Hi all.
My good friend David Kowalick has never been on a Pelagic yet, so he and I
decided to join the Saturday, July Wollongong Pelagic scheduled for last
weekend. We booked our flights only to have our Saturday evening return
flight cancelled when Tiger was grounded. Having to be back for Sunday we
rebooked for Sunday 6.00am.
We arrived Friday am and discovered Sydney was gripped with a storm
producing 6-8m swells, 50-70k winds and 150mm of rain. Thinking that the
Pelagic would be called off (which it was) we decided to head quickly to
Mistral Point, Maroubra to get Dave at least one Pelagic tick. After some
discussion with David Mittford (from this forum) we located "Maroubra Ray"
who was most helpful despite the rain. Unfortunately the best we could
manage was a distant Black-browed Albatross, some unidentifiable Prions and
a few Silver Gulls.
Undeterred and keen for some quality birding we checked the forecast for
Barron Grounds - Windy as hell, freezing, pouring. Sucks. Central Coast or
Hunter Valley? - same. What about Capertee? Cold but no rain forecast and
light winds. Sweet. Off we headed and after a brief stop in the Blue
Mountains we arrived at the Capertee Valley. A quick scout before dark
produced a large flock of Gang-Gangs and exception views of Painted
Button-quail. Next we headed to Glen Davis to find some of the accommodation
mentioned in Carol Probets most excellent website. Obviously the idea of
signage was not high on the agenda or maybe due to lack of light but we
could find none? This forcing us back to the Capertee Hotel which was an
excellent choice as we were greeted with a hot meal, nice wine, a comfy bed
complete with electric blankets!! The Pub is awesome!! And the men's shower
on the right is brilliant... unlike the one Dave used on the left!
Saturday we were up early and had an amazing time in the Valley which was
cool but dry and no wind in contrast to Sydney. None of the specialties were
seen but a great trip none the less. We also had Rock Warbler.. sorry Dave,
Origma.. next to our feet at Pulpit Rock.
Thanks to those who helped the planning and to Lindsay from SOSSA for
keeping us in the loop.
Cheers
Steve Potter
Adelaide, Australia.
Capertee list: (Sorry for the IOC names...)
1. Maned Duck
2. Australasian Grebe
3. White-faced Heron
4. Wedge-tailed Eagle
5. Nankeen Kestrel
6. Brown Falcon
7. Painted Buttonquail
8. Masked Lapwing
9. Black-fronted Dotterel
10.Common Bronzewing
11.Crested Pigeon
12.Peaceful Dove
13.Gang-gang Cockatoo
14.Galah
15.Little Corella
16.Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
17.Little Lorikeet
18.Crimson Rosella
19.Eastern Rosella
20.Red-rumped Parrot
21.Fan-tailed Cuckoo
22.Laughing Kookaburra
23.Satin Bowerbird
24.White-throated Treecreeper
25.Brown Treecreeper
26.Superb Fairywren
27.Yellow-faced Honeyeater
28.Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
29.Fuscous Honeyeater
30.White-plumed Honeyeater
31.Bell Miner
32.Noisy Miner
33.White-naped Honeyeater
34.Red Wattlebird
35.Striated Pardalote
36.Weebill
37.Brown Thornbill
38.Yellow-rumped Thornbill
39.Southern Whiteface
40.White-browed Babbler
41.Grey Butcherbird
42.Pied Butcherbird
43.Australian Magpie
44.Pied Currawong
45.Black-faced Cuckooshrike
46.White-bellied Cuckooshrike
47.Crested Shriketit
48.Australian Golden Whistler
49.Grey Shrikethrush
50.Willie Wagtail
51.Grey Fantail
52.Magpie-lark
53.Restless Flycatcher
54.Australian Raven
55.White-winged Chough
56.Eastern Yellow Robin
57.Hooded Robin
58.Jacky Winter
59.Red-capped Robin
60.Welcome Swallow
61.Golden-headed Cisticola
62.Common Starling
63.Mistletoebird
64.House Sparrow
65.Diamond Firetail
66.Red-browed Finch
67.Zebra Finch
68.Double-barred Finch
69.Australian Pipit
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