Sydney Botanic Gardens, Australia, 26 February 2006

I only get down to Australia once or twice a year, so why - it would be reasonable to ask - would I bother spending time in a Botanic Gardens I’ve been to many times before?

Well, I may get to Australia twice a year, but I only get to spend a day and a half there: yes, a whole thirty six hours (and that both after and before an eight-hour working flight). The “Great Red Centre” will always be something I pass over at 39000′ sadly; the superb tropical forests up the coast near Brisbane a distant memory (I once slept under the stars at Lamington National Park and got woken up by a wallaby snuffling in the undergrowth nearby); even Melbourne now is a code-shared route I may never get to again…So it’s a matter of choice - use the full day off to rent a car and get to eg the Royal National Park, and then the following morning (before the flight home) go to the Botanic Gardens (or nearby Centennial Park) or stay in the hotel and catch up on some sleep instead.

And, frankly, as choices go it’s not such a difficult one to make. I’d rather be outside anytime, and like most Botanic Gardens the world over the one in Sydney is clean, safe, very accessible, and is free to get into.

Situated right in the heart of Sydney itself (in fact, signs in the Gardens point out that the first European settlers washed up along the shoreline near here), every direction you look there are views that may - just for a minute - distract even a die-hard birder, including the towering buildings of the Business District set behind a foreground of palms, the unique and fascinating Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge (people seem to like it but it’s an old bridge, what can I say?), and the wide expanse of Sydney Harbour itself. Besides, it’s a very handy place for getting away from the bustle of the city itself…

Sydney Harbour

Non-adult Silver Gull and the Sydney Opera House

Established in 1816, the Gardens contain quite a mixture of plants and habitats within its 30 hectares, from mature eucalypts to low shrubs, the extremely rare Wollemi Pine Wollemia nobilis (a tree that was thought to be extinct for decades until a hiker re-discovered it by chance in a gully in the Blue Mountains), orchid beds, hothouse plants, and several well-landscaped ornamental ponds.

Whilst a “day list” here isn’t going to be all that impressive to anyone who’s birded Australia before, the Gardens are good for picking up a number of common species - many of which are are used to being stumbled over by tourists gawping at the Opera House and photographers poking cameras at them - ie they’re quite approachable.

For instance, around the ponds it’d be difficult (actually make that “virtually impossible”) to miss Australian White Ibis, two species of cormorant (Little Black and Little Pied), Dusky Moorhen, Australian Wood Duck and Pacific Black Duck (which is closely related to that highly-sexed beast the Mallard and to the eastern Spot-billed Duck), and small flocks of the widespread endemic Silver Gull (the small gull sometimes seen dodging cricket balls after settling on pitches during televised Test Matches).

Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa

Female Australian Wood Duck Chenonetta jubata

Adult and juvenile Australian White Ibis Threskiornis molucca

Away from the ponds (which means in the trees or on the lawns) there are some equally easy birds to see: particularly the two parrots that make their very noisy presence felt throughout the day, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Rainbow Lorikeets. The utterly beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets are hardly shy, retiring types but compared with the Cockatoos they’re shrinking violets. If you’ve never heard a conversation between Sulphur-crested Cockatoos just imagine what hard-of-hearing dinosaurs with megaphones squawking at each other might sound like - and then turn the volume right up. They make the well-named Noisy Miner (a raucous and common honeyeater which is indeed noisy) sound like a whispering Nightingale. Still, I defy you not to love the cockatoos…these are birds with a twinkle in their eyes and character in every feather (and they look so much better out here au naturel than stuck in a cage somewhere).

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita

Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus

Immature Noisy Miner Manorina melanocephala
(There are more photos of Noisy Miners here)

The introduced Common Myna is - yes - common (and as welcome here as the Starlings in NY’s Central Park), as is the distinctive Australian Magpie (named “magpie” by European settlers because of its black-and-white colouring it’s not related to northern hemisphere crows at all, and is far more like a vicious-looking Raven than the long-tailed magpie most overseas birders will be familiar with - and it’s also, incidentally, the yodelling vocalist usually featured on the soundtrack to Australian soaps when the producers want a “suburban bird” calling in the background). It’s also worth checking in the quieter corners of the Gardens for Laughing Kookaburras (which is in fact a large kingfisher) - an Aussie bird icon if ever there was one.

