Another visit to Ku Ring Gai Wildflowers Gardens

Striated Thornbill

Whenever we travel to Sydney to visit family there, my wife and I try to get to the Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens in the northern suburbs. It is about a 25-minute drive from my son's home. 

We enjoy visiting these gardens for three reasons:

• Some of the gardens have been planted and this area interests my wife.
• Much of the rest of this large property is near to how the original forest and scrubland would have looked.
• The whole area is a haven for the local birdlife - and that interests me.

Run by the local council, entrance to the extensive gardens is free. There is a very informative Visitor Centre with a small bookshop and plant nursery, and the staff are very helpful. Guided tours are available to visiting groups. There are many walking and cycling trails throughout the gardens.

On our last visit a few weeks ago, we spent about three hours exploring several areas and walking trails. Although I made a good list of birds seen during our visit, and many of them were calling frequently, I was disappointed that most of the birds were shy about coming out into the open. My camera did not get much a workout. 

The only reasonable photo of a bird is the one above of a Striated Thornbill - and it's not a particularly good photo at that. So instead of trying to spend all day chasing birds hiding in the foliage, I aimed my camera at some of the wildflowers out in bloom. You can see some of those photos below.

And I have added a photo of a butterfly as a bonus.

To read more about Australian birds, visit my other site Trevor's Birding.

A hungry Pied Currawong

Pied Currawong

Over the last few posts here I have written about some of the birds I saw and photographed while in Sydney earlier this year. My wife and I were visiting our son and his family. During our four-week stay, we took every opportunity to get out and about visiting some of the nearby parks.

On one family picnic at Lane Cove National Park, our five-year-old grand-daughter was exploring a walking track with Nanna. They were looking for flowers on the native plants. Suddenly, a Pied Currawong landed in the tree only a few metres from the path. It began eating something it was clutching in its claws.

Next thing, I see my grand-daughter running back up the path towards me. She explained that they had seen a currawong and that I should come quickly to have a look. I walked as quickly as my old legs could carry me, camera at the ready. The currawong was quite unconcerned about me taking photos just four or five metres away.

I couldn't see exactly what it had in its claws, but it kind of looked like a piece of bread. About 50 metres away in another picnic area down the hill, I could see several families also having barbeque picnics. Obviously, they had thrown a piece of bread to feed the currawong - or maybe it had snatched a piece from their picnic table. Only a little while earlier a kookaburra had snatched a sausage from the very hot barbeque plate we were using (you can read about it here). 

My Australian readers should be advised that it is dangerous to the birds and animals to feed them human food. It is not good for them. Visitors to Lane Cove National Park are warned about this via plaques on every picnic table. Unfortunately, many of the birds have learned to be sneaky and easily snatch human food - as we found out with that cheeky kookaburra.

You can read more about Australian birds, and see many more photos of them on my other site, Trevor's Birding. 

Grey Butcherbird

Family picnic at Lane Cove National Park, Sydney

Earlier this year my wife and I spent a few weeks in Sydney looking after our two grandchildren. This was during the recent school holidays there. We had a ball with our 8-year-old grandson and 5-year-ol grand-daughter. They are great fun and so full of life. They are also taking an interest in our native birds - I wonder how that interest has developed?

On the second last day of our stay, we went on a family picnic. We drove a short distance to one of our favourite places - Lane Cove National Park, about a ten-minute drive from home. We cooked some sausages on the barbeque (see photo above) and had the misadventure of having some of our lunch stolen by the local kookaburras. 

After lunch, I managed to indulge in a little bird photography. One of the local Grey Butcherbirds came to investigate what we were up to, and it posed nicely for me in the afternoon sun. While this is a widespread species in South Australia where we live, I can't really call it a resident species in our garden. It is more of an occasional visitor. 

In Sydney, however, I see or hear it nearly every day when staying with my family. I have also recorded it as present in many places we have visited in the Sydney region over the years. 

Unlike the Laughing Kookaburras, this butcherbird was not interested in snatching our lunch. It kept a keen eye on the ground for possible tasty pickings - such as small skinks, butterflies, bugs, beetles and other insects.

You can read more about Australian birds on my other site Trevor's Birding.

Grey Butcherbird