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Capertee Valley: The regional motel brochure describes
this as the largest canyon in the world (though not so deep as the
Grand Canyon), and as having the greatest number of birds per square
inch of any place in the Southern Hemisphere! I imagine this means
Species, and not Population or Biomass?) In the sadly short time with
which I found myself in passing through here, and with my limited
skills, and given the stone-hard cruelty of the Dry here, these
sightings were great: Glen Davis: Hooded Robin, White-plumed
Honeyeater, Jacky Winter, Double-barred Finches (seeming to be
using a nest built on top of a low-hung, dead mistletoe),
Wedge-tailed Eagles (two soaring splendidly above the cliff
edges), Diamond Firetails (how beautiful they are!), see the
note below RE the *mystery bird alongside them, Grey
Shrike-thrush, Eastern Yellow Robin, Western Gerygone, Peaceful
Dove (H), Zebra Finch, White-faced Heron. At the Glen
Alice turnoff: There was water in the creek/river-bed here!
Red-rumped parrots appeared to be nesting in a trunk-hole on the
riverbank. In the field across the road, Diamond Firetails were very
cleverly jumping for grass-stems, then pulling them down, curving,
until they had a grip on the seed-head. Marvellous! Peaceful Dove was
heard again, and also seen again in this little grove were
White-plumed Honeyeater and Double-barred Finch.
A
little discovery after this was McKane's Bridge - over Cox's River,
out from the Lithgow-Katoomba highway along McKane's Falls Road.
Park in the 'carpark' waste-ground beyond the bridge, where the tyre
is hanging from a tree. Walk away from the bridge - you'll see
a track - until you come to the rocks, where water pools. (Be aware
that this is quite a solitary place, and also that there was a wild
dog/dingo/fox, grass-height, russet-backed, moving off or around
behind me through the long grass.) Anyway, at the time I was there
this seemed to be one of those special places where all the birds from
round about come down to drink: Rufous Whistler (various
ages), Spotted Pardalote, White-browed Scrubwren, White-eared
Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater,
Crimson Rosella, Grey Fantail, Brown Thornbill. Being uneasy, I
was, regretfully, here a very short time - but had that feeling
that if you could spend an afternoon...
In the
rainforest running down into Megalong Valley, I nearly ran over
a Superb Lyrebird - the only glimpse I had, and barely a chance
to look at it being so busy avoiding it on that narrow road! In
the almost-darkness of this vegetation, I felt surprise to see an
Eastern Yellow Robin and a Lewin's Honeyeater being extremely
quiet and invisible.
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Judith
Lukin-Amundsen
S-E Qld
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