The Royal Record

With a nice early start, I was just pulling up to Max’s house at 5:30 when a small flock of Topknot Pigeons flew in front of the car. A good start to the day! After picking up Simon and Ashwin, we headed straight to Audley in the Royal National Park. Our hopes for the day were high, and the plan was to beat the Eremaea “day list record” of 62. On arrival at the northern end of Lady Carrington Drive, we quickly ticked off a number of species, but unfortunately only heard a Cicadabird, which we decided was not worth the bush-bash up the steep side of a hill to the ridgeline. By walking a few kilometres of LCD, we recorded some interesting birds such as Green Catbird (Sydney tick for Max and I), Leaden Flycatcher, heard an Australian Owlet Nightjar, Brown Cuckoo Dove, many a Superb Lyrebird, Black-faced Monarch, Satin Bowerbirds, etc, etc. Unfortunately (as we expected), we missed our target, the elusive Logrunner.

We arrived back at the car (not before spotting an Azure Kingfisher whiz past) then drove over to Wattle Flat. A white bird flew onto a branch, which Ashwin dismissed as a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. I wasn’t so sure, and quickly rectified his mistake by pointing out that it was actually a stunning Grey Goshawk perched not 4 metres away. Of course it took flight straight away, but a lovely sighting none the less. The next surprise came as few minutes later, when from across the Hacking River, we heard the unmistakeable “Guinea-a-week” call of a Pilotbird – an exceptional bird to see in Sydney! Alas, we could not get eyes on it, it did not call again, and we were not able to be sure the call didn’t come from a very skilled lyrebird (which had just recently done an impressive White-throated Nightjar impersonation).

With a total of about 55 species, we headed to Wattamolla to mop up a few more birds which we all needed to see for our 2012 year lists (unfortunately the possible Beautiful Firetail which flew across the road remained unidentified). A Red-whiskered Bulbul surprised us, as did a female Spotted Pardalote (both unexpected birds for the Wattamollan-Heathland), but we were all very happy when Simon spotted target #1, a Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. Before it had even disappeared from view, I saw an interesting bird in a small bush, which subsequently flew revealing that it was indeed a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren! We all got great views of this shy species (Ashwin even got a photo), and I was extremely happy to have finally seen one without having to use callback! Back over near the cliff, we sat down for a few minutes, and were rewarded with target #2, Rockwarbler. A Nankeen Kestrel hiding under a ledge saw us off, and we left the national park with a grand total of 74 species (a very nice new “site record”, but definitely no unbeatable, as we were only there for a few hours, and didn’t even visit the southern end of the park).

Off to Ashwin’s Pied Oystercatcher site next, Metromix Swamp. He confidently assured us that he had never missed them, and stupidly made the comment in jest that it was a “dead cert”. Due to the utterance of those two fateful words… Well… No Pied Oystercatchers for us. Luckily, we did see some nice birds – namely White-bellied Sea Eagle, Osprey, Little Tern and Great Egret.

The next stop was Quibray Bay, which provided us with nice views of three waders species which are difficult to find in Sydney: Red-capped Plover, Whimbrel and Eastern Curlew. Boat Harbour followed (after an exuberant $25 entry fee), but the tide was too low, and the birds were hiding on an inaccessible rock platform. With the aid of a scope, we picked out the usual species, but nothing exciting. Just before we left, I decided to do a quick sweep of the area. I was looking at a Great Cormorant when I noticed a large grey bird flying in. A Reef Egret! While we were still more than 30m away, it flushed... And proceeded to fly out to sea in the direction of New Zealand until we lost sight of it. An excellent bird (not quite making up for the $25), but a good end to the day, over which we recorded a little over 100 species, quite respectable considering we had only used up half the day.

I have no photos from the day, because they were all terrible ;) The sunburnt neck (with obligatory pale binocular strap line) was well worth it however, and in Ashwin’s words, “excellent company goes a long way to seeing more, and making those long treks in the sun go by so much quicker” – birding with friends is always the best way to do it!