Royal National Park & Sutherland Shire 10/6--43 Life Birds

POWERFUL OWL owlet, Buraneer Park

After our two rain-soaked days in Sydney, we were relieved that it was only drizzly when we traveled down to Sutherland Shire with Kim and Cindy for our pre-tour, pre-tour visit to Royal National Park and environs with Steve, a local birder. Royal National Park is a 40,000 acre park, so obviously we could only bird a tiny bit of it, but the two areas we covered yielded our first real birding bonanza of the trip.

We started walking along a trail bordered on one side by tall trees and on the other by a stream down a slope. The first lifer we saw was a LITTLE PIED CORMORANT on a snag in the stream.

But by far the most exciting bird to find along this strip was the SUPERB LYREBIRD, the largest of the world's songbirds and one that has a huge variety of songs. Lyrebird is Steve's specialty; he claims a 100% record in finding them for clients at Royal National Park. While it was hard to photograph the skulking bird and while it was "just" a juvenile male so it tail lacked the magnificence of adults, it was still a thrill to find this bird, an early one in the songbird lineage.

SUPERB LYREBIRD tail

Returning to the car park we walked along the stream and bit and picked up a number of waterbirds for our life lists. PACIFIC BLACK DUCK, AUSTRALASIAN GREBE, and my personal favorite, AUSTRALASIAN SWAMPHEN, giving me swamphens on 3 continents. 

PACIFIC BLACK DUCK

AUSTRALASIAN GREBE

AUSTRALASIAN SWAMPHEN

Providential Point panorama

Our next stop in the park was quite a bit of a drive to the ocean called Providential Point where we saw hundreds, if  not thousands, of AUSTRALASIAN GANNETS (which, at that distance, look inseparable from our Northern Gannet) as well as terns and our first KELP GULL. 

Away from the ocean we found SUPERB FAIRYWREN, irresistible to photograph, LEWIN'S HONEYEATER, and Shari's and my first LAUGHING KOOKABURRA. I found out from the rest of the crew that there is a famous children's song about the Laughing Kookaburra which somehow Bragaw Avenue School in Newark missed teaching me, so I was the only one unable to sing along when nostalgia broke out. 

SUPERB FAIRYWREN

LEWIN'S HONEYEATER

LAUGHING KOOKABURRA

From there we went back into the suburbs, first to a little park in Buraneer which just happened to have a POWERFUL OWL roost (see photo above), where we saw two owlets and an adult. Coincidentally, it was just about then that Mike texted me that he had arrived in Sydney and was across the street from our hotel in the Royal Botanic Gardens, looking at, what else? a Powerful Owl. Instead of having the natural birder reaction of "you bastard" I could text back that I was looking at 3 of them.

Then we drove to a cul de sac in Jannali where, if you stood in the right spot in the street and tilted your head just the right way and peered into the tree behind a private house you could see a bird-like lump or a lump-like bird that was a TAWNY FROGMOUTH on its nest. 

Driving around the streets of Jannali, following Steve's car, we saw two pink & gray parrots on a lawn that were GALAH, but they are so common there that Steve didn't even think to stop. It would be a while longer before we'd be able to get good looks at these birds and photograph them. 

Finally, at Steve's home, where he showed us the magnificent orchids he cultivated, we picked up our last bird of the day RED WATTLEBIRD (yet another kind of honeyeater). 

For the day we had 43 life birds and now I felt like the trip had kicked into a higher gear.

ROYAL NATIONAL PARK

49 species
Maned Duck 5
PACIFIC BLACK DUCK 7
AUSTRALASIAN GREBE 4
WONGA PIGEON 2
TOPKNOT PIGEON 105
CHANNEL-BILLED CUCKOO 1
SHINING BRONZE-CUCKOO 1
Dusky Moorhen 1
Eurasian Coot 4
AUSTRALASIAN SWAMPHEN 5
Silver Gull 25
KELP GULL 1
Great Crested Tern 10
WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER 125
AUSTRALASIAN GANNET 300
LITTLE PIED CORMORANT 1
Great Cormorant (Australasian) 1
WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE 2
AZURE KINGFISHER 1
LAUGHING KOOKABURRA 1
SACRED KINGFISHER 1
LITTLE CORELLA 2
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo 55
AUSTRALIAN KING-PARROT 3
SUPERB LYREBIRD 1
GREEN CATBIRD 2
SATIN BOWERBIRD 1
WHITE-THROATED TREECREEPER 2
VARIEGATED FAIRYWREN 6
SUPERB FAIRYWREN 7
EASTERN SPINEBILL 4
LEWIN'S HONEYEATER 4
Noisy Miner 3
LITTLE WATTLEBIRD 2
BROWN THORNBILL 1
BROWN GERYGONE 2
EASTERN WHIPBIRD 1
Australian Magpie 2
Pied Currawong 2
GOLDEN WHISTLER 2
OLIVE-BACKED ORIOLE 1
WILLIE-WAGTAIL 1
GRAY FANTAIL 3
BLACK-FACED MONARCH 2
LEADEN FLYCATCHER 1
AUSTRALIAN RAVEN 4
EASTERN YELLOW ROBIN 2
Welcome Swallow 3
SILVER-EYE 9