5 wonderful days of adventure were spent travelling through the fantastic
variety of country that the Western Slopes has to offer. After driving to
Bathurst on Saturday night from Wollongong, a chilly morning brought me my
first new bird for the trip, none other than a common blackbird.. one of
those I never got around to ticking! A lap of Mt Panorama (alot more fun
than I ever had anticipated) and a tour of the wonderful houses around town,
and we were on our way, next stop Macquarie Woods. This small forestry
demonstration area has a lovely camping ground, though was a bit chilly this
particular morning. A walk around the camp grounds brought the usual
suspects; crimson rosella, galah and so on. However upon driving back
towards the highway, the previously empty dams had suddenly filled with
birds, starting with great views of a Pacific Heron, and then Blue-billed
Ducks (another tick!).
Now we were onto the Burrendong Arboretum. An interesting place this,
didn't know what to expect, was just a red dot on my map, but it bround me
three new birds in the form of White-winged Cough, Spiney-cheeked
Honeyeater, and a bunch of Little Lorikeets. Also of interest (to me) was
passing an old Studebaker 6x6 Army truck now being used as a water-hauler
(Studes being my other passion). No great highlights then as we headed for
Dubbo.
The next morning was spent at the Zoo (as you do) though the grounds
surrounding the zoo proved lucrative in flushing out White-browed Babblers
and a Yellow-billed Spoonbill (both new to me again). That afternoon we
headed for the Warrumbungles, with a few stops along the way all very quiet
in terms of birds (it was getting late so none of the walks were an option).
However, a visit to the Siding Springs observatory right on closing time
brought the most unexpected of birds for the trip, a Spotted Quail-thrush!
I didn't even know these buggers existed, but after some good views, I was
happy to add it to my list of ticks for the trip.
We spent the next two nights in Barradine, which we found totally by chance
and much to my surprise having never heard of Piliga State Forest before!
However we gladly spent the next day buzzing around doing some 4wd-ing in
the Corolla, racking up about 400ks of dirt roads and an impressive list of
new birds (nearly everything I saw!) That day I added Crested Bellbird,
Peaceful Dove, Speckled Warbler, Brown treecreeper, Hooded Robin,
Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Striped Honeyeater, Brown-headed Honeyeater,
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, Diamond Firetail, Ring-necked Parrot, and
Yellow-throated Miner.
The following morning it was off to the Mudgee area, starting with an early
morning drive through the back-roads and farmlands, seeing a great many
parrots, an unidentified (though suspected) Harrier, and adding Blue-bonnet
Parrot to my list. The long kilometers and many towns to visit made this a
quiet day in bird-counts, though a late afternoon visit to Dunn's Swamp gave
us great views of Superb Lyrebirds in full-breeding doing their dance and
calls all through the area, a Restless Flycatcher buzzing about and a Musk
Duck doing some fishing.
The final day was the lottery, with a visit to the Capertee valley. What a
spot this is! Yet took us a while to find having missed the turnoff! Once
we finally got in there we had several good views of Brown Falcons feeding
on wombat carcasses, while the first tick for me that day was a Crested
Shrike-tit along Crown Station Road. A nice moment happened here when I
found myself surround with Red-rumped Parrots and Spotted Pardalotes. I
also spotted several flocks of what I could only imagine were greenfinches,
could this be right?
Heading towards Glen Davis (time was running out due to our 60km detour),
and we took to road going towards Wollemi National Park. At the
intersection, we had great views of a Zebra Finch feeding on the road in
front of the car (tick!). After chasing frogs at the creek crossing just
after the national parks entrance while surrounded by Crimson Rosellas, a
flash of yellow flew past and a large flock of Turquoise Parrots flew in.
Back towards Glen Davis again, just before getting into town we met a very
affectionate and friendly baby wombat who must have been orphaned. Though
looking a bit lost, he was feeding well and we watched over him until he
retreated into the fields. Heading out of the valley I ran into another
bird-watcher who, though also having missed out on Regents thus far, did
tell me that he got great views the previous day of a Gilbert's Whistler in
the valley! A visit to the same spot proved far less fruitious for me, the
highlight being my peanut butter sandwich.
Finally, it was off to Katoomba where, after a few detours through more dirt
roads, national parks, and towns containing no more than a cow, a house and
a pub, we finally found our way back to the main road to say goodbye to our
dirt road adventures and a race against dark and fog to see the three
sisters. Stopping along the way at Evan's lookout, I saw no Rock-warblers,
but was surprised again when a White-eared Honeyeater landed right in front
of me (tick)! Again the last thing I expected to see, though knew what it
was straight away as I had been after them at Piliga. Some more dodgy
navigating (we actually had a map of Katoomba!) and we made it to Echo
Point, with just enough light to catch the Three Sisters, a few
Rock-warblers (tick) hopping around with the White-browed Scrubwrens, and
evade the outrageous parking fees!
All in all, a successful trip with 26 lifers and confirmation of the
Greenfinches pending. A full list of birds seen to follow.
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