Bird News from Nial Moores
Highlights of a few hours in a local park in warm and misty weather included 1,260 loafing and feeding Streaked Shearwater counted in a single scan with single Short-tailed Shearwater, Red-throated Loon, Slaty-backed Gull and Murrelet sp (probably Ancient, but too distant to rule out Crested) seen flying north during two hours of observation. Along the coast, there were several singing Blue Rock Thrush and a squadron of 60 Pacific Swifts, many of which flew into cliff-face nest-crevices and in woodland three Black Paradise Flycatchers, a couple of White-backed Woodpeckers and a single Light-vented Bulbul. Surprisingly there was little evidence of any fledged young, apart from of Pale Thrush, Vinous-throated Parrotbill and Daurian Redstart (one pair, with a now very worn male, had at least one young bird in tow).
Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius © Nial Moores
Pacific Swift Apus pacificus © Nial Moores
Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus © Nial Moores