Homebush Part II (15th October '06)

Purple swamphen

It was an absolute scorcher on Saturday, up around 37C but Jarrod bravely set out to Homebush and was rewarded by bagging the extremely rare (in Sydney) glossy ibis and a turquoise parrot. These are both excellent spots round here and I haven't seen either yet. You can imagine the J-Rod was quick to get on the phone to rub it in! By Sunday, the temperature had dropped to a much more pleasant 21C and the both of us headed back there in the extreme hope that these two birds might, by some miracle, still be hanging around. They weren't.

A pair of chestnut teal

We covered every inch of the parklands and wetlands, however, and turned up several nice birds. A buff-banded rail (only my second sighting), the same avocets and sandpipers as last week were still out in abundance as well as a few black-fronted dotterel. A black-shouldered kite was cruising about and brown honeyeaters, which you don't see down here every day, were making themselves known. We saw a lovely flock of fairy martins with their bright red heads, loads of reed warblers round the pond margins and a cockatiel. Yes, a cockatiel. Now Jarrod ticked this one although surely it was an escaped pet! I don't know mate! A parrot which hangs out in the arid interior in flocks should not be sitting happily by itself on a fence in Homebush. Just as well we saw loads of them in the Outback before Jarrod started his official list!

A rather slimy australasian grebe

After flushing what I was pretty sure was a snipe from some long grass earlier in the day, one last look from the wetlands hide at dusk turned up a great view of a single Latham's (Japanese) Snipe #252 ending the day on a high. Another summer migrant, these chaps have just flown in from Japan for their summer holidays and straight onto my list. Sweet!

Latham's (Japanese) Snipe