Visiting New South Wales
The first half of our Eastern Australia started around the metropolis of Sydney, surely one of the world’s most iconic cities. Here we started with a day of birding around the stunning and large Royal National Park which lies just a little to the south of the city. Here we were introduced to a wealth of new bird families and species, from gaudy pigeons like this Topknot Pigeon to dazzling Superb Fairywrens, and even a striking family of Powerful Owls. Some non-birds made worthy mention too, such as this beast of a Long-finned Eel that was cruising the shoreline and looking for handouts, or this pretty Eastern Water Skink that we found sunning itself in a city park. We also took a one-day pelagic out of Sydney, where we marveled at the dynamic flight of tubenoses like this Buller’s Albatross and this Flesh-footed Shearwater.
We then moved northwards, visiting the famous O’Reilly’s Lodge where the birds are almost tame, and forest birds often come to investigate your shoelaces. Normally shy Eastern Whipbirds and gorgeous Regent Bowerbirds are common visitors around the lodge, where they look over (or from) your shoulder for any dropped tidbits. We especially enjoyed our time with a very approachable Satin Bowerbird here, who this year had his bower built almost directly on the main trail!
A bit further north we took a day trip out to the idyllic Lady Elliot Island, which sits on the southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Here we marveled at the thousands of nesting Black Noddies and Bridled Terns which cover the island. We enjoyed particularly fine views of Lesser Frigatebirds and Black-naped Tern this year as we walked around the island. The reef itself caught our attention too, with a host of colourful fish like this Black-vent Damselfish, and many Giant Clams. Around Maryborough and Hervey Bay, we took in some wetlands, finding our first Wandering Whistling-Ducks, a sunning Macquarie Turtle and some curious Blue-faced Honeyeaters that were checking out their makeup in the windscreen reflections.
