This day started in a great way, three Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in my window, sitting on the building on a building trim next door. No where else can one see this view on waking. I thought I was seeing things as I really thought these birds were in the hot tropic areas of Australia but that is not the case, these birds are everywhere!!
Allan picked me up at 8:00am and we went off the wetlands and ponds and forests around the Sydney Olympic Village. This was an old industrial area that was cleared out and the Olympic venues were all built here. It is still quite impressive. I had great views of the Superbe Fairy Wren, Chestnut Teal, Australian Raven that has a long whiny wail, really quite unique. I saw the Red-Whiskered Bulbul, Spotted Dove, Red Wattle Bird. At the Badu Wetlands I saw the Pacific Golden Plover, the magnificent Red-legged Dotterel, the Baillon Crake, Fairy Martins, Hoary-headed Grebe, Little Corella, Buff-banded Rail, and one of my favourites the Tawny Frogmouth. The Frogmouths almost look prehistoric. I am also getting used to seeing Flying Foxes. We also had a Brown Thornbill and saw the Channel Cuckoo getting mobbed by the Australian Raven. We also stopped in Wentworth Common, Centenary Park and Centennial Parks. The day ended around 3:30 pm before traffic got real bad in town. We drove through downtown and over the impressive ANZAC Bridge. After a quick cup of tea break, I went off on foot to the high street to buy a bun for a sandwich lunch tomorrow are Allan and I and another birder from away are going, I think North of the city to bird. l ended up buying a book, the newspaper, a bottle of wine (Australian and from a nearby vineyard) and some more snacks. It is still light now (days are longer here than up in northern Australian) but it will be dark in a while and I have to work on my bird list. A very good day for birding here, about 50 birds and some lifers for me.
Walking up to the high street or market street, the houses are old and very nice. They are all unique and have their own names on them. Generally there is a front yard with room for the car, the roofs are all tiled and very quaint. It is like being in an English Village in the UK.
Today was the first time I wore shoes since I left Canada and long pants. It was coolish all day, never hot. Until today I wore a sleeveless top, shorts and sandals as it was just too hot for anything else. I only brought two sleeveless tops, and it was so hot, I washed one every day (along with all the other stuff I was wearing) and wore the other one. I only brought one pair of shorts but I got another pair donated to me to wear from one of my American birding friends who had brought too much and had to purge clothes as she also got caught paying for each piece of luggage by Virgin on her way into Cairns.
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