Champions of the Flyway!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Centennial Park, Sydney (pt. 2)



In no particular order, newbies included both Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants (alongside Great and Pied), pale-eyed, high-pitched Australian Ravens, like-nothing-else Magpie-larks and Willy Wagtails, rusty-headed Fairy Martins,


Grey Butcherbird (digesting a just-consumed lizard)


Black Swan and White Ibis - wild, native, elegant - and occupying the stinky Feral Pigeon niche with some skill throughout the park

snake-necked Australian Darters, both Superb and Variegated Fairy-wrens, bizarrely-antennaed Crested Pigeons (aptly re-named Unicorn Doves by Amity), Purple Swamp-hens, Aythya representing Hardheads,


Crested Pigeon


Hardhead


Pacific Black Duck

legitimately native (but still bread-scoffing) Black Swans, Dabchick-with-a-meaner-look Australasian Grebes, and arguably the pick of a high quality bunch, the truly other-worldly Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos.


Eurasian Coot (how we've missed 'em)

So the torrent of new and exotic species continued, and urban birding in Sydney proved as productive as promised; more time within the city limits later in the week produced more quality, but not before unforgettable excursions a little further afield.




(more photos from the park to follow)