As promised, here's the report of my Big Day in the Blue Mountains
(NSW) on 16 December 2004. As I previously explained, this was my
effort to find as many bird species as possible within the Blue
Mountains council boundaries in one day. Beforehand I'd spent a few
days checking out locations for particular birds and I wrote up a
run-sheet with my planned locations and tentative times. However as
things turned out, on the day I changed things as I went along,
shifting to a more ambitious plan in the afternoon as I found more
birds than expected while running a little ahead of time.
Thursday 16th December. I left my home in misty, drizzly Katoomba at
4:00am, about 1 hour 45 minutes before sunrise. In the back seat I'd
packed a box of ready-to-eat food and refreshing drinks to keep me
going for the long day ahead. I also had with me a small voice
cassette recorder to keep track of everything without wasting any
time writing. My first location was at Winmalee where, by torchlight,
I walked down the track to Blue Gum Swamp Creek, ready for the dawn
chorus in this tall forest of Eucalyptus deanei.
The first bird for the day was a Fan-tailed Cuckoo calling in the
darkness, shortly followed by a Koel. A Swamp Wallaby bounded off
through the undergrowth. As I was about to watch the day come to life
in Blue Gum Swamp, my heart suddenly sank as I realised I'd left my
binoculars in the car. Damn! I was torn between running back - a
kilometre uphill - to get them and missing some of the dawn chorus,
or staying and hoping that I didn't see any small or distant birds
that weren't calling. Just then an Eastern Yellow Robin kicked off
the dawn chorus, and my mind was made up to stay and listen.
Before long I heard the unmistakable call of a White-throated
Nightjar. Great - this was one I hadn't expected! A number of Brush
Bronzewings calling were another nice surprise. Other birds heard
here included Grey and Rufous Fantails, Superb Lyrebird, Brown
Cuckoo-Dove, Variegated Fairy-wren, Pilotbird, Black-faced Monarch
and Common Bronzewing. Glorious pink clouds signalled the sunrise and
the end of the dawn chorus. By this time I had already listed 30
species. A Wonga Pigeon became the fourth pigeon species at this
spot. Given my lack of binoculars I decided to move on to another
location early. After arriving back at the car, I made sure my
binoculars were my constant companion for the rest of the day!
Next stop was Yellow Rock for some drier and rockier habitat. No
sooner had I arrived when a Rockwarbler made its way around the
outcrops. What a relief to have this species under my belt so early
in the day - I would have hated to miss this one. Sacred Kingfisher,
Cicadabird, Spotted Pardalote, Rufous Whistler, Channel-billed Cuckoo
and Yellow-tufted Honeyeater (great - this meant I now wouldn't have
to do the Gorge track later in the morning).
I decided to make a quick unscheduled visit to Long Angle Creek to
make up for cutting short my stay in Blue Gum Swamp. I rushed some
distance down the steep track where I picked up Red-browed
Treecreeper and Peaceful Dove. Rushed back up to the car to find I
was still ahead of schedule. Good, keep going.
Driving through Springwood a White-headed Pigeon flew across in front
of the car. This meant I wouldn't have to stop to look for one at
Valley Heights - more time saved. Next stop was down in Sun Valley,
where I found Grey Goshawk, Yellow Thornbill, Eastern Rosella and a
handsome male Leaden Flycatcher, but there was no sign of the Jacky
Winter which I'd seen there the previous month.
Next it was on to Glenbrook Lagoon for the first waterbirds of the
day (apart from the Wood Ducks in Sun Valley). I took a few steps
toward the swamp and a Latham's Snipe burst out of the grass,
zig-zagging away over the reeds. One of the Purple Swamphens had
three half-grown young, while the others hassled me in the hope of a
handout. I hung around the reeds searching for Little Grassbird or
Reed-Warbler but sadly they didn't oblige. Little Wattlebird, Common
Blackbird and Red-whiskered Bulbul went onto the list, among others.
By this time I was very pleased with my progress as it was not yet
8:30 and I had 70 species already.
I arrived at the National Park entrance just after 8:30 when the gate
opens. Hoping for a few different species on the shale soil at the
Ironbarks, I wasn't disappointed. The ironbark trees were in flower
and the treetops were full of Scarlet Honeyeaters. I also found
Sittella, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, White-throated Gerygone, and an
unexpected Jacky Winter.
After leaving the national park it was time to head down to the
Nepean River track. This necessitated leaving the Blue Mountains
boundaries at Emu Heights in order to access the track which would
take me back into the allowable area. So, for a while I had to ignore
any birds I saw (even the Rainbow Bee-eater), and a locked gate meant
that I had to walk almost a kilometre before I could start counting
birds again. But it was worth it. Along the Blue Mountains section of
river, from the junction of Fitzgeralds Creek northwards, I added
Mistletoebird, Bar-shoulderd Dove, Bell Miner, Olive-backed Oriole,
Brush Cuckoo, Clamorous Reed-Warbler and a Dollarbird. A lyrebird ran
along in front of me, while along the water's edge were Darter,
Pelican and Dusky Moorhen. Unfortunately the Black Swans were on the
wrong side of the river! A loudly calling Peregrine Falcon flew over
Mt Riverview.
