Pitt Town and Bushell's Lagoon - Again with an American twist

Some of you might remember the action-packed triple feature Sunday Lagoon bonanza previously described here at this site, where the Sintic and yours truly combined forces and managed to cover most of the birding hotspots of the north-western end of Sydney in only one day.

The American ticking machine had read both the Pitt Town and Bushell's Lagoon posts and demanded to be taken there already on her second day in Sydney .. impressive speed of the little American tornado :-) I was easily convinced due to the lack of Pink-eared Ducks at our last visit and there was always the chance of the Bittern :-)


No Bittern, but we sorted out the Pink-eared Duck and saw a few Australian Shovelers, tick-tick! :-) Also, my companion managed to finish of the Ibises, indeed we saw all three during the trip including the Glossy.

Bushell's lagoon proved less vibrant than it had been on my previous trip. However, there are always good opportunities of a bit of BIF photography and a group of nine Goldfinches was in charge of the entertainment, only interrupted by yet another Black-shouldered Kite flying back and forth, seems they are all over the place at the moment! How many do you have to see, before you claim one of them as a Letter-winged equivalent? ;-)

Botany Bay With An American Twist

Got up early Saturday morning, I had a little package flying in from America - not bad at all :-) After dragging the usual +70kg of luggage up into the apartment and a bit of whining about the level of jetlag. We soon realized that unless the rest of the Saturday was going to be conducted with closed eyes, we had to get out where there was sunlight, a gentle sea breeze and preferable a bit of excitement happening ... well, well off to the south end of Botany Bay National park, where recent rumors would know, that a bit of wildlife action was going on.

First surprise was the spotting of a bewildered cyclist obviously dropped by the peloton, but with the usual cyclist attitude, claiming that he would be able to catch up with the break-away after a little rest. Unfortunately he had managed to scare away any sign of wildlife around him - probably due to the heavy breathing - and after a few polite greetings we continued south and saw him head back towards the vibrant suburb of Marrickville.

We had a great walk along the coast, the pure beauty of the place made it difficult to fall asleep and when the vistas were not enough, a bit of balancing along the cliffs edge made sure we were all alert :-)

The Grass Owl was hiding, which gives me a one up on the American ticking machine, but boy does she attract wildlife!! :-) It was all happening at sea, on land and in the air.

We managed to get sufficient views (but less than impressive pictures) of a Tawny-crowned Honeyeater taking a bath. Saw a few albatrosses and a Southern Giant-Petrel, which was very nice after having used quite a few month at the cliffs around Long Bay only being able to spot the northern cousin. But the highlight of the day was no doubt having eye-to-eye contact with a Black-shouldered Kite.

Great day down south, impressive effort to get off the plane and hit the bush straight away ... have a sneaking suspicion though that those binoculars were held high once and a while to sneakily hide a closing eye or two ;-)

Bushell's Lagoon and Castlereagh Nature Reserve

A few kilometers north west of Pitt Town you find Bushell's Lagoon. After a little Scheyville National Park detour we crossed the Hawkesbury at Windsor and headed towards the next Lagoon on the agenda.

Bushell's Lagoon is a great spot! Contrary to the Pitt Town equivalent you have the option of walking a bit around getting close to the wildlife and smelling nature. We got a glimpse of an Australian water dragon and according to a reliable source it is a great spot for seeing Red-bellied black snakes during summer. (Luckily?) It was still too cold for the snakes, but we had excellent views of a bit of feathered wildlife, which seems very relaxed - nearly curious - about a couple of walkers entering their domain.

Was quite happy with a series of photos, including the one above, where I managed to catch a few sharp ones of a particular inquisitive Golden-headed Cisticola getting close. The water birds were swarming like planes around Kingsford Smith and once again an Australian Pelican with nearly 2 meter wingspan is an excellent subject to practice on when taking on the wonderful world of BIF (Bird In Flight) shooting.


While walking along the track we managed to get a glimpse of something yellow, red, black and finchy and realized that we had a little community of European Goldfinches in the trees around us. They were less curious than the Cisticola, but managed to get enough of a picture to be able to claim it as a done deal.

