Hello Birders,
I was back in the Capertee Valley again early this week and the good news
is that it rained for a whole day on Tuesday, clearing just in time for me
to show visiting British birders Martyn and Veronica Bailey around on
Wednesday, together with Capertee Valley resident April Mills. We found a
total of 112 species for the day while getting our shoes muddy for a
change. Let's hope there is more rain to come so that it can actually soak
into the drought-hardened ground.
The main highlights were a Diamond Dove near the river, Turquoise Parrots
at two spots including 5 on Crown Station Road, Painted Honeyeaters at a
couple of locations, and good numbers of Plum-headed Finches; and a calling
button-quail which I believe was probably a Red-chested, due to the type of
call and the habitat where we heard it. The Budgerigars were still at their
usual spot - how wonderful to be able to show visitors free-flying wild
budgies so close to Sydney!
We also saw seven raptors including nice scope views of a perched Little
Eagle at Coco Creek; a few Plum-heads and Grey-crowned Babblers near the
Goollooinboin gate; Singing Bushlarks perched on the roadside fence down
towards Glen Davis; Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos flying down the gorge
from Glen Davis; White-winged Trillers and White-browed Woodswallows at
several places; two largish flocks of Little Ravens between Glen Davis &
Glen Alice. As usual, around April's cottage were Diamond Firetails, Zebra
Finches, Crested Shrike-tits, Black-chinned, Yellow-tufted & Fuscous
Honeyeaters and many more.
As for non-birds, we watched a Yellow-footed Antechinus which ran along a
log in front of us, four species of macropod, and a healthy wombat which
decided to bolt out of its burrow just as we walked past. It seemed every
Bearded Dragon was out sunning itself on the road, a hazardous pastime for
a lizard and we only narrowly avoided running over a couple.
Below is our full list of species. The beautiful Capertee Valley is in the
NSW Central Tablelands, about 3 hours north-west of Sydney.
Carol
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Capertee Valley, 11 December 2002
Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Australasian Shoveler
Grey Teal
Hardhead
Australasian Grebe
Little Pied Cormorant
White-faced Heron
White-necked Heron
Straw-necked Ibis
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Black-shouldered Kite
Brown Goshawk
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Little Eagle
Brown Falcon
Australian Hobby
Nankeen Kestrel
Dusky Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Black-fronted Dotterel
Masked Lapwing
Common Bronzewing
Crested Pigeon
Diamond Dove
Peaceful Dove
Wonga Pigeon
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
Galah
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Little Lorikeet
Australian King-Parrot
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Red-rumped Parrot
Budgerigar
Turquoise Parrot
Fan-tailed 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
Weebill
White-throated Gerygone
Brown Thornbill
Buff-rumped Thornbill
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Yellow Thornbill
Noisy Friarbird
Bell Miner
Noisy Miner
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
Fuscous Honeyeater
White-plumed Honeyeater
Black-chinned Honeyeater
Brown-headed Honeyeater
White-naped Honeyeater
Painted Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Jacky Winter
Hooded Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey-crowned Babbler
White-browed Babbler
Varied Sittella
Crested Shrike-tit
Rufous Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush
Restless Flycatcher
Magpie-lark
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Cicadabird
White-winged Triller
Olive-backed Oriole
White-browed Woodswallow
Dusky Woodswallow
Grey Butcherbird
Pied Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Australian Raven
Little Raven
White-winged Chough
Singing Bushlark
Richard's Pipit
House Sparrow
Zebra Finch
Double-barred Finch
Plum-headed Finch
Red-browed Finch
Diamond Firetail
Mistletoebird
Welcome Swallow
Tree Martin
Fairy Martin
Clamorous Reed-warbler
Rufous Songlark
Common Starling
^^^^^^^
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains NSW
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