Laughing Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae

Australian Magpie Gymnorhina tibicen

The introduced Common Myna is - yes - common (and as welcome here as the Starlings in NY’s Central Park), and it’s the smaller passerines that are far more interesting. One I always like to see is the endemic, delicate-looking and - well, superb - Superb Fairy Wren. Typically found in parties of five or six - with usually just one shining male amidst the drabber females and juveniles - they are often found in the denser flowerbeds, skittering through the vegetation giving high-pitched calls and are definitely worth looking for!

Male Superb Fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus moulting into breeding plumage

The “stars” of the Botanic Gardens for me though - and the reason I keep coming back - are the Buff-banded Rails that wander around the herb and orchid beds at the northern end of the Gardens.

Rails and Crakes in most parts of the world are typically very difficult to see - living either in dense wet grasslands or marshes, these are narrow, up-and-down species designed to run between grass stems or reeds the way fleas can run through cat hair - but here in the Sydney Botanic Gardens they’re virtually tame: there are no predators, people don’t hunt them, and they live carefree lives wandering around picking off invertebrates in extremely pleasant surroundings. I tell you, when I finally pass on to the Great Bird Observatory in the Sky if I could choose to come back as a bird I could do far worse than return as a Buff-banded Rail with an uptown address in one of the prettiest cities on the planet…

Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis

Aside from the birds, one member of the wildlife community here that really has to be seen is the Grey-headed Flying Fox.

The terrier-sized Grey-headed Flying Fox can be seen in a number of locations around Sydney, in groups called camps. These camps can be made up of many thousands of bats hanging from the branches of trees - and the most famous camp in Sydney is located right in the Royal Botanic Gardens. It’s a fantastic sight and as the Gardens open early each morning it’s very easy indeed to wander down to have a look at the camp here while there’s still quite a bit of activity.

Noisy, busy, and eternally restless, the bats hang off the branches like untidy fruits and keep up a constant stream of squeaks and hisses in the morning as they jostle for the optimum position. Every so often one or two of them will drop off the trees to try their luck on another limb and circle overhead before picking out a new spot. They’re easy enough to find - the smell of their droppings provides an easy enough trail to follow, but just keep looking up and you’ll soon spot them…

Grey-headed Flying Fox Pteropus poliocephalus
(For more on Sydney’s Flying foxes go here)

So, as I said at the beginning of this report, there’s nothing rare here, but if you’re in Sydney with an hour or two to spare and your choice is going to the Botanic Gardens or staying in the hotel - well, I’d choose the Gardens every time…

Day List:

Little Black Cormorant Phalacrocorax sulcirostris 4; Little Pied Cormorant Phalacrocorax melanoleucos 4; Australian Wood Duck Chenonetta jubata 4-5; Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa c)10; Australian White Ibis Threskiornis molucca 20+; Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis 5; Dusky Moorhen Gallinula tenebrosa c)10; Silver Gull Larus novaehollandiae 50+; Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita 5-6; Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus 5-6; Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena 8-10; Superb Fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus 6; Noisy Miner Manorina melanocephala 10+; Magpie-lark Grallina cyanoleuca 1; Australian Magpie Gymnorhina tibicen c)10; Pied Currawong Strepera graculina 1; Common Myna Acridotheres tristis 10+

The Royal Botanic Gardens is open every day of the year. Entry is free, but there is an entry fee for the Tropical Centre (which is open daily 10 am to 4 pm).

Opening and closing hours:

• November-February: 7 am–8 pm
• March & October: 7 am–6.30 pm
• April & September: 7 am–6 pm
• May & August: 7 am–5.30 pm
• June & July: 7 am–5 pm

A photo from my forthcoming book, “Attract Birds by Looking Like a Bum”

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores.