Even better quality birding

Today began well with a selection of White-headed Pigeons drinking from the gutter.

They were being watched from a clump of mistletoe!  There's a bear in there!  It was a bit hard to pick it out, but earlier in the morning it was clearly seen further out on a limb, chowing down on some leaves.

A Superb Lyrebird was in (what is becoming) its core habitat of a roadside gutter.  I assume this is because the litter that accumulates there is replete with invertebrates, and is easy to kick about.

Later in the day as I drove out I noticed a couple of strange grey and white spotted 'things' beside the road.  On stopping to look there were pink bird legs attached.  By the time I had got my camera organised  it had resolved to 2 Wonga Pigeons.

I'm not sure if this was display or aggression and have thus refrained from referring to them as a pair.

My objective was to do a bit of sea-watching as there was forecast to be a fairly strong SW wind, which might bring in some albatrosses.  Sure enough there was and it did.  This was the view at my first stop, Bastion Point breakwater.

I saw 2 Black-browed Albatross at the same time and 1 Shy Albatross (grey upper wing seemed diagnostic - I couldn't pick up any grey on the head).  Also lots of Gannets.

A couple of surfers were finding a break, despite the prediction that the breakwater would destroy the surfing here. 

I then moved on to Point Difficult, a few kilometres further West.  Despite an official sign muttering about this being where 3 seas (Pacific and Southern Oceans and the Tasman Sea) meet the sea birds were not so evident here.  I did score 1 Black-browed Albatross, a few Gannets and 2 Fluttering Shearwaters.

Back at the house the White-headed Pigeons had been replaced by Australian King Parrots.

The final outing for the day was to drive back to Point Difficult and then walk Quarry Beach.  The rough sea was very evident here.  Unfortunately I had assumed my binoculars were in my backpack and didn't discover the error of this view until we got to the Point, so I didn't do any distant spotting.  On the beach itself we found 26 Pied Oystercatchers (18 at the quarry and 8 at the far end of the beach) and 1 Sooty Oystercatcher mixed in with them.  A local birder reported on a slightly smaller group earlier in the week.  Here is a proportion of the group at the far end.

Of course as soon as I got the camera pointed at this rock the very rough seas abated!

As we drove back towards the town I saw something on the lawn of Captain John's house at Airport Rd.  It was another Bassian Thrush.  Stopping for a good look we tallied three of this species on one moderate sized lawn!

 Returning to the house I decided to photograph the honeyeaters feeding on some eucalypt flowers.  These are New Holland Honeyeaters.

The something chestnut looking flew by.  Another Bassian Thrush!

Keeping my mind on the main game gave me a Little Wattlebird feeding on the eucalypt flowers.

After the success of the euc. flowers I moved to the back lawn to see what I could achieve with the Banksias. which were the scene of a constant 3-species war between the New Hollands and both species of Wattlebird.  New Hollands were very obliging.

Eventually a Little Wattlebird became bold enough to try scoffing in the open.

I couldn't persuade a Red Wattlebird to pose in the open.  They seemed to be far too interested in brawling to feed.