birdwatching at lady carrington drive
Sometimes, all it takes is one person to suggest an outing and just like that, a date was set. We (from birb.watch) would do a walk of Lady Carrington Drive at Royal National Park (Dharawal) on Boxing Day 2026. Here is a trip report that aims to capture some of the birdwatching joy we experienced on this walk.
birdwatching highlights
- as we started, we were greeted by 2
wood (maned) duckparents with at least 6 mostly grown ducklings.- the ducklings were very curious about us (even as we kept our distance)
- we knew were in for a treat when we saw a female
satin bowerbirdgreet as in the parking lot we parked at. - we saw and heard many small birds such as the
white-browed scrubwren,brown thornbills, andbrown gerygoneto name a few. - i learnt to recognise the "scrub scrub scrub" for scrubwrens thanks to Tim which felt really good.
- we were all treated to symphonies sung by
grey shrikethrushand thegolden whistler. - as we progressed, a
scarlet honeyeatercall was recognised by Tim and it began teasing us as we walked. Nowhere to be visually IDed. More on this soon.- we must have craned our necks on 2 trees for 10 minutes without any luck even though the call was crystal clear!
- nature taking pity on us presented us with a
black-faced monarchas a consolation. It perched there on a branch directly visible to us all - it's dark black eyes peering into our souls. It also gave us some beautiful notes. Well spotted by M!- these birds are migratory and this is their season on the east coast
- you know that
scarlet honeyeaterI talked about earlier? Still calling - still can't see it. - we decided to focus on fungus, bugs, and trees instead.
white-throated treecreepersdoing their thing, creeping up trees.- then, in a flash, no, not the scarlet honeyeater. But in fact a
varied sittella! Apparently, (and sadly) quite vulnerable due to habitat loss but this was huge privlege to see. It was fun trying to show everyone where it perched because it was in such an impossible location to describe. It was staring at a branch for 5+ minutes. Hope the fella found some food. - we saw some frolicking
grey fantails - and then a
sacred kingfishergave us a visit, and sadly A, who had been so keen to see kingfishers today missed it :( - and then, there it was, the
scarlet honeyeater. It was calling again and against all odds, Tim found it at the canopy of a tree! There it was, in all its red glory. We weren't going crazy after all. - Tim spotted a
dollarbirdwhich I'd never seen! And by some lucky chance, I saw it just as it flew away. A flash of blue! - A
rufous fantail(another migratory species) then decided to flash it's rufous butt at us for a few seconds and then just leave - how rude!
sappy, sentimental crap
- it's so wholesome to see a bunch of birdwatchers help each other out to find and learn about new birds - together we are stronger!
- i organised carpooling and as a result, someone was able join us for their first group birdwatching trip with us! yay!
- the track was really lovely and a great track for beginners. I would high recommend it. We parked at the visitors centre and then walked to to the start of the walk. Heaps of cover but watch out for the mountain bikers and for wet weather!
Checklist for anyone interested (thanks Tim for recording!): https://ebird.org/checklist/S290253277
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