Sandy Creek Walk with the U3A Bird Observation Group

The U3A walk this morning started and finished at the Swing Bridge. Although there were fewer burds than hoped for, there were a couple of nice surprises as well.

I have been hearing Fan-tailed Cuckoos calling for over a week now but apart from a couple of brief high canopy sightings there have been no photo opportunities. This morning one flew across the track near the point and we managed to get a couple of quick photos of it. It will be interesting to do some behavioural observations on this bird and their hosts over the next few weeks.

The Yellow-faced honeyeaters were heard feeding and chasing one another in the canopy. They are always hard to photograph because they seldom come down to eye-level. This photograph was of a bird fairly high in the canopy.

Of course there were Bell Miners everywhere as usual. They were fairly high this morning. I usually see them lower down and even in the bracken when the foliage is wet with dew.

The Figbirds are still around but there are no where near the numbers of them around that there were a couple of weeks ago. This one is a female with its striped breast and gray eye ring.

The Brush Turkey should not have been a complete surprise. I have been hearing reports of one on the campus all year but to date it has avoided me. It was with a group of Swamphens and I only noticed it when it turned side on. There are several reports of them in the Cooranbong area, especially where there is a bit of damp bush and lots of leaf litter. I don't know whether they breed on the campus. This one is a young one I think, It was found in the area to the north of the sports ground. the bush surrounding the swamp ant the beginning of the shortcut track is worth investigating.

In the afternoon I had to go to Berkeley Vale and spent some time at Chittaway Bay looking for bird life along he water's edge. This appears to be juvinile Royal Spoonbill. It has a very smooth bill and the yellow eyebrows of the adult bird are absent. The bird is stained from fishing in the buddy edge of the lake.