Albury Trip 2nd Instalment

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Right so I left the Box-Ironbark NP after having a great time and got back to the hotel to look after the kids while my fiancé went shopping with her best friend (that she hadn't seen in nearly a year - so I think shopping was an excuse!).  Took the kids to a park over the highway and whilst there managed to pick up another Little Friarbird in a small planted Euc with big showy red flowers.

 

On Sat morning before the wedding whilst the girls were getting their hair done in suburban West Albury I heard a Double-barred Finch in the backyard.

Saw my first bee-eaters for the year off the balcony at the wedding reception in Thurgoona.

 

Took the 1.5yo for a walk Sunday morning as she woke early and I wasn't asleep yet (dammit shouldnt've gone clubbing after the reception).  Made our way to the base of the big hill on the western side of the highway just to the North of Albury (it's quite prominent as you drive into Albury on the right hand side of the road with three or four towers on it and three red lights at night).  Heard some more lorikeets here and managed to get my binos on a flock of three little ones flying past the mountain.  Also could hear a Restless Flycatcher.

 

Got up the next morning, early again and decided to go back to the hill to check it out more thoroughly as I couldn't get too far with the stroller.  Managed to get onto the side of the hill facing the highway and found one big box with about 30 Noisy Friarbirds in it but nothing else.  May have seen a Black-chinned HE (bigger than a white naped with a black head and bright greeny/yellow back and a call I didn't recognize) but of course I didn't get great views so can't be 100% certain - I thought they were supposed to be uncommon or even rare so was a bit surprised.  There was at least one White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike amongst the Black faced and a family of Shirke Thrushes.  A Rufous Songlark was calling quite loudly from the top of a dead tree (my first for the season) getting in the way of me chasing up the finch calls.  Only Red Browed and Double bars could I find tho.  White-winged Trillers and Rainbow Bee eaters were perching on any foothold they could find where the White Plumed HE would leave them be (mostly a foot or two off the ground, any higher and bang).  A Restless Flycatcher was up here too but could've been the same one as the day before.  This was all in the relatively open woodland but I could hear thornbills and white throated treecreepers from the top of the hill so I wandered up there and as soon as I got into the forest/scrub I was surrounded by little birds.  Striated & Brown Thornbills, Weebills, Western Gerygone, Speckled Warblers, Wrens and both Whistlers it was amazing to move 100 metres and see the difference in bird species. Also heard my first Bronze-cuckoo for the season and it was Shining.  No (migrating) flycatchers the whole trip and only a couple of Pallids and the one Shining.  No Hooded Robins, in fact no Robins full stop apart from the Eastern Yellows at Cyanide Dam. 

 

Topped it off with my first Dollarbird of the season flying across the highway somewhere on the way back.

 

cheers Alex.