Dear birders
Visited Gloucester Tops Sunday 15 December with a
couple of friends (non birders) and walked from the top car park about 3.5 km up
the track through the beech forest and back, between 11 am and 1
pm.
Very quiet, plesantly warm and even one patch of
muddy ground. Birds were few and far between but best bird was undoubtedly a
male Olive Whistler, whistling beautifully and when I made a rather weak
immitation (can't get the volume into my whistles) he flew closer and peered at
me round the trunk of a small tree.
Others birds seen were
Crimson Rosellas
Pied Currawong
E Spinebill
White-browed Scrubwren
Blackfaced Cuckoo-shrike
L Kookaburra
Brush Turkey
E Whipbird
Brown Thornbill
Striated Thornbill
Red Wattlebird
White-throated Treecreeper
Grey Fantail (with juvenile)
As I said above, it was very quiet bird-wise, and
we met no one on this walk. Blissful isolation. A few cars coming up as we
descended.
A small fire was burning off towards
Barrington Tops but no fires or signs of previous fires in Gloucester Tops.The
Gloucester River was running nicely over the fords with lots of highly
coloured Eastern Water Dragons (red splotches on undersides and cream and
blackish markings on top) plus a few little ones near one large
male.
