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Friday, 27 September, 2013

 

Only one new trip bird today, but it was a good one.  I didn’t have any kind of real birding planned today.  I just wanted to walk around Sydney and enjoy it.  I did have a tip on one particular bird, though, so I planned my route accordingly.

 

Before I get into a description of today’s adventures, I wanted to make a couple of corrections.  I discovered, when I went to mark up my field guide, that I had previously seen Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, which I saw on Wednesday and mistakenly thought it was a lifer.  So, that reduces my lifer count on the trip to only one so far.  I also discovered that I had neglected to list New Holland Honeyeater in my little notebook, even though I did mention it here in my report.  So, that increased my overall number by one.  As of last night, I officially had 65 species on the trip, of which 1 was a lifer.  OK, I know, that paragraph made your eyes glaze over, but keep in mind, these reports have more than one purpose.  One of those purposes is to provide a record for myself of my trip.

 

So, anyway, last night I was exhausted, and I made myself stay up until 9 o’clock, I think.  Or, maybe it was only 8:30 when I fell into bed.  I slept fairly well, but I was up by 4:30 or 5 this morning.  My body is still trying to figure out what time zone I’m in, and things still aren’t normal.

 

I puttered around here, and I headed out at 7.  I walked through Hyde Park first, toward the harbor.   Here is a picture of the central walkway in Hyde Park.

 

From there I walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens, to look for the bird I had the tip on.  I had a map that Baz, my guide on Wednesday, had given me, and I found the tree he indicated.  He had said to look for the droppings underneath, and when I saw the droppings, I looked up, and there it was – a POWERFUL OWL.

 

I saw a couple of young ones in 2010, shown to me by a Sydney birder, but other than that, this is the only owl I have seen in Australia.  Powerful Owl is the largest owl in Australia.  Check out those talons.  This one has been hanging around the Royal Botanical Gardens for years, and it tends to pick a roosting site and use it on most days for weeks or months at a time.  It has been using this tree for several months, I understand.  I hadn’t been counting on seeing it, by any means, so I was thrilled to see it this morning.

 

So, that was the extent of my birding today.  I was done by 7:40 AM.  I walked through the botanical gardens, enjoying the beautiful sunny morning and looking for birds to take pictures of.  The only picture I got of a bird, though, other than the owl, was this male Chestnut Teal.

 

Here is a picture of one small part of the gardens, with downtown Sydney in the background.

 

I had hoped to take some pictures of flying foxes, which is what they call the giant fruit bats that live here.  They roost in the daytime, in colonies, and I enjoy seeing them.  I had heard that they might be gone from the botanical gardens now, though, so I asked one of the gardeners, and he confirmed that they were not there any more.  They are bats that are about the size of a small cat, and they roost right out in the open, hanging from tree branches, in large groups.  They do fly around during the day, too, but only to shift position.  They come out at night to feed.  If you want to see pictures, you can find them in my pictures of my 2010 trip, on my website, here:  http://www.barry15.com/2010_Australia_Trip/Photos01/slides/4239_Two_Giant_Fruit_Bats.html or here: http://www.barry15.com/2010_Australia_Trip/Photos01/slides/4225_Flying_Foxes_aka_Giant_Fruit_Bats.html .

I might see them up north somewhere, they live all up and down the coast, I think.

 

I stopped and rested on benches a couple of times, and I made my way around to the opera house.  They were doing some kind of construction in the area in front of it, but I got this picture from part way up the steps.  The Sydney Opera House.

 

Here is a picture of downtown Sydney, taken from the steps of the opera house.

 

I haven’t been here before when a big cruise ship like that was in port.  I wonder how long it stays there.

 

Here is a picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the iconic images of Australia.  This was also taken from the opera house steps, just turned about 90 degrees to the right from that last picture of downtown.

 

Those yellow and green boats are passenger ferries, and they run all over the huge Sydney Harbour area.  They are heavily used by commuters, shoppers, and tourists.

 

I walked around the harbor area, watching the people and sitting in the sunshine from time to time.  It is school holidays here right now, so the joint was jumping.  This is the first week of spring, and the weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny.

 

Eventually I walked back uptown to my hotel and took care of some emails and phone calls I needed to make, for upcoming reservations.  Everything had been booked, but some needed confirmation and a couple places wanted my Aussie mobile phone number, which I didn’t get until just the other day, of course.  After I took care of that business, I headed out again.

 

This time I walked down the hill to Darling Harbour.  It was packed with people, many of them kids, since school is out.  I sat in a number of different places and watched the people.  Here are a couple of pictures of Darling Harbour.

 

 

There are shops, restaurants, and tourist “attractions” all around the harbor.  There is a very large and elaborate children’s playground, too, and it was packed.  The McDonalds across from the children’s playground was doing a booming business, as you might imagine.

 

Eventually I got tired of that, and I headed back up the hill toward my hotel.  I wanted to shop for a couple of items, and I needed more groceries.  I found a couple of ice trays, although they are a little larger than what I had in mind.  I hope they will fit in the various small fridges that I expect to have in my various rooms.  I think I can squeeze them into the freezer compartment here, but I’ll have to chip some frost off the sides to do it.  Also, the fridge door might not open wide enough to get them in without spilling some water.  Oh well, I’ll have larger refrigerators in a number of places, and I can use them there.  I brought a collapsible cooler pack from home, to use when I’m traveling from one place to another.  Since they don’t have ice machines in the motels here, I’ll have to improvise.  I looked for some “blue ice” today, but couldn’t find any.  I have saved my yogurt containers, and I plan to freeze water in them, to use in the cooler, if and when I can’t fit the ice trays into the freezer compartment.  Once I get a car and get some beer, I’ll keep the cooler full of beer, too, which will help keep it cold.  Oh, the little tricks I have learned, traveling around Australia.  As they say, I could write a book.

 

So, I was back early today, but I did plenty of walking, and I enjoyed the great weather.  It was maybe 5 or 10 degrees F lower in temperature today, which suited me just fine.  I usually avoid crowds of people, but I enjoyed watching people today, too.  They sure do come in a lot of different shapes and sizes, and the clothes they choose to wear are pretty amazing, too.  I think I’ll stop right there, before I get myself in trouble.  I’ll just say that the women’s clothes are much more interesting than the men’s.  Oops, there I go, getting myself in trouble.

 

Tomorrow a Sydney birder is picking me up here at my hotel at 8 AM, and we are going to visit a couple of places I haven’t been before.  I don’t expect any especially great birds tomorrow, but there should be a few new ones for my trip list, and I’ll be trying for pictures, too, of course.  It will be interesting to meet another Aussie birder and to see the new places.  He will drop me off in the afternoon at the Hertz office here in town, and I’ll pick up the car I’ll have for the next 30 days.  I’ll park it here at the hotel and on Sunday morning, I plan to load it up and head on out of town.  That’s when the real adventure begins.  This city stuff is fine while I get adjusted to the time difference, but I’m eager to be out in the countryside.  I’m not a city guy, really, and it is rural Australia that I love.

 

So, now my total number of species on the trip is 66, and one of those is a lifer.