Hi all,
A slightly late report as I've been busy this week.
As last weekend (15-16 May) was the Regent Honeyeater/Swift Parrot
search weekend, I spent some time doing searches in the currently
very dry and dusty Capertee Valley. Unfortunately the drought is
still really taking its toll and there were very few nectarivores at
all and as I half expected, not a sign of either of these two
endangered species. The only flowering I came across over the weekend
was a single White Box still in flower near Port Macquarie Road and a
single Yellow Box at a site along the Capertee River. There were also
two Little Lorikeets at Glen Alice which were probably feeding on
lerps.
However the surveying did give me the opportunity to visit a site
along the river which I hadn't been to for a number of months, as
it's private property and not normally accessible to birders. This is
the site where a flock of Budgerigars have established themselves for
the past couple of years, obviously drought refugees from further
inland, so I was particularly interested to see if they were still
around. No sooner had we got out of the car when I noticed a tree
covered in Budgies! They hung around the whole time we surveyed the
site and we estimated there were about 30 in the flock. I find it
amazing that the flock is so loyal to that site. In fact apart from a
couple of sightings in other parts of the valley when they first
moved into the area two years ago, I don't think they have been seen
anywhere else in the valley, not even at a regularly visited river
crossing just a couple of kilometres away.
At this site I also heard a late or overwintering Pallid Cuckoo
calling briefly. Plum-headed Finches were seen at a couple of sites,
with good numbers of finches generally throughout the valley.
At my place, a group of five mostly beginner birdwatchers that I was
guiding on Saturday were suitably impressed when a resplendent male
Red-capped Robin put on a great show for us as if modelling his
plumage on a catwalk. This was followed by nice views of Turquoise
Parrots at Glen Davis, after some perseverance. Nothing like good
views of colourful birds to get new birders hooked!
On Sunday at lunch time, a bus drove up the long driveway to my cabin
and out piled members of the Blue Mountains Bird Observers who were
on a day trip to the valley. Unfortunately by this time a strong wind
had sprung up, making birding difficult but we found a relatively
sheltered spot on some rocks for lunch. All of the group managed to
see the Red-capped Robin and the three Spotted Quail-thrush which are
still proving relatively easy to find around the cabin and the dams.
I was back in the valley on Tuesday to meet a representative from the
insurance company. It was a grey overcast but calm day, and there
were birds everywhere! If only it had been a day like that on Sunday
when the club visited!
Friday I was back yet again and it was even better still - a perfect
autumn day in the valley and the whole morning non-stop birds around
the cabin. Nothing really unusual but there were Sittellas, Zebra and
Double-barred Finches, Diamond Firetails, Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters
coming to the birdbath 15 at a time, Black-chinned Honeyeaters,
Little Lorikeets, Southern Whitefaces, flocks of White-naped
Honeyeaters travelling over..... the list goes on. And of course
those Spotted Quail-thrush. Then, almost as if there were too many
birds, suddenly I heard alarm calls and out of the blue came a Brown
Goshawk swooping and twisting and diving through the trees, making a
hell of a racket as it chased a smaller bird. It was gone before I
could see the outcome, but after that everything went deathly silent
for a while.
I spent most of Friday sorting through the soot-covered contents of
the cabin, making a huge list of everything inside. While trying to
clean up some of the items, I turned on the tap at the bottom of the
water tank and out came a Peron's Tree Frog! It didn't take long
before it had climbed back in. Every time I turned on this tap to get
water, out it shot again - the poor little frog repeatedly getting
swirled around in the bucket of water, arms and legs straining as it
tried unsuccessfully to maintain some control against the current!
When I left late on Friday afternoon I was delighted to see a pair of
Flame Robins on the fence of a neighbouring paddock. However, they
didn't fly across onto my block and so my property list remains on
108.
Thanks to all those people who have sent emails about the fire in the
cabin. I'm still waiting for the insurance to be sorted out. So far,
three assessors have been to look at it. The entire contents have
been written off - nothing is considered salvageable - and it's
looking like the building will be written off too, which means I'll
be getting a completely new cabin. I think I'll throw a big party
when that happens!
Cheers
Carol
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains and Capertee Valley, NSW
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