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I managed to combine birding with
social obligations at Hillston over Easter in the Hillston area.
The highlight was the social obligation - a ripper of a country
21st birthday party. Beyond that, there was a large concentration
of birds attending a mass flowering of mistletoe, about 6 km up
the road towards Lake Cargelligo, which had attracted: many
Mistletoebirds, Singing Honeyeaters, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters,
White-fronted Honeyeaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, a single
Striped Honeyeater and a single Brown Honeyeater - which must have
been close to the limits of its range in central NSW. I also
recorded Spotted Bowerbirds there (and also in the Hillston State
Forest which is only a couple of km out of town). The State Forest
is not signposted but you can find it using Google Earth - it is
also on the road to Lake Cargellico. Early this morning at
Langtree Conservation Park, about 30km east of Hillston towards
Griffith I recorded one lot of 3 and another lot of 2 Hooded
Robins, Crested Bellbirds, and a single Painted Honeyeater.
regards
Con
On 31/03/2013 9:27 PM, martin butterfield wrote:
We took a short sojourn to Lake Cargelligo last
Wednesday. It was 39C when we arrived! Part of the reason for
going was my memory of being able to drive around the sewage
pits and thus use one's vehicle as a mobile blind. Alas, that
seems not to be possible any more. This disappointment was more
than made up for by spotting a Pied Honeyeater by the closed
gate. Other observers reported 2 pairs of this species in the
same area.
We came home via Parkes where we stayed on Thursday night
(in a downpour). On Friday we decided to call in at the
Parkes sewage pond as advertised in "Bird routes of the Parkes
Shire". It was indeed a good spot and birding from the car
was definitely possible here. However there are a couple of
traps for young drivers:
- The directions refer to driving along eg "for
3.5km": in fact it is 'to 3.5km from the start of
the drive' (ie cumulative distance not elapsed); and
- the road you turn into is Akuna Rd not
Ahuna Rd!
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