By now the day was getting hotter and it was time to move up to
higher altitudes. On the way to the upper mountains I called in on my
friends Deirdre and Ivor at Woodford, where I had a quick lunch in
their beautiful bush garden while a Black-faced Monarch called, and I
was able to tick Red-browed Finch. Surprisingly I still hadn't seen a
House Sparrow but in the leafy streets of Woodford I finally found
one, bringing the tally to 90.
Now the middle of the day isn't the best time for seeing heathland
birds, but I had to be somewhere at this time and Kings Tableland was
next on the agenda. At least I was fairly confident of finding Glossy
Black-Cockatoos, if nothing else. No sooner had I got out of the car
when a faint call got my attention. I squeaked and sure enough, a
male Southern Emu-wren popped up onto the top of a bush! How lucky
was that!
I found recent chewings made by Glossy Black-Cockatoos and a
Beautiful Firetail's feather floating in a small puddle - now all I
needed to find were the birds themselves. Eventually I heard the
Beautiful Firetail calling, ever so faintly. Good enough to tick, but
that's all. More heat, flies and silence. I was just about to give up
on any more birds here when suddenly a clear sustained song started
up from the bushes nearby.... Chestnut-rumped Heathwren! I gave up on
the Glossy Blacks and headed off to the lake.
At Wentworth Falls Lake I caught up with Tree Martins, Hardheads and
two species of cormorant -
and the reptilian highlight of the day, a Blue Mountains Water Skink.
Unfortunately there was no sign of the Grey Currawongs that had been
feeding young just a week or so ago. I thought I'd acquired a mascot
when a very strange white fancy pigeon sat on my roof rack and was
most reluctant to leave - but I resisted the temptation to count it
even though I still needed Feral Pigeon. Instead I detoured through
Katoomba's town centre in order to tick a proper roadpecker. I then
worked up another sweat on a quick jaunt to get two more
"certainties" - Hoary-headed and Australasian Grebe.
I was now up to 99 species and going very well for time, and I no
longer needed to go to my planned Peregrine site, so I changed the
itinerary by driving to Mt Banks, half an hour each way to pick up
Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. Sure enough, a pair of Tawny-crowneds were
there to greet me. They appeared to be carrying insects to feed young
and gave me such great views that this ended up being what was close
to the highlight of my day. White-eared Honeyeater was another
addition, as was a Dusky Woodswallow, but again the Grey Currawong
eluded me.
Back at Blackheath I had scouted out a location for Flame Robin which
involved another steep walk. Down I headed and.... nothing. Waited,
eventually the Flame Robin called. Great! Back up the hill, another
sweat raised.
It was now getting much harder to find new species. With two hours to
sunset I headed down into the Megalong Valley, the last stage of the
day's birding and with new habitats awaiting. In the rainforest
section I added Yellow-throated Scrubwren and Rose Robin.
The site I had chosen for the end of the day was on the Six Foot
Track, in semi-cleared farming country with a whole suite of
different birds. Again, it involved a brisk walk but soon I had
White-winged Chough, White-winged Triller, Rufous Songlark, a pair of
Scarlet Robins, Goldfinch, Richard's Pipit, Buff-rumped Thornbill,
another Dusky Woodswallow, Brush Cuckoo, Dollarbird, and numerous
Stubble Quails which seemed to be scattered all through the
pastureland. Another Peregrine Falcon perched in a dead tree, no
doubt watching for errant Stubble Quails, and three Yellow-tailed
Black-Cockatoos sailed majestically by.
So there I was at sunset, standing on a ridge in the Megalong Valley
with a 360 degree view, the cliffs all around glowing brilliant red,
scanning the sky for the two Wedge-tailed Eagles that I'd seen here
at sunset three days before. Unfortunately they didn't appear. What
else was I missing? The day was almost over and I realised I still
didn't have Willie Wagtail. Wait a minute... there on the fence - a
Willie Wagtail, just in the nick of time!
By dusk my total was 119 species. I ate a basic "dinner" at the Old
Ford Reserve, listening to the dusk chorus and planning my
owl-searching activities. As soon as it was dark I drove back up into
the forest to look for Boobook and Sooty Owls. I listened at all the
spots I've heard them before, I did some spotlighting, but there was
no sign of any owls although I did hear a Sugar Glider and saw some
fireflies blinking in the darkness. I guess it's not the best time of
year for owls to be calling. I then drove to my Owlet-nightjar sites
near Leura and Katoomba - again with no luck - but I did see Tawny
Frogmouths at two spots. I called it a day at 11:30pm, tired but very
happy with 120 species.
There were a few species that I'd hoped for and missed such as the
Glossy Black-Cockatoo, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, the Horsfield's Bronze
that I'd seen three days earlier, Large-billed Scrubwren,
Brown-headed, White-naped and Crescent Honeyeaters, Crested
Shrike-tit, Satin Flycatcher, Grey Currawong and Bassian Thrush. And
would you believe, I had a Boobook sitting outside my house the very
next night. There was a distinct lack of honeyeaters nearly
everywhere with nothing significant in flower except for the
ironbarks at Glenbrook. It would be interesting to try the same
exercise at another time of year.
Cheers
Carol
Carol Probets
Katoomba
Blue Mountains, NSW
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