Table Top Mountain - 30/9 to 2/10

I have just come back from a great couple
of days birding at Table Top Mountain (Kalawa) near Albury (NSW). Their
accommodation is perched on the edge of the Yambla Range and they have
a bird list of 140 species. My list for over 3 days was 80 species. The
vegetation consists of box, stringybark, dwyer's red gum and acacia scrub.
An enormous amount of eucalypts were in flower attracting some 7 species
of honeyeater but no lorikeets.

Highlights were a single Turquoise
Parrot on the first day, a Black-chinned Honeyeater which decided
to spend 2 whole days 'hanging out' in the big eucalypt outside our cottage
and the pair of Chestnut-rumped Thornbills foraging in flowering
shrubs on the summit of Table Top (>600m). This must surely be on the
limit of their range. A pair of Peregrine Falcons were also nesting
on the sheer cliffs. The walk to the summit takes about 2 hours.

Walking along the Bird Walk at Table
Top to a dam I found some 40 White-browed Woodswallows and 20 Masked
Woodswallows and a single Dusky Woodswallow. Also here White-browed
Babbler (2 groups of 4 birds), Little Friarbird (2), Buff-rumped
Thornbill (2), many Peaceful Doves and Common Bronzewings
and a pair of Gang-gang Cockatoos. At night we heard Southern
Boobook and an Australian Owlet-Nightjar. We were told a tree
outside the cottage also housed a large Goanna although we didnt see it.
We did have a White-throated Treecreeper which every evening would
settle down for the night by our front door clinging to the wooden cottage
wall just under the verandah roof. A new species for the property was Australasian
Shoveler (6).

A quick visit to the Wonga Wetlands
outside Albury on the Murray produced several White-breasted Woodswallows
on 1/10. I highly recommend these wetlands. I last visited some 4 years
ago.

Cheers
Marnix

 

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