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Thursday, 26 September, 2013

 

Today was another birding day.  I actually ended up getting in touch with two different birders, each of which offered to take me out birding today to the Blue Mountains.  Through a long series of communications, we ended up agreeing to all meet and go out together today.

 

I’m very much still adjusting to the seven hour time change, and my body is still pretty confused.  I was up until 9:30 last night, but I still woke this morning at 3:30, after a so-so night of sleep.  I stayed in bed until 6, and maybe I dozed a little, but I never really slept again.  Finally, at 6, I got up and took care of my morning processes.  I again had plain Greek yogurt with fruit and four almost-hard-boiled eggs.  When you have found a good thing, why change it?

 

The plan for the day was to meet at the Glenbrook train station, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains.  I left my hotel at 7:30 and walked to Central Station.  It is supposedly only half a mile, but it seemed like the longest half mile in the world to me.  I caught the 8:06 Blue Mountains Line train out of Central and had a very nice smooth train ride to Glenbrook, arriving at 9:10 as planned.  I actually picked up my fist trip bird of the day from the train – a BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE that was hovering just outside of Blacktown.

 

It turned out that Mark, who lives in the Blue Mountains, brought along a mate by the name of Colin.  John, the other guy I had been in touch with was there too, by the time I got there.  I had wanted to bird at a place called Blue Gum Swamp, and so the four of us drove over there, in two cars.  There had been a bush fire in the area a couple of weeks ago, but the main places we wanted to bird were not affected.  We walked down a long trail to the actual “swamp”, which was really just a valley floor with an almost-dried up creek in it.  Here is a picture of John and Colin coming down the trail to the swamp.

 

The weather was not cooperative today.  It was sunny and a bit warmer than average for this time of year, but it was windy.  Very windy, and it got worse as the day wore on.  Down in the valley, it wasn’t too bad, but it still affected the birding, no doubt.  There wasn’t a lot of bird action, partly because it was after 9:30 by then, and the birding is much better in those first hours after dawn.  Both Mark and Colin were really good with the bird calls, and they kept hearing birds, but we rarely could see them.  There were a couple of RED-BROWED FINCHES by a puddle of water, so I at least got something there.

 

Mark and Colin kept hearing birds, but they wouldn’t show themselves.  We walked back to a place that is called The Grotto, and we stood around there for a while.  I spotted a male AUSTRALIAN KING-PARROT as we got there, and there turned out to be three of them, one of which was a female.  Here is a picture of one of the males.

 

Here is a picture of Mark at The Grotto.

 

We saw a few birds there, but nothing I hadn’t seen yesterday, other than the King-Parrots.

 

We walked back toward the cars, and at a junction, we got on to a couple of EASTERN SPINEBILLS.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of one of them, as they are a beautiful bird.  But, at least I had something more for my trip list.

 

We took another side trail, and I got this picture of a New Holland Honeyeater at a pretty Waratah flower.

 

The bird was very cooperative to pose like that for me, wasn’t it?  The Waratahs are just beginning to bloom, and they are a really pretty flower, I think.

 

There were some other honeyeaters calling, and I did get a pretty good look at one of them.  I have decided to count BROWN-HEADED HONEYEATER for my list, although I would like to get a better look.  Birders call that a BVD sighting.  Better View Desired.  So, I now have Brown-headed Honeyeater BVD.  There is no question about what they were, as both Mark and Colin were able to positively ID them, but the question is about how good a look at them I got.  I decided they barely met my minimum requirements.

 

After that, we hiked back up the long hill to the cars.  It was a slog for me, but I did it with only one brief stop to catch my breath.  It was pretty warm by then, too, maybe high 70’s or low 80’s, and we were mostly in the sun.  It was about 11:30 when we got back to the cars.

 

With all the wind, we weren’t sure what to do next.  We decided to go to another place a little farther down the mountains, rather than go up higher, where the wind would be worse.  It was very windy there, too, but we decided to give it a go, and we set off down another dirt road on foot.

 

Again, there wasn’t much bird action, largely due to the wind, no doubt.  Mark did spot a SACRED KINGFISHER on a branch, though, and I even got a picture.

 

That was a good one for my trip list, although I presume I will see others.  I couldn’t ask for a better pose for a picture, though.

 

A little farther along, there was a loud distinctive call that even I could hear and remember.  We kept hearing it, and the Aussies recognized the call, which was that of a small bird that I wanted to see.  Eventually we got great looks at a little WHITE-THROATED GERYGONE.  It was really cool to watch it as it made its trilling call.  It was too active and too small to get a picture.

 

A little while after that I spotted my last new trip bird for the day, a DOLLARBIRD.  They are a migrant, and they are just arriving back here for the spring and summer.  This was the first one that any of the local birders had seen this year.  It was sitting out in the open, but by the time I got in position for a picture, it flew off.

 

Here is a picture of that road, with John, Mark, and Colin.

 

We went on a little farther, to where Mark had seen a bird yesterday that would have been a lifer for me, but we didn’t see one.  We hiked back to the car, and by universal acclaim, we declared that the winner today was the weather.  The wind just made birding too difficult.  We said good-bye to Mark, and Colin came with John and me back to Glenbrook, where he had left his car.  Before we parted, we stopped at a little bakery in Glenbrook and we each had a hot meat pie and a drink of one kind or another.  Then John dropped me off at the Glenbrook station and I was lucky to catch a train within a few minutes.  They only run about once an hour, so it was definitely lucky.  It was a smooth one hour and ten minute run back to Central Station in Sydney.  That half mile from Central to my hotel seemed a lot longer again, and I was pretty beat by the time I got back.

 

So, I was back here in my room by about 3.  It was just as well in some ways, as I had various pieces of business to take care of.  First I had a little rest, though.  I didn’t actually sleep, I don’t think, but I lay down on the bed and kind of zoned out for 30 minutes and felt a lot better afterwards. 

 

Next, I finally got registered with Telstra for an online account for my phone, which was a challenge.  When I finally got signed up and signed on, there were charges on my account I didn’t understand.  I ended up using online chat to resolve my questions, and now I have it all set up, I think.  I have a feeling that I will be using more data than I had figured on, when I start using my phone to connect my laptop to the internet, but that is fine, as I can just spend a little more to buy more data.  If the whole concept works, and if I can get good enough coverage in the countryside where I need it, it will still end up being a great solution for me.  I’ll be able to test it out starting on Sunday.

 

Tomorrow I don’t have anyone lined up to take me birding, and I’m looking forward to having a slow day, walking around Sydney.  There is an owl I want to look for in the Royal Botanical Gardens, and I want to walk around the Sydney Harbour area and take pictures.  Sydney is a beautiful city, and so I’ll take some pictures, I hope.  I might see some birds to take pictures of in the botanical gardens, too.  I might very well not get a new trip bird tomorrow, but I’ll write a report anyway, I think.

 

So, I added 8 birds to my trip list today.  I am now at 64 species for the trip, of which 2 are lifers.  Today was a lower count than what I had hoped for, and I didn’t get any of the Blue Mountains special birds, but it was fun to take the train, it was fun to meet three local birders, and it was fun to see a couple of places I hadn’t been before.