I made a brief trip late last week to the Forbes region in the Central West
of NSW and although I was not intensively birding (e.g. no dawn starts) I
did manage to check out a couple of interesting places.
Any birder travelling through Forbes should make a point of stopping at Gum
Swamp, which is 4km south-west of town right next to the Newell Highway -
it's impossible to miss! There is a bird hide overlooking a reedy patch but
as is often the case, I found it a lot more productive to quietly walk
along the tracks around the edge of the swamp. Highlights here on Friday
included 16 Freckled Ducks, one male Blue-billed Duck (despite scoping the
entire swamp I found no evidence of the large numbers of these reported
there recently), at least 200 Pink-eared Ducks, a similar number of
Hardheads, many Grey Teal, Shovelers, Hoary-headed and Australasian Grebes,
one Musk Duck, hundreds of Tree Martins, very vocal Little Grassbirds and a
much quieter Reed-Warbler, Cockatiels, a White-bellied Sea-Eagle and close
views of a Whistling Kite dismembering an unidentifiable prey item. Not to
mention the White-breasted Woodswallows which are close contenders for my
favourite bird, and a Swamp Wallaby moving around the shore.
Continuing out towards Condobolin on the back roads I stopped at Manna
Mountain and an interesting Aboriginal site which is adjacent to the State
Forest, and well signposted. It was one of those great spots where small
birds are in abundance. Before leaving the carpark I was closely surrounded
by a mixed flock including Red-capped Robin, Speckled Warbler, 4 species of
thornbill (Chestnut-rumped, Inland, Yellow and Yellow-rumped), Weebill,
Variegated Fairy-wren, and Golden and Rufous Whistlers.
The country out that way is still very dry - certainly no breaking of the
drought yet.
I also travelled south to Conimbla National Park which is between
Gooloogong and Cowra. In cool, overcast and slightly damp conditions I did
two beautiful walks along rocky ridges and through various vegetation
communities. Although the birdlife was fairly quiet at the time the birds I
found were generally more coastal species and mostly similar to those I see
at home. Highlights included a male Spotted Quail-thrush, Brown-headed,
White-eared and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, Golden Whistler, Brown
Treecreeper and a party of six Glossy Black-Cockatoos which I finally
tracked down as they munched away in a grove of Allocasuarina distyla. (The
plant which is called A. distyla in that area looks completely different to
the A. distyla in the Blue Mountains - the fruit are less than half the
size, without a pointed end, the foliage much finer, and the plant overall
is much spindlier - are any botanists out there able to comment?)
The only other interesting sighting was while travelling out on Thursday,
there were 8 Blue-billed Ducks (4 male and 4 female) on a dam at Meadow
Flat between Lithgow and Bathurst. This is the same dam where they have
regularly been seen in the past.
Cheers
Carol
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains NSW
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