hi all
my wife and took a drive out to sofala near bathurst NSW and capertee valley
west of sydney on the weekend.
a little eagle on the way to oberon and striated pardalotes at o'connell were
the main highlights of the drive up. all that area and the other side of
bathurst is still very dry.
on sunday at capertee valley, we saw several brown falcons in various phases,
wedge-tailed eagles and a marsh harrier.
the campground at glen davis was pretty quiet but the rocky slope above the
dump was alive with birds. there were weebills, little lorikeets, yellow-faced,
white-naped, white-plumed HEs and a possible white-eared HE (big question mark,
seen v briefly) and lots of white-throated treecreepers. a highlight was a pair
of rock warblers doing their distraction routine for us.
one spot on genowlan rd (the rise before the bridge) yielded beautiful
turquoise parrots, a flock of diamond firetails, double-barred finches, painted
button quails, fuscous HEs, a yellow robin and a bunch of white-browed babblers.
genowlan creek at the bridge was quiet (except for hoons doing burnouts in the
neighbouring property). here we saw a white-bellied cuckoo-shrike and a crested
shrike-tit, with dusky wood swallows overhead.
this was one of a few spots we tried for regent honeyeaters but sadly dipped
despite recent glowing reports. i could blame the hoons but the white box
looked to have finished flowering here (what a difference a week or two makes).
there was however a regent spotted earlier by another birder on the main rd
outside boom boom station where the white box was in bloom.
there were a few swift parrots there too (thanks to john for pointing them out
- i would have missed them not knowing the call), as well as common
bronzewings, little lorikeets, red-rumped parrots, eastern and crimson
rosellas, jacky winters and pipits along the road.
the white box was well out all along crown station rd but mobbed with noisy
friarbirds. i'm not sure if they compete with regents but they were giving
noisy miners short shrift.
a disconcerting sight was a couple of trees so thick with starlings, they were
like black leaves.
so no regents but a great day out - seeing turks for the second time (first
time in 25 years) was worth the trip alone.
there were at least four other carloads of birders on the regents' trail on
sunday so i look forward to reading some reports.
shane b
vaucluse
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