Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Birds

Rainbow lorikeet in bottlebrush Woy Woy

Rainbow lorikeet in bottlebrush. Somewhere in Woy Woy.

Out on the balcony this morning listening to the bird sounds all around me. There was a couple of lorrikeets fighting over a juicy flower in a nearby tree, two magpies and a mynah hypnotised by the movement of my spoon from bowl to mouth, a family of kookaburras several trees away having a morning chuckle, a flock of seagulls wheeling over the ridge towards the water and a lone pelican floating against the clouds. At sunset the cockies and galahs will fly over low screeching and calling to one another.

Never really noticed before how many there are around my place. Perhaps it's the rain making them breed extra this year.


Cocky

Sulphur-crested cockatoo. Noisy buggers. They fly low overhead at sunset and screech loud enough to wake the dead.

Note the black cockatoos in flight on either side. Painted on a bus-shelter at Taylor Street Woy Woy Bay.

Added to the ones I can see from my balcony there's all the other birds I've seen on my walkies:

Australian ravens and the seldom-seen black cockatoo
Flocks of pelicans spiralling high into the sky in the summer heat and in the teeth of a storm, or camped on the roof of the fish-and-chip shop waiting for the midday fishheads.
Ducks and geese
Shags
Pink-and-grey galahs
Cormorants and plump white wading birds with yellow beaks
Brush turkeys pacing irritably along side streets up on the ridges or scratching the shit out of people's gardens

One I haven't see and would love to is the Bush stone curlew over who's habitat on Veron Road the fight is still ongoing

Correa Bay Reserve Woy Woy Bay Road Woy Woy South

Geese or muscovy ducks. Correa Bay Reserve Woy Woy South.


Ducks

Mallard ducks in Davistown.


Henderson Road Saratoga

Shag on a rock. Henderson Road Saratoga.


Correa Bay Reserve Woy Woy Bay Road Woy Woy South

The ubiquitous seagulls and pelicans. Correa Bay Reserve Woy Woy South.


Kookaburra at Gosford

Kookaburra at Red Cross in Gosford, up on the hill on the edge of Rumbalara Reserve.


Brush turkey up on the ridge in Tascott

Brush turkey hurrying away from the camera like a film star, up on the ridge in Tascott.


Brush turkey painting

Painting of a brush turkey from a bus-shelter in Taylor Street Woy Woy.


Some of the birds on Lion Island would be coming across to the mainland all the time but there's a few there I'd never see.


Aaardvaark's Australian bird photos - very patient man with a lens


Highway to Hell

Great account of a rock-climb gone haywire here. Has pictures and a map link showing their trip from Patonga to Woy Woy via the shore opposite Dangar Island (don't ask). Map link's at the top of the thumbnails.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw those black cockatoos around here for the first some months ago
We had geese when i was a kid -hate the bloody things they always used to attack me for some reason

Spike said...

Red tails?

Geese are bloody scary.

Anonymous said...

Will head for the bus shelter tomorrow morning, I have never seen it - it looks fantastic - thanks for the info.
Diana

Anonymous said...

we had the grey geese not the white ones - I was living in Ettalong at the time (this was in the 70s and 80s)and nobody complained about them back then but I dont think you would be allowed to have them around here these days

I am not sure of those cockatoos had red tails all I know was that they were black

Spike said...

Diana, yer welcome. The bus-shelter at Phegans is also painted. Go down Phegans Bay Road to the water and it's at the corner of Alkira Parade/Monastir Road.

Michael, dunno those geese but the zoning's definitely changed a bit since geese were allowed! There'd be endless Letters to the Editor about them nowadays :)

They don't move much from their perch, black cockies. I've only seen one and only seen it in flight once. Just a bit of red on the underside of the tail it had.

No, I tell a lie. I saw one once when I was a wee thing so that's two ever.

Anonymous said...

Re Highway to Hell
I read the interview in the Peninsula News as my pc was down all this week and couldnt help but send in this reply to the Forum

Re: Walk becomes 13 hr ordeal
One can hardly feel sorry for this group on "bushwalkers" getting lost recently , firstly anyone who regularly walks in this area will know the NPWS has not and does not maintain these outlying paths for many years,
Secondly , leading your group into unknown territory and at such a late time in the afternoon with very little window for the actual journey and not allowing for track deviations etc was extremely foolish ( and I suspect you didn't even check the local weather forecasts )
Thirdly once you decided you were lost and night fell and it began raining you led your group through dangerous unknown territory again ! , when you should have found a cave or made a shelter and bunked down for the night - especially when one of your group was obviously distressed.
One questions whether anyone was notified of your intended route and estimated return time before you left and whether you contacted the NPWS to validate the track condition either - 2 things that are a must when travelling into unknown territory.
Passing any blame onto the NPWS is not valid as you have broken several of the most basic rules of bushwalking , if things had of gone bad you would be the ones at fault .
Good Luck in the future
Steve S
www.woy-woy.com

Spike said...

Yeah, I wondered at them setting off so late. I ain't no intrepid bushwalker but I would've set off before lunch personally.

Nick Covington said...

Thanks for thiss