We have just had a great week 12-19/9/02 looking at birds at Chiltern,
which is in Victoria between Wodonga and Wangaratta. The big attraction of
Chiltern is the Box-Iron Bark National Park. Our visit was timed to catch
the box and the iron-barks flowering, but they weren't, presumably because
of the dry seasonal conditions. We had hoped to see both the regent and
painted honeyeaters, but this was not to be.
We worked extremely hard, and were well rewarded, scoring 45-55 species on
our daily list. We "ticked" seven new species, namely:
Painted Button-quail (Turnix varia)
Turquoise Parrot (Neophema pulchella)
Black-eared Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx osculans)
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren (Hylacola pyrrhopygia)
Fuscous Honeyeater (Lichenostomus fuscus)
Black-chinned Honeyeater (Melithreptus gularis)
White-browed Woodswallow (Artamus superciliosus)
Other "specials" for us (birds we don't see very often) were diamond
firetail finch, golden whistler, rufous whistler, yellow-tufted honeyeater,
spotted quailthrush, olive-backed oriole, white-bellied cuckoo-shrike,
red-kneed dotterel and crested shrike-tit. We saw four different cuckoos.
A bonus was that we spotlighted and got a good look at a squirrel glider.
We were greatly helped in finding our way about by a guide to birdwatching
in Chiltern, "Bird Trails of Chiltern", by Barry Traill. We received our
copy gratis but we saw it on sale at the visitor information centre for $3.
We highly recommend it.
Colin and Yvonne Field
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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