Robin Murray and I took Friday 26th off and made a 4-day weekend of it, based
in the Capertee Valley.
Despite helping with the plantings to save the Regent Honeyeater, Robin had
never seen a Regent before. But she has now!!
At the Port Macquarie Road site, we saw 1 Regent in the trees, which had little
in the way of flowers and yet had
Olive-backed Oriole, Noisy Friarbird, Yellow-faced and White-plumed Honeyeater,
Fuscous HE. The Regent Honeyeater pecked at
leaves (lerps?), and particularly, sat still while it preened only 10 metres
away, giving excellent views. It also sang its
song, which I always think is quite ventriloqual as it opens its bill but the
sound isn't heard until a split second later.
Other goodies for the weekend included:
Plenty of finches except for the Plum-headed
Mistletoebird
Nankeen Kestrels - 5 unusually sitting on the ground for long periods, amongst
grass in a paddock, rather than flying
Australian Wood Duck - 200 "talking" a lot. And that rare sight of Wood Ducks
bathing in water. Their routine was to come
to the dam each morning, before 8am, bathe and swim a lot. Once out of the
water, they were never seen in the water again
that day.
Restless Flycatchers
Dusky Woodswallows
1 Brown Falcon in a particular spot near Glen Davis. We would have driven past
that spot at least 8 times over the 4 days,
and it was there every time.
Also spent very enjoyable time with Vicki Powys. Birding was good and it was a
pleasure to talk mammals, plants and orchids
with her. Thank you Vicki for your company during a lovely afternoon. This
included Little Eagle in pristine plumage, 2
Varied Sittellas in casuarina, and a Peaceful Dove was heard. 2 silent Glossy
Black-Cockatoos flew over.
Also in the valley were the following orchids:
Pterostylis truncata - 5 plants, with 2 showing nice fresh flowers
Pterostylis sp. aff revoluta, inland form, 2 fresh flowers
Genoplesium
Robin and I also went out of the valley. Wow - 2 platypus near Sofala. This
spot also gave us Azure Kingfisher.
Dunns Swamp (Kandos Weir) revealed a Speckled Warbler, very late afternoon (45
minutes before sunset).
Irene Denton
Concord West, 12 km from Sydney city, NSW Australia
33°50.278'S 151°05.406'E
Newsletter Editor, NSW Bird Atlassers
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