glossies, azure KF & d python

The highlight from a trip down to Durras
over the weekend was definitely the abundance of Glossy Black-Cockatoos
there. We had 3 birds come down to drink from a roadside puddle just outside
the frontyard of the place we were staying at. A walk the next morning
along Durras Lake revealed another group of 4-5 birds. And later that day
by the lake near the Durras Discovery Trail another pair of Glossies in
casuarina.

Other highlights were an Azure Kingfisher
(my second this month) at Durras Lake and a Diamond Python (my second this
year) at Murramarang Aboriginal Area. However we were attacked by leeches
in Monga NP (that place is always wet) and Oakey Beach littoral rainforest,
and just avoided a large Red-bellied Black Snake in a swampy section of
the Discovery Trail. I counted 12 Red-capped Plover and 3 Double-banded
Plover at Durras Beach and there were also plenty of Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers
along this part of the coast. Murramarang National Park was also a parrot
paradise with 10 species seen or heard:

Musk Lorikeet
Little Lorikeet
Rainbow Lorikeet
Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
Gang-gang Cockatoo
Australian King-Parrot
Crimson Rosella
Galah
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

There were also good close views of
Large-billed Scrubwrens, Brown Gerygone (heard at many sites over the weekend)
and Superb Lyrebird at the Depot Beach Rainforest Walk.
Then on Sunday afternoon at Pretty Beach
we ran into Harvey Perkins. I cant remember the last time I ran into another
birdwatcher on my travels outside Canberra.

Cheers
Marnix


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