I only update the gallery photos occasionally. Sorry about that, too busy. See my Sri Lanka gallery though and also the latest additions to my UK and Denmark galleries.
June 2026
10 June
I walked from Woy Woy to Blackwall alongside Brisbane Water. My highlights included five Caspian Terns and a pair of Pied Oystercatchers. I saw no egrets - a complete contrast to the previous time that I did the walk.
9 June
I surveyed my sites in the Warrah Trig section of Brisbane Water National Park. There were Rainbow Lorikeets everywhere - probably I saw 150-200 birds in total. There also were abundant honeyeaters, including a pair of Brown Honeyeaters - I don't find those often in that national park. At my first 2ha site I saw a group of Variegated Fairywrens, which were moving quietly through the undergrowth.
5 June
I visited two more of my sites in Brisbane Water National Park and then went to the arboretum at Pearl Beach. The national park was full of honeyeaters especially Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and Scarlet Myzomelas. A Brown Goshawk zipped through, silently - I was rather lucky to get a brief view of it.
3 June
I went to the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland to do my monthly surveys there. There were Mistletoebirds, Grey Fantails and Australian Golden Whistlers, but no birds at all were using the burnt section. My highlight was to see three Australian Brushturkeys together at a mound. One was an adult male, the other two were either females or young birds. After a short while, the male chased away the two others, who then branch-hopped up nearby trees.
2 June
I surveyed three of my sites in Brisbane Water National Park - the Pearl Caves area and then around Coora Swamp. My highlight was a pair of Rockwarblers, which were foraging together under the rock overhang at Pearl Caves. There were Scarlet Myzomelas at all three sites, and plenty of White-cheeked Honeyeaters and New Holland Honeyeaters in the area around Coora Swamp.
May 2026
26 May
I decided to go up to Lake Macquarie, as there was a report of an unusual booby hanging around Marks Point. After about an hour I bumped into some other birders, and a little bit later on we found it. Celebrations all round! It has since been confirmed (NB not by BARC as yet) to be a Cocos Booby, the first known record of one for Australia. As well as the usual cormorants, pelicans, gulls etc, there was a Pied Oystercatcher in the area.
25 May
There was no specific birdwatching activity today, but during my daily walk, this time around Booker Bay, I saw an out-of-season Sacred Kingfisher and a pair of Musk Lorikeets. Nice sightings!
21 May
I did my regular walk alongside Brisbane Water, going from Woy Woy to Blackwall. I only saw two pairs of Pied Oystercatchers (which is a low count for that locality) but there was a Little Heron and a couple of Caspian Terns, also two Long-billed Corellas were feeding on the ground and three Musk Lorikeets whizzed through. Right at the start there was a large group of egrets, all of them hunting in shallow water fringing on Pelican Island. There were ten Great Egrets and eight Little Egrets (plus there were a few Little Pied Cormorants). I didn't see anything being caught but I assume there was a run of fish happening.
20 May
I surveyed two more sites in Brisbane Water National Park, and then visited the arboretum at Pearl Beach. There were good numbers of honeyeaters around but nothing out of the ordinary. A Superb Lyrebird was calling at the arboretum but I wasn't able to lay eyes upon it. There had been some discussion recently on the Hunterbirding chat group about the Merlin bird identification app so I used it today. It worked well in Costa Rica two and a half years ago but back then when I tried Merlin in Australia (using it locally) it wasn't very good. It performed far better this time, certainly earning a pass mark (but definitely not a distinction). It was a complete failure with Little Wattlebirds. At one point I was standing right by a calling bird but the app didn't recognise it. I had several similar situations (and a couple of time it was incorrectly ID'd as a Red Wattlebird).
16 May
Ross and I did the monthly Ash Island survey. It was an early morning start and very foggy, which complicated our work. We found no migratory shorebirds, but there were 90+ Pied Stilts present and we saw three Red-capped Plovers. Teal were present in good numbers, with 600+ Chestnut Teal and almost 200 Grey Teal. On Swan Pond there was a pair of Australasian Shovelers too. In April we had eight raptor species, but only one this time - singles of Whistling Kite, two sightings.
15 May
I visited the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland for my monthly survey. There were two Australian Brushturkeys - one looked to be an immature bird (maybe a young female). There were some Scarlet Myzomelas around plus a young Australian Golden Whistler and some Grey Fantails.
13 May
I surveyed the Warrah Trig section of Brisbane Water National Park. There were quite a few honeyeaters although probably fewer than I was expecting. However, there were plenty of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters on migration passage, also lesser numbers of Silvereyes and Noisy Friarbirds. The highlight came leat in the morning - there was a Rockwarbler near the Warrah Lookout (although I only heard it). I went around to Patonga afterwards,but that was very quiet.
6 May
It was the HBOC 50th Anniversary Gala Night, held at the Newcastle Town Hall. And what a wonderful night it was - with lots of fun, lots of reminiscing, plenty of good food and drink, and the chance to catch up with so many old friends. Margaret and I had a great time, and so did everyone else judging by all the comments made on Hunterbirding over the ensuing days.
5 May
I surveyed three sites in Brisbane Water National Park in the morning - the Pearl Caves area and then around Coora Swamp. Noisy Friarbirds were by far the dominant species especially in the Coora Swamp area. Overall, I found very few birds that weren't some sort of honeyeater.
1 May
I did the walk from Woy Woy to Blackwall, alongside Brisbane Water. There were nine Caspian Terns on the jetty where last month there were five of them. I also found 13 Pied Oystercatchers, including there were five birds together on a jetty (plus there were four scattered pairs elsewhere). My highlight was a pair of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets - it's only the second time I have found them on the Central Coast. The Mallard count was down to 73 birds, and there were only four Black Swans around.