Hi birders,
Last weekend (12-13 August) was the Capertee Valley tree planting
weekend and although the number of volunteers was a little less than
usual (around 40-50 plus a group of 30 uni students), we comfortably
managed to get all 3000 trees into the ground on Saturday, leaving
Sunday free for birding or relaxing.
The conditions were perfect for planting as rain a couple of weeks
earlier had made the soil moist. A number of other Birding-Aus
contributors (past and present) attended, including Neil Kirby, Ricki
Coughlan, Chris Ross, Jill Molan, Dick Turner and David Geering. (My
apologies if I've omitted anyone... please let me know.)
Our planting site was a beautiful undulating property "Ngamperi" on
Crown Station Road at the foot of Pantoney's Crown. Ngamperi's owners
Dominic and Kerry also happen to be the project's new nursery people,
growing and providing the trees for our future plantings (after the
well-earned retirement last year of the Pridmores at Rylstone). This
was our third planting on their property so in a few years it should
be a really superb patch of woodland for Regent Honeyeaters and other
birds, adjoining the Gardens of Stone National Park.
While we worked on Saturday, the calls of Black-chinned Honeyeaters
from the mature White Box trees provided a tantalising soundtrack
throughout the day. A pair of Hooded Robins also hung around, as did
Fuscous Honeyeaters and Brown Treecreepers, while Mistletoebirds and
Little Lorikeets zapped around. A Wedge-tailed Eagle soared overhead
and around lunchtime a flock of martins (both species) also flew over.
A Jacky Winter had the honour of being the first bird to actually
make use of the new planting site as it perched on the many bamboo
stakes and flew down to grab insects along the rip-lines, before we'd
even finished planting.
Near Dominic and Kerry's house, a lone Rainbow Lorikeet was an
unusual sighting for the valley.
The Saturday night dinner at Glen Alice is always fantastic and is
where Sunday's birding activities are planned and announced. From my
most recent visits during the previous week, I knew that Regent
Honeyeaters had turned up at one of their regular breeding sites at
Glenowlan Bridge. And on Sunday morning we weren't disappointed as 3
pairs of Regents were seen by those who came along. For some of the
volunteers it was their first view of the bird that they had put in
so much effort to help. At the same site, a single Plum-headed Finch
was seen resting at the top of a dead tree for less than a minute
before it flew off.
Later on Sunday afternoon at my place, Ricki Coughlan, Nick Bishop,
Madeleine Murray and Orlando Murray called in for a cup of tea and a
friendly visit and look around. Among other things we found
Brown-headed Honeyeaters building a nest near my cabin, Striped
Honeyeaters, and to top off a great weekend, a pair of Painted
Button-quail strolling across the campsite by the main dam. They then
proceeded to scratch around for ten minutes or so as we watched them
creating their distinctive platelets (circular scrapes), giving us a
good view of the behaviour of these normally difficult to observe
birds.
The tree planting weekends are a great way to get introduced to this
wonderful valley and participate in a very worthwhile and successful
project. The next tree planting weekend will be held next autumn -
watch this space for details as they come to hand. The Capertee
Valley is in the NSW central tablelands, about 3 hours north-west of
Sydney.
cheers
Carol
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Carol Probets
PO Box 330
Katoomba NSW 2780
Phone (02) 4782 1831
Email:
Guided birding in the Blue Mountains & Capertee Valley
ABN 73 550 267 027
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