Merry Christmas everyone

The beauty of the twitch is that you just don't know what, where, or when until it suddenly happens. The call then has to be made regarding whether a day off work and a bit of a drive is worth it. It usually is!

The ocean beach at Old Bar

Last week the twitchers around the country were thrown into a frenzy as a completely new species for Australia was reported on the mid north coast of NSW. Not only that but a flock of 15 had lost their way and significantly overshot their migration from the Aleutian Islands to south east Asia. The birds were just over 300km north of Sydney which is well within striking range and so on Monday I joined the migration of twitchers from all over the country heading for the small seaside hamlet of Old Bar.

Aleutian Tern

After a pleasant stroll along the beach we reached the sand flats at the mouth of the Manning River where the Aleutian Terns #488 were hanging out. Non-breeding terns and waders are a nightmare for me to identify and with a strong breeze blowing all of the birds were hunkered down against the sand and my scope was jumping all over the place. A few good candidates were sitting about among the native species but the diagnostic dark trailing edge to the inner wing was nowhere to be seen. But then, after a bit of a wait, a group of terns flew towards us struggling against the wind with the characteristic underwing pattern clear to see. They alighted right in front of us. No fewer than 10 birds! Tick and thanks for coming!

On the way back through the shallow water I managed to stub my foot on either a rock or an oyster but whatever it was it made a bit of a mess. Luckily Emily was on hand to improvise a field dressing from a pair of socks which did the job until we found a pharmacy. Nice.

   

New pigeon!

Well it's officially summer now so I guess I'll just have to put up with the summer temperatures which are becoming increasingly unpleasant once more. We're also getting our fair share of rain as well which means it's hot and sticky which is rubbish but, on the flip side, the tomatoes and cucumbers in the back yard are loving it. I'm just hoping the possums don't find them before we get the chance to enjoy some as well.

As I mentioned in my last post, a rare fruit-dove that is normally restricted to the rainforests up north was spotted in the Royal National Park. They do turn up as vagrants down here but very rarely and so I got myself down there sharpish to check things out. The bird was reported to frequent the same fruiting fig tree about 150m south of a particular picnic area and so hopefully it would be a simple case of locating said fig tree and ticking the bird.

There was indeed only one fruiting fig just south of the picnic area but it was a little way off the path up a steep slope and looking into the thick foliage in the overcast conditions proved tough. My eyes are just not what they used to be and so I was pleased when another twitcher arrived on the scene. After about 10 minutes scanning the tree he was onto the bird and the Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove #487 was onto my list. Getting a picture was unfortunately impossible at that distance in the dim light which is a shame because this was one of the prettiest birds that I've seen. It's spectacular colours were more like a parrot than a pigeon making it a most satisfying tick.