April 11, 2005
Our hotel was one block south of Hyde Park, so that was the first place we visited (and would be the place we visited every day in Sydney, on our way to and from everywhere. This park is smaller than the one in London, which I assume is its namesake, but it’s lovely. Of course, after seeing Silver Gull at the airport, I was thrilled to see more Australian birds, all of which were new to me.
The first birds we saw that gave me that “We’re not in Kansas anymore,” feeling were the Australian White Ibis. Also called Sacred Ibis, these birds are so exotic looking, and I was surprised to spot one calmly foraging in the park just a few feet away from where we were walking. Later, we saw them all over the city acting like Rock Dove – eating out of trash cans and climbing on cafe tables and begging for food from people sitting on park benches. It strikes me as odd to see such gorgeous birds acting like this, but I seem to recall seeing White Ibis in Florida doing the same thing at McDonald’s.
As we walked through the park, it began to rain lightly, which continued throughout the day, although it was rarely heavy enough to be bothersome. We decided to take the Sydney Explorer bus tour, which would take us around to the big landmarks, and then we could decide what we wanted to go back and see more closely later on. After we’d ridden about half of the route, we hopped off the bus at Darling Harbour, to have some lunch, and then right back on, because Eclipse was anxious to get to the Sydney Opera House. They’d been obsessed with it during most of the flight, and asked over and over when we would be able to see it. We got our first sight of the building from the bus tour as we drove over the Harbour Bridge.
At last! We arrived at the famous and very beautiful Sydney Opera House! When we got off the bus, Eclipse was thrilled. Only trouble – it had started to really rain. Even so, we climbed all the steps, and hid under overhanging parts of the roof with a few other intrepid souls.
Because of the rain, we didn’t stay much longer, but instead finished the tour route, and then walked back to the hotel through the park. Here, we saw a few more new birds – including one of the birds I’d really hoped to see on this trip – a Laughing Kookaburra. YES! Really gorgeous.
There’s an interesting statue in Hyde Park, sculputed by Gerard Havekes: “The labours and beauty of pioneering mankind are depicted by three figures, Water, Fire and Earth, and a flanking font. Water: A fisherman looking to the sea and new horizons. Fire: A woman depicting womanhood and intuition, protecting the fire of initiative and progress. Earth: A farmer depicting the pioneering efforts upon which this country has developed”
On this trip back through the park, we also saw the birds that completely gobsmacked me when we spotted them foraging on the grass: a pair of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. OMG COCKATOOS! SO COOL!!!!! I had a total geek-out over these birds. I mean, they’re EXOTIC! They’re, well, they’re supposed to be living in the jungle or something, but here they were in the middle of a city park. I’d half convinced myself that they couldn’t possibly be wild, but must be escaped pets. Except, no . . . my birding book says that there are large flocks established even in the big cities. I HAVE COCKATOOS ON MY LIFE LIST! They were really cool to watch, too – not long after we spotted them, they flew up into a nearby tree, squawking loudly, trying to chase away a couple of Australian Ravens. (A few Noisy Miners were also after the ravens). SO COOL!
After looking at birds for a while, we were all really tired (JET LAG!), and it seemed like we’d had a long, full day . . . but when we got back to the hotel we discovered it was 5:00, and we’d only been wandering the city for five hours! We’d planned to freshen up and then go out to dinner somewhere, but instead, we just went to sleep around 6:30.
Species List
Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae novaehollandiae), Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala melanocephala), Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides coronoides), Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca molucca), Maned Duck (Chenonetta jubata), Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis), Rock Pigeon (Columba livia livia), Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae novaeguineae), Southeastern Black-backed Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen tibicen), Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus moluccanus), Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina), Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita galerita)
Let me know what you think!