Hi Birders,
On Friday I welcomed the opportunity to get away from the smoke-filled Blue
Mountains and spend a day in the smoke-filled Capertee Valley guiding
visiting English birder Howard Jolliffe. Howard was at the end of his
Australian tour and by this stage had amassed an impressive Australian
birdlist including many of the woodland specialties, thus making my job a
bit more challenging in trying to find some new birds for him. Also, the
previous afternoon he had caught up with David Geering in the Valley and
had already added 3 new species to his list, including good views of Regent
Honeyeaters.
Several of the species Howard was missing were wetter forest birds so
during the morning we concentrated on the timbered escarpment areas around
Glen Davis, where highlights included a rather unexpected Red-browed
Treecreeper, a confiding Rockwarbler at the foot of the scree slope,
several White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes (all dark morph), Speckled Warblers
and good views of Little Lorikeets. A party of Variegated Fairy-wrens
including two brilliant males and a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo iridescent in the
sunlight were two of the more spectacular ticks for Howard's list.
Black-chinned Honeyeaters were heard in the distance, and it was nice to
see plenty of Diamond Firetails around. A flock of c. 300 Little Ravens
made an incredible din and is the largest number of these I can ever
remember seeing in the Valley. Birding can be a risky business as we found
out when when a very angry-looking Brown Goshawk appeared out of nowhere
flying straight for our heads! We had done nothing except apparently stand
in the wrong place. It swerved at the last minute and was chased away by a
Dusky Woodswallow!
While having morning tea at the Glen Davis campground we watched a Grey
Shrike-thrush on the ground grappling with a huge winged phasmid - we never
did get to see if it actually managed to swallow it. Here, amongst the many
Peaceful Doves a Spotted Turtle-Dove was calling. Unfortunately this
introduced species seems to have established itself permanently now at Glen
Davis.
Along the roadside a Singing Bushlark fluttered high in a song-flight, and
near the Goollooinboin gate we were lucky to see 4 White-browed
Woodswallows. The large numbers of these that were in the valley a couple
of months ago seem to have nearly all left now, as have the Painted
Honeyeaters which were also easy to find a month or so ago.
By the afternoon the smoke had cleared from the valley and the temperature
soared. Birds became quiet, even along the river. Bee-eaters and Tree
Martins swirled around but the rest of the birds hid in the shade of the
River Oaks.
Eventually we headed to the Regent Honeyeater site where, no sooner had we
got out of the car than a flowering Mugga erupted in a mass of Noisy
Friarbirds and Regent Honeyeaters. At one point Howard had literally a
dozen Regents in his binocular view at once. A male Scarlet Honeyeater was
a nice note to finish on. Howard had added 8 more species to his list; our
full bird list for the day is below.
Carol
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains NSW
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CAPERTEE VALLEY, 4th January 2002
Stubble Quail
Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Australasian Grebe
Little Pied Cormorant
White-faced Heron
Black-shouldered Kite
Brown Goshawk
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Little Eagle
Brown Falcon
Nankeen Kestrel
Black-fronted Dotterel
Masked Lapwing
Spotted Turtle-Dove
Common Bronzewing
Crested Pigeon
Peaceful Dove
Galah
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Musk Lorikeet
Little Lorikeet
Australian King-Parrot
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Red-rumped Parrot
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Laughing Kookaburra
Sacred Kingfisher
Rainbow Bee-eater
Superb Lyrebird
White-throated Treecreeper
Red-browed Treecreeper
Brown Treecreeper
Superb Fairy-wren
Variegated Fairy-wren
Spotted Pardalote
Striated Pardalote
Rockwarbler
White-browed Scrubwren
Speckled Warbler
White-throated Gerygone
Buff-rumped Thornbill
Yellow Thornbill
Noisy Friarbird
Regent Honeyeater
Bell Miner
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
Fuscous Honeyeater
White-plumed Honeyeater
Black-chinned Honeyeater
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Scarlet Honeyeater
Jacky Winter
Hooded Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
White-browed Babbler
Eastern Whipbird
Crested Shrike-tit
Rufous Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush
Leaden Flycatcher
Restless Flycatcher
Magpie-lark
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Olive-backed Oriole
White-browed Woodswallow
Dusky Woodswallow
Grey Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Australian Raven
Little Raven
White-winged Chough
Singing Bushlark
Richard's Pipit
House Sparrow
Zebra Finch
Double-barred Finch
Red-browed Finch
Diamond Firetail
Mistletoebird
Welcome Swallow
Tree Martin
Fairy Martin
Clamorous Reed-Warbler
Rufous Songlark
Silvereye
Common Starling
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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