On the way back towards the significantly more crowded end of Sydney I realized that I should take advantage of being accompanied by the most experienced Regent Honeyeater spotter that I know and soon after we found ourselves on good old Spinks Rd preparing to dive into the wilderness of Castlereagh NR. Well, well - got a few pictures - none of Regent HEs and will probably still need to visit Capertee valley .. how sad(?) ;-)

Pitt Town Lagoon - A Mini Road Trip with The Sintic

Early Saturday morning I fired up the Magna and headed towards the north-west end of Sydney together with a very upbeat Sintic. Not only did my companion manage to direct us through the streets of Sydney so fast and smooth that anyone wanting to better the performance will need the tightest-tight full-suit Arena, but before we passed the Blacktown exit, we had talked about Pink-eared Ducks, solved the economical meltdown and briefly dealt with most other things in between :-)


Always wondered why it was called the Fan-tailed C. :-)

Pitt Town Lagoon has received a bit of interest lately, hordes of Pink-eared Ducks have, according to the internet, chosen the lagoon as their winter hideout, with the added excitement of (minimum) one Australasian Bittern reported to have been flushed multiple times in combo with some excellent Sydney winter weather we were up for a treat :-)

Great spot, lots of excellent wildlife - unfortunately the Bittern was tired of being flushed and the Pink-eared Ducks were either taking a little rest from all excitement in a neighboring pond or they had collectively decided to hide their pink bits. However, there was still quite a bit of stuff going on when it comes to man and beast,

Paul found a horse dressed in matching blue - probably the color of this winter! And we meet a few celebrity birders, including the Shasha and Amoore duo, good to know that they did not find the Bittern either ;-) Had a little chat and decided to move on. We all went to a neighboring national park for a little walk, the newly-weds had to leave early though, something about a trip to Brazil ..? - guess young couples nowadays are not shy of taking a second honeymoon :-)

The ticking machine Sintic and yours truly had bigger(?) plans though, we were going to visit the Bushell's Lagoon, just around the corner ...

Botany Bay National Park with Boat Harbour Detour

I really like the south part of the Botany Bay national park, I used to go there a lot last summer. Despite of the peninsula having some of the heaviest industry in Sydney it also have some good quality coastal bush with some excellent wildlife and (probably because of all the heavy industry) you can bushwalk around down there without bumping into other punters all the time. With the added excitement of a sure Grass Owl tick it was a easy choice to start up the mighty Magna and head out of Coogee with the shiny bonnet pointing southwards ... also it would be one of my last chances of gaining a bird on my WA born American ticking machine sweetheart :-D

Wonderful day! 23 degrees is very good performance considering we are mid winter. Not a cloud in the sky, giving excellent conditions for the (slightly) light-hungry Bigma. I added in a little detour to Boat Harbour, trying to do a few close-up "portraits" of some of the feathery residents, while the light was still good.


Great area down there, lots of different habitats in close proximity to each other; heath, reef, cliffs, beach and scrubby bush all mixed together making it a great place to walk around. Used nearly 6 hours before I had accomplished everything I had set out to do and managed to get some of my sharpest bird pictures thanks to the quality of the afternoon light :-)

I will have to work my way through the rest of the pictures and might try to update the Picasa album later, but this will have to do for now.

Down Town Sydney by Night

It has been a while since I was running around doing touristy stuff here in Sydney - probably not since my action-packed excursion to Watson bay for fish and chips have I ticked any of the touristy hot spots of this wonderful city ;-)

Having a few guests flying in during the next couple of month, I realized I was in desperate need for a guide-skill-refresher so why not head down town Sydney and rub shoulders with some proper camera-slinging overseas visitors, just to get the hang of it again ... and since my American visitor has grown quite fond of the feathered wildlife I could probably score a plus in the book by already pinpointing the favorite tree of the barn owl flying around down town Sydney ;-)

The trees down town Sydney support a surprisingly large amount of wildlife, which makes it hard to find the owl you are after, but easy to get photos of all kinds of other stuff :-)
I though I had nailed it when I got a high ISO + flash shot of something in the top of a palm tree just to realize that it was a juvenile Australian white Ibis when looking at the LCD screen :-D It is not everyday you are in the bush you see possums - Saturday night a member of that family was so keen on me that I think I could have lured it all the way back to Coogee if I had brought a bit of food :-D

Well, well - who would have thought the Barn version would be harder to see that the super duper easy to find Grass cousin...? ;-)
Quite exciting running around with a camera at night in a place like Sydney, I got into the arty mood and found some motifs that did not turn their back to the camera.

Think I understand why people like a good tripod, the next picture was taken by finding a solid stand for the camera and having a shutter speed of 25s. The observant reader will notice that the head of the statue is missing(!) Suggesting that I either need a movable solid stand instead of relying on rocks-on-site or significantly more lens "flexibility" than I get with my fixed focal length 50mm f/1.8. :-)