I got up early and drove to the next bay along the coast where
Lake Conjola sits in a large open basin, it was dull and overcast when I set
out but the sun began to break through when I arrived. The clocks went forward
an hour last night so daylight appeared a little later.
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| Crested Tern |
Many birds were sitting out on the sand bars at the mouth of
the lake, unfortunately dog walkers were up and out in force, several dogs were
running wild chasing the roosting birds all over the place. Several Bar-tailed
Godwits fed near a couple of huge Eastern Curlews, the two on show must have
been females as their size and bill length was massive. A Whimbrel fed nearby
and as I walked along the shore towards the open sea I saw lots of little peeps
running on the sand. These Red-capped Plovers looked very similar to Kentish
Plover but the red cap extends down onto the nape and the black neck patch is smaller. Two Hooded Plovers sat
sleeping in the middle of the Red-caps.
x |
| the Kentish Plover look-alike, Red-capped Plover |
A group of roosting Silver Gulls were joined by a dozen
Crested Terns and 5 Caspian Terns all of which flew off chased by dogs. A
couple of Little Terns dropped in and a single Pied Oystercatcher flew towards
me and landed behind me on a sand dune.
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| Hooded Plover - a little beauty |
Other birds around lake included Little Pied and Great
Cormorants, White-faced Herons, Little Egret and Australasian Pelicans.
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| Pied Oystercatcher on the nest |
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| two eggs of the Pied Oystercatcher |
On my way back to the house I added Cattle Egret to my list
and I saw another Nankeen Kestrel, ten new species were added this morning, not
a bad list and I think a second visit is called for.
2. EASTERN CURLEW
3. WHIMBREL
4. BAR-TAILED GODWIT
5. LITTLE EGRET
6. WHITE FACED HERON
7. CRESTED TERN
8. CASPIAN TERN
9. LITTLE TERN
10. HOODED PLOVER
11. MASKED LAPWING
12. RED-CAPPED PLOVER
13. SILVER GULL
14. GREAT CORMORANT
15. LITTLE PIED CORMORANT
16. CATTLE EGRET
For the afternoon Dawn and I drove up the coast some 50km to
Nowra where we had read about a nice riverside walk. It was another hot and
sunny day, we took a picnic, sun protection cream and our hats. We eventually
found the non-signposted walk after some messing about and it was superb, very
scenic and lots of birds.
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| Square-tailed Kite |
Kookaburras called out the loudest amongst all the other species,
we quickly found Superb Fairy Wren,
Crimson Rosella, Sacred Kingfisher, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Grey
Fantail, Willie Wagtail and a Black-faced Monarch was a nice find.
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| Golden Whistler |
We crossed the river on a
suspended walkway and sat on the grass in an open grass meadow to eat our
picnic. A Magpie came to us and took food from my hand, then two Satin
Bowerbirds flew into a bush close by and more Fairy Wrens flitted about. A
raptor glided through the trees and circled above us, Dawn took these pictures
which enabled us to ID the bird as yet another Square-tailed Kite.
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| Yellow Thornbull |
As we continued our walk we found
a Red-browed Finch building a domed nest of grass and we tracked down a tiny
Yellow Thornbill from its call. Back along the river we found an Eastern Yellow
Robin and a little later a Hooded Robin sang above us, then we found another
Rockwarbler which flew into the crevice of a rock carrying food or nesting
material. We made it back to the car at 2:30pm and before driving back we
stopped off in the tourist info office to use the internet.
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| Eastern Yellow Robin |
We made a short diversion to the southern side of Jervis Bay
to recce a beach for tomorrow we passed many areas where the endangered Eastern
Bristlebird is found but we never saw one, we did find a super beach at Hyams.
Lastly we saw a Grey Goshawk (grey morph) fly up and perch
in front of the car.
New birds this afternoon:
1. RUFOUS WHISTLER
2. BLACK-FACED MONARCH
3. YELLOW THORNBILL
4. SATIN BOWERBIRD
5. GREY GOSHAWK
6. HOODED ROBIN
Our Australian list total now stands at 130 species at least 120
of these are lifers!!
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