Yesterday (19/5/07), Stuart Pickering, David Mitford and myself had a good
days birding in the beautiful Capertee Valley (approx. 190km north-west of
Sydney CBD).
It was great to get the rare opportunity to do a "full day's" birding and
visit a place I have not been for quite some time.
On our Way up we made a brief stop at the Lithgow Sewerage Works where we
saw 7 Blue-billed Ducks (4 males with nice blue bills and 3 females/
Immature birds), 2 Hardhead, 50 Pink-eared Ducks, 40 Australasian Shoveler
and at least 30 Hoary-headed Grebes.
We arrived at Capertee sometime after 9 am and about 17km down the Capertee
Road we saw our first 7 Plum-headed Finches (once you know their call you
realise how common they are in the valley), a Collared Sparrowhawk, 3
Wedge-tailed Eagles, 2 King Parrots, Crested Shrike-tit, a male Hooded and
juv./female Rose Robin, a few White-browed Babblers, Brown Tree-creepers,
Eastern Whipbirds, Double-barred Finches, several Satin Bowerbirds and
Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters. This spot in the valley has a good mix of wet and
dry country birds.
A few more km down the road, we had very good views of 8 Plum-headed Finches
sitting a few metres in front of us on a fence (waiting to get their picture
taken by David), a male Rufous Songlark and an Immature male Hooded Robin.
At the Glen Alice Cemetery (which was rather quiet unlike other times we've
been there) produced few birds including a Fan-tailed Cuckoo, a Brown
Tree-creeper inspecting a nest hollow, a Common Bronze-wing and a few Little
Corellas amongst lots of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. A few km north of the
cemetery, we had good views of 7 White-backed Swallows (probably the most
beautiful Hirundo species) flying with about 10 Tree Martins and several
Welcome Swallows over a paddock. In the same paddock were 2 Brown Falcons
perched and on the opposite side of the road 2 Zebra Finches and a Southern
Whiteface. Some of the Tree Martins may have been nesting as they were going
in some tree hollows
The best birding was had beside the Capertee River next to the Glenolin Road
in Glen Alice. Along the river the there was several mistletoe in flower in
the casuarinas were we saw 3 Spiny-cheeked and heard one or two
Black-chinned Honeyeaters amongst the White-plumed and White-naped
Honeyeaters. Also present in the area was a Wedge-tailed Eagle, a Common
Bronzewing, pair of Turquoise Parrots, a male Scarlet and a pair of Hooded
Robins, a White-throated Tree-creeper (going inside a nest hollow?), a few
Diamond Firetails, another White-backed Swallow and at least 30 Zebra
Finches.
On our way back out of the valley it was unusual to see our only Striped
Honyeater for the day foraging low on an old stump giving great views.
In the valley, we notice no Eucalypts in flower and it must have been the
first time in the valley where I have not seen a single Little Lorikeet,
Little Eagle or Striated Pardalote. The bird numbers appeared to be also
down from previous visits which may be explained by the drought and the lack
of flowering eucalypts. Despite this, the Capertee did not disappoint us and
even if we did not find any Regent Honeyeaters or Swift Parrots for the
survey weekend.
Edwin Vella
==============================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:
=============================
|
