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| Laughing Kookaburra |
My wife and I travel to
Sydney several times a year to help look after our grandchildren, ages 8 and 5. Although they are very energetic and tire us out, we love being with them and getting to know them. On a visit last year, we took time out to go on a family picnic. One of our favourite places to visit would have to be the
Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens in the suburb of St Ives.
These gardens consist of two main parts: a planted garden of Australian native plants, with the rest being natural scrubland. The scrubland section is the largest part and gives the visitor a good impression of what this part of Sydney was like in its natural state, before settlement by Europeans.
The whole area is covered by walking trails which are easy to negotiate. In springtime, many of the plants are flowering. Even at other times of the year, you can find something flowering. Where there are native flowers the observant visitor will also find plenty of native birds, many of them feeding on the nectar of the flowers.
I have seen a good range of honeyeaters in these gardens, including
Eastern Spinebill, Scarlet Honeyeater, Crescent Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Lewin's Honeyeater and both
Red and
Little Wattlebirds. One can also see a range of parrots, including
Galahs, several species of cockatoos and lorikeets, finches, doves and pigeons, pardalotes, thornbills, robins, swallows, fantails and scrubwrens.
Australian Brush Turkeys are often seen in the picnic areas, but seeing a
Superb Lyrebird is a little bit harder, but they have been seen in these gardens from time to time.
You can read more about Australian birds, and see more photos of them on my site called
Trevor's Birding.
