Ash Island and Stockton, Newcastle

Unfortunately it was a weekend of double dipping for me and no, not the 'edible' kind.

I spent some of Saturday morning in central Sydney at Centennial Park in search of some recently reported Little Button-Quail, but after 2 hours of traipsing around in long grass with constant drizzle all I had turned up was several Brown Quail. It was quite nice to get good views of the quail and in such an urbanised location, but it was a bit of a wasted effort. I did get the quail and Australasian Figbird on the year list though.

List here: http://www.eremaea.com/Lists.aspx?List=112212

Today I managed to get the family up early enough (meaning definitely not early enough) and head north to Newcastle for the day. It was an arranged family gathering at my cousin's place at Coal Point on the edge of Lake Macquarie, but I also got a kind offer from fellow forum (http://www.feathersandphotos.com.au/forum/forum.php) member, Rod Warnock, for a half-day out at Ash Island and Stockton. We were looking specifically for the recently reported Eastern Yellow Wagtail, but again, failed to find it.
Ash Island was first and we were greeted by a flock of 30+ Cattle Egrets flying over the bridge in nice breeding plumage. We managed to see all the egrets on the island, with good numbers of Eastern Great and Little, but also a single Intermediate Egret. We met up with some members of the Hunter Bird Observers Club at Wagtail Way (AKA Wagtailess Way) and tagged along with them for a short while before making our way to Stockton Sandspit. Some of the better birds on the island were White-winged Black Tern (first for me in NSW), good numbers of White-fronted Chat, Black-winged Stilt, Swamp Harrier, Australasian Pipit, Tawny Grassbird and White-breasted Woodswallow.
As we crossed the bridge at Stockton we could see some good numbers of birds down on the sandspit and it didn't disappoint when we got down there. From the hide area we could see good numbers of Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit, Pacific Golden Plover, Red-necked Avocet and, once down on the embankment, lesser numbers of Red-capped Plover, Red-necked Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and Red Knot. There were also 3 Little Tern on the sand flat, a Caspian and Gull-billed Tern on the saltmarsh. Over at the oyster racks there were a lot less birds than usual because the tide was out and we only got onto a few Grey-tailed Tattler.

It was a successful half-day overall even if I didn't see my target. Also, sorry for not posting any photos, but I should be back up in the area around March so I'll make an effort to include some shots then.

You can see the lists of the birds I recorded today here:
Ash Island: http://www.eremaea.com/Lists.aspx?List=112687
Stockton: http://www.eremaea.com/Lists.aspx?List=112689

Thanks for reading!

Max Breckenridge
Gladesville NSW