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Weekend at Capertee 6-8 Dec

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Subject: Weekend at Capertee 6-8 Dec
From: "Penelope Drake-Brockman" <>
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:22:37 +1100
Dear All
 
Spent a very enjoyable time at Grove Cottage in Capertee last weekend with 8 other birders, despite the fires which held us up briefly on Friday past Katoomba when the smoke was causing visibility problems near the Hydro Majestic and Blackheath.
 
Birding in the valley was as usual excellent, despite the dry conditions. We didn't find any Regent Honeyeaters, Plum-head Finches or Budgerigas, all reported fairly recently, but highlights were:
 
Goollooinboin station
Lots of Diamond Finches and Double-bars but no Southern Whiteface - usually common.
Red-kneed and Black-fronted Dotterels on the shrunken front dam (never seen this so low). Red-capped and Hooded robins, Speckled Warblers, Singing Bushlarks, Richards Pipits & Striped Honey eaters, Brown and White-throated treecreepers, 2 families Chough 8 and 12.
Painted Honeyeaters (2) - Red Rock Creek
 
Turquoise Parrots - on Goollooinboin and one on Station Road near the cattle grid as reported by David Geering.
 
Nankeen Night Heron sitting on the edge of a pool in the creek, plus a pair Sacred Kingfishers, Hooded Robin and Crested Shrike-tit - near the concrete bridge on the road that leads to Huntingdale (the old RHERP Site 10). A Spotted Pardalote was heard there - the only one I heard the whole weekend (spotted or striated).
 
4 Brown Quail, a Black-chinned Honeyeater, Sitellas and Diamond Firetails below the church at Glen Alice.
 
Still a few White-browed Woodswallows (including 2 juveniles) and White-winged Trillers near the bridge over the Capertee River at the junction of the Glen Alice/Glen Davis roads. And lots of Bee-eaters.
 
Raptors - few Wedge-tail and Little Eagles and kestrels, many Brown Falcons but no sigh of the reported Black or Square-tailed Kite.
 
Weather started cool and windy (cold at night) but by Sunday it had became calm and extremely smokey as the wind changed direction and blew smoke from fires further east through the Capertee River gap at Glen Davis. Fortunately our return to Sydney via Bells Line of Road was uneventful, the road through to Blackheath/Katoomba being closed.
 
All in all a super weekend with good mates and excellent vittals, even if a bit disturbed by foraging Wombats around my tent at night, but preferable to the mozzies inside the cottage.
 
 
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