Sunday June 29th
The day began at about 7am for me as I covered myself in layers of jackets, applied mittens and beanie, binos and camera and headed out for a somewhat disappointing morning. As I stepped outside, a
Lewin's Honeyeater chopchopchopped its fanfare out into the cool morning air. A female
Golden Whistler called and was seen in a gum just outside the cabin and a family of
Superb Fairy Wrens hopped around on the grass.
Superb Lyrebirds,
Grey Shrike Thrush,
Silvereye,
Brown Gerygone and
Yellow Thornbill were all seen and heard along with the parrot chorus consisting of
Rainbow and
Scaly Breasted Lorikeets,
Crimson Rosella and a lone
King Parrot.
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| Good Morning - A view of the valley before the sun had fully risen |
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| A study of a Golden Whistler's nether-end |
I walked down the road a little where I encountered nothing new, aside from a distant flock of
Straw Necked Ibis, a couple of
Magpies and a small party of
Wonga Pigeons who quickly strutted out of sight. Another
Grey Shrike Thrush appeared giving me a small morning song whilst keeping a keen eye on some
Brown Thornbills that were foraging nearby.
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| Grey Shrike Thrush - One does not simply walk through mid-air |
On the way back up the road for breakfast, I encountered a pair of
Kookaburras who had decided to sun themselves, so I took a few photos (50 or so) and headed in for a scrumptuous breakfast.
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| Sunning Kooky |
A brief rehearsal of Hayden and Mozart after breakfast and off we went to Bundanon. Not much was seen on the trip but as we arrived a massive bull raised its head and acknowledged our existence and a couple of lazy looking kangaroos were lazy.
A
Hoary Headed Grebe, along with a confusing
Chestnut Teal, and the more common waterbirds such as
Dusky Moorhen,
Eurasian Coot and
Australasian Grebe filled the small pond near the house and
Jacky Winters were seen whilst performing under the fig tree out the front. A
Little Friarbird flew over and more were heard calling, not one raptor was seen.
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| The confusing Chestnut Teal |
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| Hoary Headed Grebe |
After our performance we were given a tour of the estate buildings which was really quite interesting, how the estate became the Boyd's family residence, the history of the family, the house, the area n the artworks related to them.
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| Living room of the estate |
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| Pottery and other works made by the Boyd family |
On the return trip a
Wedge Tailed Eagle and a
Nankeen Ketrel were seen.
After dinner, I found my dad, who came on the tour to drive the truck, and we went spotlighting on the ridge of the valley behind the camp, after I reported I had just spotlighted a
Red Necked Pademelon.
Boobook Owls were heard very clearly and by the end of the night 6 or more were heard. I ramped up my falsetto and started calling them in, alas none came close enough. Being an optimistic birder, as always, I let out a couple of high descending whistles. Why not hey? Why not indeed. A couple of minutes later a bomb dropped from deeper into the forest, a
SOOTY OWL in the SHOALHAVEN! For ten minutes more I whistled and screeched, but it stayed silent and I began to have doubts that I had heard the bomb drop. I whistled again. No more than twenty metres away screeches and trills went off in a tree. For another five minutes I made my noises and had a conversation with this owl, but alas I could not find it. As we headed back down the ridge an
Australian Owlet Nightjar called a few times but was not seen. My dad and I returned, although after a fruitless journey in terms of what we saw, a very productive spotlight in terms of species recorded. A quick flash of the spotlight over the open farmland below the camp in the valley produce four
Common Wombats nicknamed (fluffehs) and the world's worst image of a wombat was produced!
Everyone went inside and we watched pitch perfect after which I spotlit the wombats again. I also found a large moth which I believe is a bogong moth, but I have no experience with insects so coul well be wrong.
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| FLUFFEH! (Common Wombat) - world's worst image |
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| Bogong Moth maybe?? |
Monday 30th June
4am start, because I wanted to go spotlighting!!! As I wondered down the road,
Boobooks called from deep within the forest as I passed, but I could not locate them sadly. As I was rounding a bend in the road, my flashlight passed over a rather weird looking road reflector...
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| A rather weird road reflector.... |
This
Tawny Frogmouth was incredily calm around me and allowed me to get easily within 1m of it! Photographing with spotlight in one hand and camera in the other isn't easy, but I did my best:
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| Tawny Frogmouth 1 |
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| Frogmouth le 2 |
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| Crazy eyes |
I made a few
Boobook calls and got two calling nearby which I eventually located although only briefly and after disturbing yet another fluffeh which charged into its burrow. I made my way along fencelines of the farms nearby and along the road hoping for a barn owl but sadly none were found. I returned to camp and watched the sun rise through the valley, a beautiful sight.
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| Chronological Sunrise Photos - 1 |
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| Chronological Sunrise Photos - 2 |
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| Chronological Sunrise Photos - 3 |
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| Chronological Sunrise Photos - 4 |
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| COWS!!!!! |
Just before breakfast a ran up the hill where I had heard the sooty owl previously and did a quick 5 minute survey of the day birds in the area.
Rainbow Lorikeet,
Scaly Breasted Lorikeet,
Crimson Rosella,
King Parrot and
Eastern Rosella were all seen along with
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and
two
Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos. 7 parrot species in under five minutes!!! The usual rainforest suspects showed nicely but the highlight was a singing
Superb Lyrebird which proceeded to dance for me, but sadly behind loads of branches. I found another one on my return trip after flushing an unknown
Bronzewing and
Wonga Pigeon by accidentally tripping over a fallen tree branch.
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| Singing Superb Lyrebird |
That was more or less the end of the trip bird wise. We left Waterslea and headed up to Shellharbour to perform in the main shopping complex there and then headed home!
Black Shouldered Kite and
Wedge Tailed Eagle were both seen.
Species Count: 95
Trip Species Count: 101
Overall this was a great trip, many new friendships were made, one lifer (
White Eared Honeyeater) was seen, great music was performed, beautiful places were visited and my year list has been boosted, which I will tend to at some point in the near future.
Thanks for reading!!!
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