I regard the Weddin “Mountains” near Grenfell as the nearest convenient place to see dry country birds. If you have bare-list-carrying foreign visitor you can help fill it with what can just be a round-trip in one day (starting early in the morning). Typical dry-country birds relative to Canberra are Apostlebirds and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters. Of course you can travel another 100 km further west and pick up Major Mitchell Cockatoos and Shy Hylacolas - and so on, all the way to the Indian Ocean (which takes more than a day, of course). On the weekend, the A-birds were nesting, predictably enough - within 60m of a chough nest. On the eastern side at Richard Allen’s birding precinct the white box and ironbarks were in full blossom, with many honeyeaters, including an open-ended group of 50-plus Little Friarbirds within a couple of hectares. Rufous Songlarks calling territorially. Lots of blooms including orchidy things and other flowery stuff …
