The ones that found me

In July 2013, I had just arrived in Sydney from the United States. The end of June was quite rainy, and Matt and I had been busy opening bank accounts, shopping for furniture, and enjoying the fact that we would finally be living in the same country.

When the clouds lifted two weeks later I was finally over my jet-lag and had exhausted all the coffee shops within walking distance from our apartment. I was ready to explore the city. Matt took me to Hyde Park, and we walked down to the Harbour through the Royal Botanic Gardens. I could hear the birds all around me, but my first glimpses were of Australian White Ibises and Sulfur-Crested Cockatoos in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

A few of the Cockatoos had yellow tags on their wings - we would later download an app to report our sightings of these Cockeys around Sydney. But for now, I was simply amazed that such exotic-looking birds were so common that you could simply see them walking around during an afternoon stroll through the park.

Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo with wingtag

Australain White Ibis with wingtag

The ibises I had seen already, usually picking through the garbage cans behind shops and restaurants. They really are dirty urban birds, a bit like pigeons. It's strange to see something so beautiful hunching over a rubbish bin, and yet also strange to see something so bumbling and heavy soaring high in the air or perched atop tall trees.

As we rounded the bend of Farm Cove, making our way towards the Sydney Opera House, we spotted another strange specimen hanging its wings out to dry on a rock in the Harbour. I snapped a picture of the creature (below). It was only 6 months later, when my love of bird-watching was more developed, that I dug up the photo and identified its subject as a female Australasian Darter.

Female Australasian Darter drying her wings out on a rock in Sydney Harbour

Rainbow Lorikeet

Other "common" birds I came to know quickly were the Rainbow Lorikeets, which made screeching noises from the trees all around our neighborhood, particularly at dawn and dusk. One day on my way back to the apartment, I ran into one of these multi-coloured beauties perched on the cement by our front steps (above). He let me snap some photos with my iphone before flying away to join his mates. I immediately posted the picture to Facebook and had fun reading the awe-filled comments from my friends back home.

A lot of Australians seem immune to these strange feathered creatures, walking right by them without so much as turning their heads. As for me, I can't get enough.  I still crank my neck around when I see a Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo, marvel at the beauty of the white ibises (especially the ones that have managed to stay white), pause in the sidewalk with my head turned up to the trees to admire the lorikeets, and stop to observe the quick maneuvers of all the Noisy Miners, Common Mynas, Pigeons, and Australian Magpies that I pass every day on the way to work.

I want to use this blog to talk about some of the birds that I find in my explorations of Australia. These are the birds that got me started, that simply crossed my path as I went about my way in my first Sydney winter.