Trevor Quested wrote:
the most reliable site in the Capertee Valley to
> see Regent Honeyeaters. It is at a sign Gudan Park opposite a sign on a >
> gate 2805, 1.1 km east of Port Macquarie Road on the Glen Alice to Rylstone
> road.
Dear Trevor & other birding Aus'ers
A small warning.
If you visit the site mentioned above
you are in grave danger of being handed a shovel
and asked to help plant some of the 1000 white box
recently granted to us by the Regent recovery program.
But seriously, the location mentioned
is unfortunately a somewhat blind corner.
There is one car spot on the left ( heading towards Rylstone).
The better option is to park at the big pull off area
at the Port Macqurie Rd turn off, have a picnic,
and bird the road back down the gentle hill.
( Or you could do like the people we saw last weekend
and drive along slowly in a three car convoy
with the lead car driving while looking through binos!)
As David Geering has mentioned in the past
the locals of the valley are only slowly coming to see
visiting birders as a benefit to the valley.
So tread carefully and be wary of "death by cattle truck".
But what a great weekend for birds it was out there,
( though half wishing most of the time
I'd made the trip to Magic Point
to learn with the sea bird gurus).
Over two inches of rain in the last week
several changes in temperature
and a flurry of activity has resulted.
We spent most of our time
watching our resident Little Eagle
doing his spectacular flight display
as though he had been up all evening studying the
Pizzy and Knight Flight training manual
nesting activity from Chestnut rumped heath wrens
and white browed babblers,
we had Regents in the house bird bath,
and an extended period watching a group
of Choughs was rewarded when they led us back
to their recently constructed mud nest.
This morning before we left
we were amazed to see a flock of up to 30 Gang Gangs
descend on the two white box most loved by the Regents
and proceed to precisely snip each and every blossom
head straight off.
Standing under the trees
being hailed on by the blossom
and surrounded by the most amazing smell and sound
I could only think
how annoyed the Regents were going to be
later in the day
when they returned.
and how we better get a hurry up
and plant those 1000 trees.
Timothy Hyde
Blue Mountains/Capertee Valley
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