A unique bird community on Wansey Road

I really ought to make a bird map of my neighborhood. It's amazing how accurately I can predict the species I will see within a given city block. I know that if I want to see New Holland Honeyeaters, for example, I need to take a walk down Wansey Road in late September. If I want to see lorikeets, I head out around sunset along any number of streets southeast of Centennial Park. To see grey butcherbirds, I take an early morning stroll from Belmore Road to Centennial Park. The path just south of Coogee Beach is ideal for wattlebird-watching, though I can point out a few trees around Randwick where I often hear them calling. For yellow-tailed black cockatoos, I head to the northern edge of Centennial Park in early winter. There's a healthy population of Common Mynas on Waratah Avenue. For welcome swallows, head to Alison Park at dusk.

Long story short, wherever there is green space in this city, there are birds. But less obvious is the surprisingly high fidelity of different species (or of individual birds) to a single strip of land.

Wansey Rd. runs directly along the western edge of the Royal Randwick Racecourse.

Image: Google Maps.

One of my favorite local examples is the unique community of birds that shares a stand of trees running along the western edge of the Royal Randwick Racecourse. If you take the path along Wansey Road on a spring day, as I sometimes do, you can expect to see the following birds (from most to least common):

• Common mynas
• House sparrows
• Welcome swallows
• Rock doves
• Spotted doves
• Pacific black ducks
• Crested pigeons
• New Holland Honeyeaters
• Red-whiskered bulbuls
• Kookaburras

I saw all of these birds today (and others), within a matter of minutes. At this time of year, about 30 minutes after sunset, you will also see flocks of noisy corellas in this area, making a racket in the tall eucalyptus trees nearby.

So what is it that draws this unique community of birds to this particular strip of land? It's a community I've not encountered elsewhere in Sydney.

No doubt the Racecourse grounds play a key role. They provide tall grasses and a thick protected thicket, plenty of shade and roosting spots, nearby fruiting and flowing plants (like lantanas, bottlebrush and grevillias), and a water source in the form of an open water tank - all tucked safely away behind a barbed wire fence.

Mynas, crested pigeons, and house sparrows share space in this dense lantana thicket.

Spotted and rock doves prefer roosting spots in nearby residential eaves and under this man-made shed (you can see them on a perch if you look closely).

The Pacific black ducks spend their time on the rim of this large water tank (photo taken February 2014).

 New Holland honeyeaters and Red-whiskered bulbuls spend their time in these trees (photo on right taken November 2013).

Corellas occasionally visit the tallest eucalyptus trees (these are on nearby High Street).

Kookaburras perch in these trees to hunt the insects and critters down below (can you spot the kookaburra in this photo?).

And welcome swallows feed on the insects overhead. (This is the only shot I have of welcome swallows. It was taken in February 2014 near Alison Park, about a 10-minute walk from Wansey Rd).

I suspect the birds on Wansey Road are able to live together in a diverse "man-made" ecosystem because the species all fill separate niches. But it does leave me with many questions. For example, to what degree are different species competing for limited resources? Are the mynas, pigeons and sparrows leading to the spread of the invasive lantanas? How will this impact other species (including insects) in the long run? What does it mean that this community exists near a busy road? Is noise pollution a detriment to breeding? Do the Racecourse managers value this diverse ecosystem? What would happen if they decided to develop the property?

The more birdwatching I do, the more I appreciate how unique all the little micro-ecosystems around me are, and the more questions I have.

Water birds in Centennial Park

I have the great fortune of living within walking distance of Centennial Park. This means easy access to Summer movie screenings and festivals, a spot for weekend picnics, a default place to go running, and of course, great bird-watching.

In the past nine months I have done a lot of birdwatching here, and one thing I've noticed is that the birds are always changing. Morning and evening are the best times to watch, though a great diversity of birds (and bats!) can be seen all day long. First-time visitors to the park might go for breakfast at the Cafe, then pick up the bird-watching guide at the brochure rack next to the coffee kiosk before starting on a morning of birding. The brochure includes a checklist of commonly seen species, with pictures, and it's a good place to start if you aren't familiar with the local species.

The parklands also maintains a Birdwatching website with information about birdwatching breakfast tours (only $25!) and volunteer opportunities (including bird-spotting), as well as an active blog with great posts about birds. I have never done a birdwatching tour in Centennial Park, but my experience is a lot like the one described in this blog post. I'm still an amateur, and I don't have any of the equipment a birdwatcher might use, so I think a birdwatching tour like this is in my future.

My Centennial Park bird list includes the following species:

• Australian Magpie
• Australian Raven
• Australian White Ibis
• Black Swan
• Common Myna
• Crested Pigeon
• Domestic Goose
• Dusky Moorhen
• Eurasian Coot
• Grey Teal
• Hardhead Duck
• Little Black Cormorant
• Little Corella
• Long-billed Corella
• Magpie-lark
• Masked Lapwing
• Noisy Miner
• Pacific Black Duck
• Pied Currawong
• Purple Swamphen
• Rainbow Lorikeet
• Rock Dove
• Royal Spoonbill
• Silver Gull
• Sulfur-crested Cockatoo
• Welcome Swallow
• White-faced Heron
• Willie Wagtail

And even with this list of nearly 30 species, I still have a ways to go. The park has such a wide range of habitats - from lakes, to swamps, to forest - that you can tick off quite a wide diversity of species in one short visit.

A pair of Little Corellas in a tree

Centennial Park is a great place to see water birds. In this shot I captured Silver Gulls, a Dusky Moorhen (left), a Purple Swamphen (right), and a Eurasian Coot (in the water)

The ones I love most are the ones listed in red, which are commonly spotted waders / water birds. While I see the swans, ducks, geese, ibises, coots, moorhens and swamphens on a regular basis in the park, the spoonbills, herons, masked lapwings, and cormorants are a little harder to spot. I sometimes see masked lapwings in mud flats near other birds. The little cormorants can be spotted swimming in the water, diving then resurfacing at a great distance away; or flying quickly across the water. For the heron and spoonbill, look near the shore in the tall grasses and shallow water, in areas away from people. 

Pacific Black Ducks, with a Little Black Cormorant swimming by

White-faced heron near the shore

Royal Spoonbill wading on the lake's edge