birding-aus

GHL at Burren Junction

To: "" <>
Subject: GHL at Burren Junction
From: Penny Brockman <>
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:55:43 +1000
Dear all
I was one of the lucky ones on Monday 17th about 2.30pm when the weather cleared up enough to make viewing the bird pleasant. Arrived with my sister to be shown the bird by a couple already there (this a bit of a twitcher's dilemma - where was the excitement of finding the bird for oneself? - but it certainly saved time). Then we were joined by Sue Hamonet and her brother Charlie Mann from Newcastle, who were quite happy to be shown the bird. It was standing hunched when we first saw it, clean and neat, standing on a slight rise east of the silos, in the rough grass. Then after about 20 minutes, it flew to the other side of the road - foraged a few minutes while we all had great views, then flew back to the original side of the road further east and vanished into the rough area beyond the short grass. It didn't seem seriously affected by the bumblefoot - flew with that leg hanging a bit lower and when standing tucked that leg under its belly. No Masked Lapwings were around but there were over 200 Cockatiels (including a begging juvenile) and 200 Galahs feeding around the silos, and 50 or so Feral Pigeons. No raptors while we were present.

On the way Monday from Murrurundi to BJ, we had some interesting sightings. On the Kamileroi Highway about 30 km east of Gunnedah, a large Koala was crossing a huge paddock of winter wheat - right out in the middle, very wet and disgruntled looking. A short way east of Boggabri we saw a Black Falcon in the tree and a Peregrine near a huge cotton water storage dam. Then on the road side we saw 2 ravens attacking another largish looking bird. On slowly passing saw it was a Tawny Frogmouth. We stopped and walked back. The Frogmouth was sitting by a post in grass just off the narrow verge. It appeared to have nothing wrong with it. We bent down and looked, it opened its mouth wide and hissed, turned a bit and hissed again, then turned round and flew into a nearby tree. Thank heavens, no broken bones and no need to contact Wires. We saw our first Black Kite shortly after Narrabri. Most of this part of the trip was in intermittent rain.

Spent the night at Coonamble in one of the 2 old hotels and was told that 2 Brolgas were in the Macquarie Marshes and that news about the GHL had been in the local paper. Also that they'd had between 40 and 50cm of rain in the last few days and were very happy and looking forward to more promised later this week. Saw two huge herds of stock on the TSRs, one of over 1000 between Wee Waa and Burren Junction, in very poor condition, the other in good condition on the Coonamble/Barradine Road, sure making a mess of the vegetation and showing up all the rubbish thrown from vehicles. A happy sight was a group of volunteers collecting roadside rubbish just north of Coonabarabran.

Next day returned to Murra on the Coonamble/Barradine road. Lovely views of Bluebonnets, Cockatiels, Grey-crowned Babblers, and huge groups of Apostlebirds - one of over 30 - and lots of White-winged Choughs. Weather was very changeable but bit of sun allowed some stops. One at a heavily flowering White Box a few kilometres West of Barradine - honeyeaters Fuscous, Black-chinned, Spiny-cheeked, Yellow-faced, White-naped and White-rumped Miners. Then had lunch in Pillaga on Butlers Bird Route (off the Barradine/Coonabarabran road. Again blossom in the gums and lots of honeyeaters including Black-chinned once more. Also Speckled Warblers and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes but no red robins. On leaving the forest at 2.45pm back to the Barradine/Coon. road, at a point were the track rises from the Bugaldi Creek with paddocks either side and trees lining the track, we surprised at least 17 Turquoise Parrots (possibly more), one Jacky Winter, one Mulga Parrot and 2 Mallee Ringnecks and at the track entry, 4 Mallee Ringnecks feeding on dead standing seed heads of various weeds in the grass. Altogether a very pleasant ending to a super twitch.


===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • GHL at Burren Junction, Penny Brockman <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU