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Hi all,
On the 2/10/2004 my family and I went on a
trip to Bourke.
The official bird list started as we left Sydney,
with most of the usual roadside birds and Little
Eagle,Chough and White-necked
Heron.
The firts birding stop was
Rawsonville Bridge, just out of Wellington off the Mitchell
Highway.
The paddocks around the creek seemed
alive with the constant metallic sounding calls of the Rufous
Songlarks which where very plentiful everywhere we
stopped.
Other birds here included a pair of Black
Kite and many Sacred
Kingfishers, Peaceful Doves and Clamorous
Reed-warbler which calling from the river banks.
The next and final stop for the day was Narromine
were we stayed the night in a Hotel.
Narromine provided many interesting birds including
a lone Australian Hobby which was seen quietly feeding on
the carcass of a sparrow in the grounds of the Court House Hotel.
We had a barbequed dinner at the
park in the centre of the town.
Surprisingly this spot had many species
including Yellow-throated Miner, Little
Friarbird, Rainbow Bee-eater, White-plumed
Honeyeater,Red-rump Parrot, Little
Raven,Blue-faced Honeyeater, Rufous songlark
and some more common species. Four black Cockatoos flew past the park
but I was unable to identify them as they were quite far away, the call they
made was definitely not Yellow-tail so I was tossing up over Glossy or
Redtail.
After dinner we went on a drive up Derribong Ave,
not many birds were seen Only Noisy Miner, Chough and Little
Raven.
On the returning to town a lone Magpie
Goose was seen flying by Derribong Ave.
The next Morning (3/10/04) I got up at
5:00am and went back down to the park. This time I saw a few more species
including Noisy Friarbird,Red Wattlebird and a
Sacred Ibis and 8 Little
Pied Cormorants flew over.
On the road to Nyngan saw a male
White-winged Triller, Pelicans, more Black
Kites, Apostle Bird, Nankeen Kestrel and
a Wedgetailed Eagle being mobbed by a corvid species and
Magpies.
A huge flock of about 50 Pelicans was seen fly over
the Mitchell Highway at Nevertire.
Back on the Mitchell Highway after Nyngan we saw
Grey-crowned Babblers, and a Spotted Harrier
just after Clarincar station.
Emus were seen as
well.
We decided to offshoot down a long windy
road which came off the Mitchell Highway called Caringbah Road. A few stops
were made every now and then and I managed to see 'Purple Backed'
(Variegated) Fairywren, Mallee Ringneck,
Bluebonnet, more Grey-crowned Babblers and some other more
common species.
At 2:27pm that day we reached Byrock, it was rather
hot and silent when we stopped on the side of the road to have a
rest.
I only managed to see a pair of Red-capped
Robins and 4 Budgerigars which flew past.
Eventually we reached Bourke, in the township we
saw Fairy Martins,Tree
Martins,Sulpher-crested Cockatoo,Welcome
Swallow,Crested Pigeon and other more common
species.
We decided to stay at the Kidman way Riverside
Caravan Park.
This was a superb Birding spot with
Pale-headed Rosella,Yellow
Thornbill,Little Corella,Cockatiel
and Mallee Ringneck.
The next Morning at 6:00am I walked along
the Darling River seeing mostly the same species with Nankeen
Night-heron, Striated Pardalote, Whistling
Kite,Restless Flycatcher,Brown
Treecreeper, Little Crow,Grey
Teal,Darter,Wooduck,Chough
and a flock of 30+ Red-tailed Black Cockatoos.
A Royal Spoonbill flew over
aswell.
At 12:40pm we went on a walk called "Major
Mitchells Stockade" in the Wildlife Refuge. The walk en circled a lake
which was nearly dry.
We saw many species: White-browed
Woodswallow, Masked Woodswallow,Jacky
Winter, Cockatiels,Rufous Songlarks,Grey-crowned Babblers,
Yellow-throated Miner,White-winged Trillers,Sacred
KIngfishers,Weebill, Black-fronted Dotteral
and a pair of Brolgas which were cruising the thermals high in
the sky above the dry lake.
On the way back to the Caravan park we stopped at a
huge dam which was there for growing cotton.
Around this huge lake we saw a group of
Orange Chat, Whiskered Tern and other more
common species.
(5/10/04)On the way home we went through
Brewarrina, Walgett,Coonamble,Gullargambone,Gillgandra and back to
Wellington.
Some of the birds we saw on the trip back included
another large flock of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos which were seen at on the Road
to Walgett.
White-breasted Woodswallows in Brewarrina
Township.
Just as we were about to enter Walgett we decided
to travel North to visit the Glengarry opal fields, along the road we saw many
interesting species including Western Gerygone,Crested
Bellbird,Red-capped Robin,Little Eagle, Pale headed Rosella, Mallee
Ringneck, Red-winged Parrot, Hooded
Robin and others.
In the town Gilgandra there was a mixed flock
of White-browed and Masked Woodswallows over head.
Also in the grounds of a pub there was a nesting
Brown Honeyeater.
Our last stop for the night was Wellington were we
stayed at the Riverside Caravan Park.
(6/10/2004) In the morning I walked down to the
River were I saw quite a few species including Brown Goshawk,
Little Friarbird, Horsefields Bronze-cuckoo,Peaceful Dove,
King Parrot and Crimison Rosella
and Darter among others.
At 10:30 am we set off back home travelling through
Orange and Bathurst on the way.
We didn't see many birds of interest a few
Brown Falcons and a couple of Little Eagles.
Overall we had a fantastic trip seeing 113 species
of birds.
Regards,
Kurtis Lindsay
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