Thinking About Birds

August 2026

3 August

It was the annual winter survey of Port Stephens, with teams of HBOC members in boats (with skippers organised by NSW NPWS) covering all of the estuary. I went on foot to a couple of places around Swan Bay that can't be seen properly from a boat. I was with Pip from NPWS. It was a slog through the mud, but it was well worthwhile as we found groups of Double-banded Plovers, Red-capped Plovers and Pacific Golden Plovers, all a long way from the shoreline. Other sightings were an Osprey and a White-bellied Sea Eagle, and a very distant flock of 18 Far Eastern Curlews in flight. Afterwards I went around to the NPWS Anna Bay offices to join the others for lunch and debrief. Now, my job is to collate and interpret the results.

July 2026

21-24 July

Over these days I completed all my monthly surveys of sites in Brisbane Water National Park. Highlights included a flock of 26 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos one morning and a group of six of them the following day, two Glossy Black Cockatoos (together, both were males), pairs of Rockwarblers at two locations, and plenty of honeyeaters.

20 July

I surveyed my sites in the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland. Overall, I found 18 species which is good for that location. Unusually, the burnt area had some birds - eleven species including Variegated Fairywrens, Yellow Thornbills, Eastern Yellow Robins and an Australian Golden Whistler. Some months I only find 2-3 species there.

18 July

Four of us did the Ash Island survey. It was quite wet and the conditions were a bit miserable, also there weren't many birds because of the combination of the season plus the weather. We did find a pair of Black-fronted Dotterels, and two Caspian Terns.

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USA visit, June-July 2026

Margaret and I flew to Seattle on 15 June, to spend a month in Washington state (we were Seattle-based, with many brief excursions to elsewhere within the state). The trip was mainly for a family reunion, but I managed to squeeze in some birding opportunities from time to time. The blog below is just about the birding activities; I saw 83 species overall.

16 June

My first full day in Seattle and I walked to Gasworks Park, mainly for the exercise but I took my binoculars and camera just in case. On my way there, I found Black-capped Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos - both species turned out to be very common everywhere I went during the four-week visit. The Song Sparrows were vocal and there were several Barn Swallows around. An Osprey flew over, and later a pair of Bald Eagles (I had many more sightings of this species at anywhere coastal). There was a large flock of Canada Geese, including many goslings of varying ages. I noticed a different bird on the fringe of the flock - it was a Greater White-fronted Goose. I was quizzed about it by the eBird moderator as it is an out-of-season record (they breed in the Arctic); fortunately I had photos.

20 June

I went to Discovery Park, on the north-western side of Seattle, to join a Birds Connect Seattle guided walk that went for about 3 hours. There were about 30 people (most were complete beginners and/or out-of-towners) plus three guides (Neil, Ed, Kathy). We found about 30 species, the majority of which were new for me. My lifers included Spotted Towhee, Savannah Sparrow, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper and American Goldfinch. Other good birds included White-crowned Sparrow and Cedar Waxwing.

21 June

I joined another Birds Connect Seattle guided walk, this time at the Washington Arboretum. Again, there were about 30 tyros, plus two leaders (Kathy from yesterday, and Cynthia). It didn’t seem quite so birdy as yesterday but that was because the abundance was down a bit, and actually I saw 25 species for the 2h walk. The three new ones for me were Chipping Sparrow, Tree Swallow and Downy Woodpecker. There were also some Pileated Woodpeckers, which I’d previously seen in Costa Rica but never before in the USA. We found two Bushtit nests, probably with young in them as adults were making frequent visits.

27 June

We left Seattle early morning and drove south, to the Billy Frank Jr Nisqually Reserve, near Olympia. There I joined a guided bird walk, which was a great experience. I saw about 40 species, at least half of which were lifers for me - including Bullock’s Oriole, Brown-headed Cowbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Hooded Merganser, Western Wood-Pewee, Northern Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Tree Swallow and Cliff Swallow. Three species had nests - Rufous Hummingbird, Western Wood-Pewee, Tree Swallow - plus some of the Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers had youngsters. We had great views from time to time of some Swainson’s Thrushes, also of a Red-tailed Hawk which for a while was in a tree being dive-bombed by American Crows and then it flew over us for a while. After lunch we drove up into the mountains near Mt Rainier, staying near Packwood, where Common Ravens were the local corvid.

