at Tuggerah Lake we bagged the caspian tern and mallards and black swans. The royal spoonbills were out again and in the woods by the water there were variegated fairy-wrens and white-breasted woodswallows. Not much else though.

We got to the Strickland State Forest despite coming across an australian brush-turkey destroying the roadside verge and depositing the muck into the oncoming traffic. We arrived with only an hour to go before they shut the gates so we had a quick look round one of the shorter loop trails down in the rainforest section. This is truly a lovely spot and one of the nicest patches of rainforest I've been to in NSW. We only needed a couple of minutes anyway because the first bird we clapped eyes on was the thrush with the many names! The Bassian (White's; Ground) Thrush #249. A super little thing which was remarkably tame considering they're not the most common bird to skulk the forest floor. Loads of bell miners in there again making a right racket, a few scrub-wrens and that was about it. Not a day with a massive range of species but two new ones make it one of the great days!

Superb fairy-wren

Target bird: Hoary-headed Grebe (Yes!!!!)

Roadkill threat assessment: Moderate for Sunday morning joggers.
I wish I had hit the fox and rat we saw. Imported vermin you see.

Catch the Pigeon: Crested pigeon

Frogmouth!! (very early 16th August '06!)

Tawny Frogmouth (honestly!)

I should carry this camera around with me all the time! Its some lucky charm or something. Coming back from the kebab shop after the pub trivia night I've managed to bag the Tawny Frogmouth #247. Unfortunately the pitch black nature of the streets round here means a picture was impossible but, hey, I had my camera with me.... Roosting motionless by day and sneaking about at night to feed they're pretty common but they've managed to avoid me since I've been here. But only up until now. Score!

Nice Storm (15th August '06)

Good job the camera was with me today. A bit of an impressive hail-storm which turned the place a very wintery white. Not something you see very often in Sydney!

As close as it gets to a winter wonderland down here!

It didn't last long

Central Coast (13th August '06)

Norah Head

The rain finally cleared this weekend and so I headed up to the central coast past Gosford and The Entrance to Tuggerah Lake and Norah Head. Jarrod joined me to boost his rapidly expanding list and I was hopeful of ticking a regent bowerbird. We stopped at Tuggerah Lake first and bagged the usual pelicans, the complete set of cormorants, loads of swans and royal spoonbills, little and great egrets, black-winged stilts, chestnut and grey teal, a young sea-eagle and even a spangled drongo. Very nice.

Crested tern

We then headed over to the sea and the rock platform at Norah Head. This looked dead on first inspection with the early highlight being a great big sea-slug but after a while a few birds emerged. Silver gulls and crested terns mainly but then lurking in among it all was a pair of sooty oystercatchers and wait a minute, doesn't that tern have a black beak and its certainly much smaller than its crested cousins. Result! A handful of White-fronted Terns #245. A nightmare to identify from the other "commic" terns but after extensive consultation of the books we're ok.

White-fronted tern non-br youngster

Norah head sticks quite a way out into the sea and so you're able to spot a few oceanic species from shore. Various shearwaters or petrels (too far away to pick) and certainly gannets and then a couple of enormous gannets. Actually no, they're not gannets at all but Black-browed Albatross #246. Too cool for school.

Sooty oystercatcher

We stopped off in a patch of rainforest near Gosford on the way home as I've read the regent bowerbird hangs out there at this time of year but no joy. Loads of bell miners though, and loads of green catbirds, a satin bowerbird, brown cuckoo-dove and a fan-tailed cuckoo. Sweet.

White-fronted tern juv/imm. (check out that black tip to the tail and the black spot in front of the eye!)

Target bird: Regent bowerbird (negative)
Roadkill threat assessment: Minimal for once
Catch the pigeon: Brown cuckoo-dove

Back from Rome

St. Peters in the Vatican

As you must have suspected I'm now back in Australia after the Rome conference. I somehow managed to take only about four photos in Italy and so I've been waiting for copies from the other guys. Now we're back and working so hard again, we've just not got around to it!

Top conference venue!

The conference was quite pleasant despite a couple of problems. The heat and lack of air-conditioning at the venue were a struggle and Paul and myself were also put up in a brothel which contained a dead person one day and a mugger, who had to be fought off, one evening. That wasn't so great but at least our room did have air-conditioning! The people, except the muggers of course, are very pleasant, obviously the sights are pretty spectacular (you'll have to take my word for that!) and as you'd expect, the pizza was smashing! We also managed to catch the world cup semi-final between Italy and Germany on a big screen in the Circus Maximus which was awesome especially as the Italians managed to win in the dying moments of the game. It was back to Scotland for the final the day after the conference and then back down here the next day. The weather since I got back has been pretty atrocious which means I've not been out to the bush so don't panic, you've not missed out on any top bird action!

At least the Romans have a fine taste in beer (?!)