After some good rain there is now water running in the Capertee River
and as usual, lot of good birds around. However the Mugga Ironbarks
have almost finished flowering and for the first time in several
months we saw no Regent Honeyeaters (despite a number of them being
present just over a week earlier). On the plus side the Box Mistletoe
is just starting to flower with many more buds ready to open, so this
will be worth watching over the coming weeks.
At sunset on Tuesday when we arrived at April Mills' cottage, there
were at least 100 Rainbow Bee-eaters swirling around in a tight flock
- a spectacular sight and sound! They were obviously getting ready to
roost and we saw them again at dawn the next morning (I recall a
recent thread on flocking Bee-eaters at roost). They matched the
other type of rainbow we saw, with rainstorms and blue sky moving
around in typical dramatic Capertee Valley fashion.
Other highlights on Tues-Wed included about 6 White-backed Swallows
at the Glen Davis Rd-Glen Alice Rd junction, Plum-headed Finches,
Scarlet Honeyeater and Southern Whitefaces at Coco Creek,
Grey-crowned Babblers along the Glen Alice Rd and a brilliant display
by two Hobbies. On my land we got great views of a pair of Turquoise
Parrots quietly feeding on the ground, probably on native grass seeds
in dense woodland. Striped Honeyeaters have become vocal and easy to
find in the flowering mistletoe and there was a Stubble Quail in the
front paddock.
The magnificent Capertee Valley is about 3 hours north-west of Sydney
in the NSW central tablelands.
Cheers,
Carol
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