28 June

I went into the Mt Rainier National Park area in the morning with Robyn & Nick. On the walking trail to the Silver Falls I found several Pacific Wrens (vocal, small, and quite hard to see), but not much else. I did better on the other side of the trail, walking through Box Canyon alongside the Ohanapecosh River. I had fantastic views of an American Dipper fishing in the river, also many Vaux’s Swifts were zooming around. We went back there late afternoon, where a Swainson’s Thrush put in an appearance, plus many Vaux’s Swifts. Back at the cabin later, there were Turkey Vultures flying around, also Spotted Towhees and a Steller’s Jay. My Merlin app regularly said that there were Black-throated Grey Warblers around but I could not lay eyes upon one.

30 June

I went to Union Bay Natural Area in the morning - it’s a rehabilitated site alongside the water. It was quite good although I think it’s not fully reached maturity. I didn’t find any new birds for my trip - the Merlin app suggested there were some, e.g. Golden-crowned Kinglet, but I wasn’t able to sight any of the potential new ones. I had great views of Bushtits and Black-capped Chickadees, and of an Osprey wheeling above me. I spent quite some time trying for a photo of a Bewick’s Wren - I had great views in the binoculars but couldn’t manage a decent shot of one.

2 July

I was all day on a birdwatching tour from Fairhaven near Bellingham. The main objective was to get to Smiths Island about 30km to the south-west. Here, after quite some searching, we found some Tufted Puffins, and eventually I had good views of several of them. Pigeon Guillemots and Glaucous-winged Gulls were really common, as were Rhinoceros Auklets from about halfway out. Around Smiths Island, using the kelp forest, were hundreds of gulls including some Heerman’s Gulls. There also were plenty of Pelagic Cormorants and Double-crested Cormorants, and a couple of Black Oystercatchers. There was a Parasitic Jaeger with the gulls at Smith Island.

3-6 July

We caught the car ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island where we stayed for three nights. My main birding activities took place at Cascade Lake, Mt Constitution, Obstruction Pass Reserve, Olga, Orcas Landing and places around Eastsound (which is where we stayed). I found 34 species; the new ones for my trip included Belted Kingfisher, Purple Martin, Wilson’s Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Flycatcher and Olive-sided Flycatcher. We had Anna’s Hummingbirds, Spotted Towhees and Dark-eyed Juncos around the house regularly, and frequent flyovers by Turkey Vultures.

8-10 July

I went with Margaret to Leavenworth, which is in the mountains about a four hour bus trip south-east from Seattle. My birding expeditions were to reserves on the Wenatchee River close to the town centre. Wednesday in the late afternoon, after our arrival, was hot and I didn’t find many birds. For quite a while, some Veerys were calling close by, but I couldn’t get onto them at all. I did eventually see some (a pair) on Thursday morning - they are ground-dwelling thrushes living amidst dense vegetation and thus hard to see, but they have a distinctive call. The birding was far better in the morning when it was cooler. New birds for me included Gray Catbird (nesting), Pygmy Nuthatch, Red-eyed Vireo and Pine Siskin. I also found a nest with young of Bullock’s Oriole - the parents were coming in frequently to feed them. There were some Spotted Sandpipers by the river, and I had great views of them a couple of times.

June 2026

12-13 June

En route to Newcastle on Friday afternoon for the waterbirds survey on the Saturday morning, I had made arrangements to go out in a boat to see the Cocos Booby, hoping to be able to photograph it. Unfortunately, the arrangements fell through and in the meantime wasted a couple of hours of my afternoon! Next morning, Ross, Holly and I had an enjoyable time doing the Ash Island survey. We did manage to find a migratory shorebird - a single Far Eastern Curlew. We were struck by how thin it looked, compared to the ones we were seeing on the island a couple of months ago. Other shorebirds today were Pied Stilt, Red-capped Plover and Black-fronted Dotterel, all in lowish numbers. Amongst the few hundred each of Chestnut and Grey Teal (both were present at many locations) we found about a dozen Australasian Shovelers. There was also one Australian Tern, which was in breeding plumage, and a solitary Sacred Kingfisher too. There were not many raptors today, but a couple of White-bellied Sea Eagles helped flush out some of the waterbirds for us, plus we saw Swamp Harriers several times.

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.