Hi all,
There's almost no better way to start the day than with a bushwalk at
dawn. It lifts an otherwise mundane day into the realm of the
sublime! Living in the Blue Mountains, I'm surrounded by literally
hundreds of walking tracks and a sea of forest... So, realising I've
become a bit slack lately, I resolved to get back into the habit of
doing a bushwalk every morning, at least on the days I don't have
other commitments.
This morning I headed down Furber's Steps, where Crescent Honeyeaters
were in good numbers all along the track, descending beside Katoomba
Falls into the Jamison Valley. I took the opportunity to do the
rainforest boardwalk loop near the bottom of the Scenic Railway at a
time of day when there were no tourists around. This is an
interesting little walk that leads through temperate rainforest into
a patch of Mountain Blue Gum and Turpentine forest. This morning I
had the whole Jamison Valley to myself, or so it seemed!
Being winter, there were fewer of the rainforest specialties about,
but I did find a few birds including more Crescent Honeyeaters quite
low in the rainforest, lots of White-naped Honeyeaters high in the
eucalypts, a Large-billed Scrubwren, brilliant views of a Brown
Gerygone foraging just one metre away, and many of the more common
species. Of course winter is also lyrebird season, and there were
three Superb Lyrebirds singing their hearts out in the vicinity. One
in particular was very close to the "rainforest room" shelter and
during the few minutes that I listened it mimicked 3 or 4 different
calls of the Pied Currawong, 3 different Crimson Rosella calls,
Eastern Whipbird (male and female parts separately), Satin Bowerbird
(2 different calls), Golden Whistler, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo,
Eastern Spinebill, King-Parrot, Eastern Yellow Robin and a fragment
of the Pilotbird's song, as well as its own varied calls.
All this and I was back in Katoomba before the shops even opened.
cheers,
Carol
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains NSW
http://www.bmbirding.com.au
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