Just completed a 3 day visit to the Leeton/Griffith area.
Fivebough is drying up but still stretches of open water and around 45 species during a 2 hour walk. Highlight there was a flock of around 100 Glossy Ibis. No Sharp Tailed Sandpipers evident at Fivebough but they could have been there and not flying.
Suitable water was a long way from our observation points.
Tuckerbill was almost devoid of birds and unfortunately no White Backed Swallows in the adjacent disused sand quarry. It is now some years since I saw them there
Campbell’s Swamp outside Griffith provided the highlight in the form of a dozen or so Magpie Geese. Magpie Geese also present at the Temora recreational Lake but smaller numbers.
Wattle Dam at Binya SF is drying up but attracted a few visitors during our short stop there including a solitary Turquoise Parrot and a White Eared h/e, Brown Headed h/e and spiny cheeked h/e.
Elsewhere in Binya we caught Splendid Wren and White Bellied Cuckoo Shrike.
Consistent with other trips in that area in the last couple of years we saw very few parrots although there were plenty of Red Rumps and for the first time Superb Parrots at the Oasis Caravan Park in Leeton. A few Yellow Rosellas and fewer Blue Bonnets.
We didn’t see a single Red Capped Robin – perhaps they have all moved east!
Also absent were White Necked Herons and we saw only one Apostle Bird on the whole trip.
Wayne Gregson
