SUNDAY December 7th
A 7.30 A.M. start today as we travelled east towards Finley, checking out
rice fields on the way. Many birds were seen feeding in the fields including:
Yellow-Billed Spoonbill
Royal Spoonbill
White-Necked
Herons numerous
White-Faced Herons
Little Egret
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Straw-Necked Ibis
Sacred
Ibis
In one tree there was an Australian Hobby, Australian Kestrel, and
a White-faced Heron all with nests. The White-faced Heron had three large chicks
trying their best to stay in the nest.
We stopped at a dam to look for Bitterns and weren?t disappointed as both
a Black-Backed and an Australasian Bittern were calling along with
numerous Little Grassbirds. At one point we flushed the Black-backed Bittern, a
male, and got good but brief views before it dived back into the reeds. Other
birds present here were Whiskered Tern and Zebra Finch.
Moving on we saw a Laughing Kookaburra that had just caught a metre or so
long Brown Snake and proceeded to whip it to death. Blue Bonnets and
Cockatiel were seen whilst driving. We stopped at various dams, water
holes and rice fields and found a few more birds such as Glossy Ibis (5 or 6),
Australasian Grebe and Hoary-headed Grebe, Red-Necked Stint and an
Australian Spotted Crake was heard calling in a reed bed.
As the weekend was drawing to a close we drove back towards Deni stopping
to check out some flowering Eremophilas. This proved very productive with
several honeyeaters present, including:
Black
Pied
White-Fronted
Striped
Singing
White-Plumed
One of the White-fronted Honeyeaters was mimicking a Singing Honeyeater,
which we surmised might have been so they were not chased away from the food
source, Very interesting though. A quick trip around town when we got back
added:
Red-Browed Finch
Silvereye
Sacred Kingfisher
Nankeen Night Heron.
I started the long trip home by driving to an overnight stop in Griffith
to have another look at Binya State Forest for some birds I had missed on the
way down. Turning off the Newell Highway and onto the Kidman Way at the southern
end there was a group of about two dozen Black-tailed Native-hens in the grass
around some roadside puddles and two Emus in the paddock.
Went to JD?s Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Griffith for
dinner, which I could thoroughly recommend. It is great to relax with a beer and
good meal after a good days birding.
