An enjoyable time was had by all those who attended this years Australia Day
long Weekend combined CBOC and FOC Campout to the Copeland Area. Copeland is
about 250-300km (or 3 and ½ drive) north-west of Sydney and not too far from the
Barrington Tops NP. We all camped at Copeland Common which is surrounded by
private land and off the Gloucester-Scone Rd, only 10 km west of Gloucester. We
all enjoyed seeing a good range of typical sub-tropical rainforest species
aswell as several other highlights.
At Copeland SF beside the old Gold mine, Pacific Bazas,
Brush Turkeys, many Wompoo Fruit-doves, Topknot Pigeons,
Brown Cuckoo-doves, Owlet Nightjars heard, great sightings of
several Noisy Pittas (a pair had an active nest and another pair raised a
recently fledged young bird), Russet-tailed Thrush (about 4 and possibly
this species was spotlighted at night roosting in a small tree), Pale-yellow
Robin, a few Spectacled and many Black-faced Monarchs, many Rufous
Fantails, Logrunners, 3 species of Scrubwrens, many Scarlet
Honeyeaters aswell as Satin Bowerbirds and Green Catbirds.
Mammal highlights here were a Brown Antechinus, a Long-nosed
Bandicoot, Yellow-bellied Glider heard, a Greater Glider (dark
phase), a Parma Wallaby, several Red-necked Pademelons,
Grey-headed Flying Fox heard and several small microbats seen.
Reptiles seem included a few Lace Monitors, a Southern Angle-headed
Dragon, Eastern Water Dragon, Eastern Water Skink and one or
two Gully Skinks (Saproscincus galli).
Frogs seen included beautiful Red-eyed Tree Frogs (Litoria
chloris)(many were calling noisly after it started raining following a dry
spell), many Lesueur’s Tree Frogs (Litoria lesueurii), a few Peron’s
Tree Frogs (L. peronii) and several Stuttering Frogs (Mixophyes
balbus, a barred Frog). Dwarf Green Tree Frogs (Litria fallax) were also
heard calling.
Around the Camping Ground at the Common were several Bar-shouldered
Doves, Brush Cuckoo, Boobook and Masked Owl (heard at night),
Nosiy Pitta (heard at night from a nearby rainforest
gully), Spine-tailed Swifts (atleast 10), Pheasant
Coucal, Regent Bowerbird and Spangled Drongo.
We also made a visit to Woko NP (which is about 30 km north-east of
Copeland) where we saw 5 Glossy Black-cockatoos feeding on Casuarinas,
Pheasant Coucal, a juv. Noisy Pitta, Russet-tailed Thrush, a pair
of Cicadabirds, Spectacled and Black-faced Monarchs, Leaden
Flycatcher and Rufous Fantails. Red-necked Wallabies were seen
along the roadside running through the park.
Edwin Vella
