Three friends and I will be spending 3 weeks birding in SE Australia prior to a
short visit to New
Caledonia. None of us have been to this part of Australia, although 3 of us
have been to
Queensland. We will have a car and have used Thomas & Thomas (and recent
postings on
birding-aus) to work out a provisional itinary (we also have Bransbury?s book).
The trip splits
into 4 parts, but is flexible within each part (depending on what has been seen
at the time!):
July 21-26: Sydney-Canberra-Deniliquin
July 28-Aug 1: Deniliquin-Melbourne-Portland
Aug 3-7: Portland-Victoria Malle-Adelaide
Aug 8-14: Adelaide-Birdsville-Adelaide (with 4WD)
We would be grateful for any further information, recent sightings or specific
sites, comments or
advice on any part of the trip. I will not have access to e-mail after 17
July. The places we
intend, or are considering, visiting (and, drawn heavily from Thomas & Thomas,
the birds we
might hope to see) during the first part of the trip are:
July 21-26: Sydney-Canberra-Deniliquin
Castlereagh State Forest: Regent Honeyeater, Swift Parrot
Mistral Point: seabirds?
Royal NP: Superb Lyrebird, Powerful & Sooty Owls, Southern Emuwren,
Chestnut-rumped
Hylacola, Beautiful Firetail, Origma, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Minnamurra Reserve: Superb Lyrebird
Barren Grounds: Ground Parrot, Eastern Bristlebird, Southern Emuwren,
Chestnut- rumped
Hylacola, Pilotbird, Beautiful Firetail, Yellow-tailed Black & Gang-gang
Cockatoos, Crescent &
Tawny-crowned Honeyeater
Morton NP: Powerful Owl, Origma, Pilotbird, Beautiful Firetail, Gang-gang
Cockatoo, Crescent
Honeyeater, Powerful Owl
Lake George: Freckled Duck, Red-necked Avocet
Campbell Park: Speckled Warbler, Flame Robin
Tidbinbilla: Superb Lyrebird, Pilotbird, Gang-gang & Yellow-tailed Black
Cockatoo, Flame Robin
Namadgi: Spotted Quail-Thrush
Leeton Swamp (a significant detour): Freckled Duck, Blue-billed Duck, crakes,
Black-tailed
Native Hen, Red-necked Avocet, Black-backed Bittern
We will not have time to visit all these (and hope not to need to). In
particular, as it is a fair
way out of the way, has anyone been to Leeton recently? Is Lake Bathurst still
off limits? Any
sites for Powerful, Masked or Sooty Owls or Owlet-Nightjar would be brilliant.
Many thanks in advance for any information,
Richard Fairbank
West Sussex, England
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