Easter Birding (late trip report)

["Graham Turner" <>]

Gidday Birders,

                        It seems like a lot of people headed inland for birding over the Easter / Anzac weekends, judging from the number of trip reports. I too headed inland, but for work, but managed to fit in a little birding on the way. I put in a RFI to David Geering as I was heading towards Dubbo and was given some excellent advice.

 

First stop was at Guerie Cemetery (Guerie is about 30Km south-east of Dubbo on the Mitchell Hwy) with the cemetery on the Wellington side of town. This pocket handkerchief size remnant of Callitris and Eucalypt was absolutely full of birds even thoug I arrived at 11:00 am. I dipped on the Plum-headed finch that I was after, but saw a great variety of woodland birds such as Red-capped Robin (gotta love that call) Speckled Warbler, White-browed Babbler, Diamond Firetail and Crested Shrike-tit. In all I saw 30 species in an hour, not bad for the middle of the day. It always amazes me just how good birding near cemetaries can be.

 

The second stop was at Guerie Bald Hill Reserve, which is on the western side of the town of Guerie. This much larger reserve (though still quite small) was very different, as the birds were behaving much as you would expect in the middle of the day. Birds seen were silimar to the cemetary, but were less vocal and harder to find, but still worth a look. Again about 30 species, but I dipped on the Red-winged Parrot. I would have stayed longer but work called, literally, so I had to move on.

 

I can't say thank you enough to David Geering for his advice on places to visit, and highly recommened these spots as a brief stop over if on a long trip in the area.

 

Cheers

Graham Turner