Following the conference in Hobart, I flew up to Sydney on 21 July and met up with Maggie the following day when she arrived from London. We were staying with an old friend David S. in Bondi Beach and spent several days with him seeing the sights of Sydney and the surrounding area.
At Bondi Beach we were soon struck by now different the birds were to those we see in the UK, with the Silver Gulls with their red bills and legs being particularly noticeable.
On our first full day in Sydney, David took us for a first look at some of the main sights in the city, including the famous Sydney harbour bridge and the Sydney opera house.
The next day David took us to the Blue Mountains some 50 km west of Sydney. These are a World Heritage-listed area that are part of the Great Dividing area and so called because the extensive eucalyptus forests cast a characteristic blue haze.
During our day in the Blue Mountains we saw a number of interesting birds, some of which were endemic to Australia, such as Lewin’s Honeyeater, Brown Treecreeper and the Pied Currawong. These species are only found along the east coast of Australia, but are fairly common and we saw them and got better photos on subsequent trips to the country.
While David was working we had the opportunity to go into Sydney and see the historical centre of the city as well as the main tourist attractions, such as the Sydney Opera House.
While looking around Sydney we kept noticing the interesting birds that were just so different to anything to had in the UK. Although we certainly didn’t regard ourselves as bird photographers at the time, we enjoyed getting shots of some of the local species we saw. We were lucky enough to see one of the classic birds of Australia, the Laughing Kookaburra, when we were in the Sydney suburb of Manly. Other birds we saw around Sydney were the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Australian Magpie and Australian Pelicon.
