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Hi all
This morning Dan and I headed out early to
Tallaganda NP in search of some good birding. Our efforts early on were thwarted
by the fog that covered the mountain range, but with a bit of persistence, the
sun showed its face and from then on it was a very pleasant day.
We birded mostly up and down Rocky Pic Road. First
up was great views of a male Spotted Quail-Thrush that hung around until a car
flushed it up. Further along the road, and after the usual suspects we lucked
onto a very nice bend in the road where the slightly wetter vegetation had us
getting onto some good birds. An Olive Whistler behaved as usual for this
species, flushing quickly, landing in the middle of dense bushes and moving on
quickly again, hardly allowing so much as a glimpse. Also in the same area,
at least two Crested Shrike-Tits were busily moving through the middle storey,
chattering amongst themselves as they probed noisily in the bark of the
eucalytps. One bird appeared to be a dependent young. Whilst marveling at the
truly unusual nature of the Shrike-Tits, I was almost given a heart-attack by a
young Olive Whistler that appeared very close. Luckily it stopped for the time
it took me to raise the camera and fire of 3 quick shots. We were also treated
to the song of a stunning male Flame Robin, along with a few of the duller types
(no Pinks though!). A couple of vocal Golden Whistlers, Eastern Whipbirds, and
Superb Lyrebirds and lots of (mostly) Yellow-faced Honeyeaters moving
through, with the odd White-naped thrown in for good measure.
After Dan had left around midday, I stayed on a
birded a few other trails before returning to the same stretch of road. Not much
else to add except a Collared Sparrowhawk and lots of Grey Shrike-Thrushes that
had an annoying habit of flushing off the roadside just like a Quail-Thrush! At
another spot near the one where we saw the first 2 Olive Whistlers, I managed to
locate a calling Olive Whistler and slowly track it down. Very rarely does that
happen! However, he was off just in the millisecond befor the shutter fired. He
did have a very beautiful song though.
Alas, no Red-browed Treecreepers though I did look
high and low for one.
In all, a very nice day of birding.
Cheers
Tobias
PS Attached is the image of the young Olive
Whistler.
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