Good afternoon Birders,
Had an excellent day's birding with graham Turner this morning, poking
around Castlereagh Nature Reserve, about 10 minutes north of Penrith.
Our prime goal was to check out the many Mugga Ironbarks in the area
to see how they were flowering. We covered most of the Reserve on
foot, the best flowering trees found in the South-West corner;
virtually none of the areas seemed to be producing any flowers.
Birding highlights were many and varied, mostly a selection of
stunning and abundant encounters with local favourites. Fuscous
HoneyEaters were common and vocal, with widely varying plumage and
bill colours If nothing else it was an excellent opportunity to try
and memorise their amazing array of calls. Also among the Fuscous were
Brown-Headed and White-Naped HE's, Yellow, Buff-Rumped and Striated
Thornbills, agitated Weebills, Spinebills and loose flocks of Red
Wattle Birds, a good sign that there's some nectar about. I
particularly enjoyed excellent views of a large flock of Double-Barred
Finches and a close encounter with a Grey Goshawk. A Crested
Shrike-Tit on the walk out was an unexpected bonus.
Oddly none of the Red robins of recent reports were encountered (a few
rose were though), no Speckled Warbler either which I've been trying
for ther for about a year now with no joy.
But there is an air of promise at the moment. In a 10 minute walk from
the car I think there's a strong possibility that Regent Honeyeater or
Swift Parrot might be found, and maybe Turquoise Parrots at a stretch.
I'll be checking back in there regularly over the next couple of
weeks, and I urge others to do the same.
Evan
--
Evan Beaver
Lapstone, Blue Mountains, NSW
lat=-33.77, lon=150.64
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
