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Sunday, 29 September, 2013

 

Today was my day to leave Sydney and hit the road.  I was up at 5, after getting to bed at 9 last night.  I sure would like to keep on this early schedule.  By the time I had taken care of my morning routines, packed up, loaded the car, and checked out, it was 8:15, and I hit the streets of Sydney.  It was a short and easy trip from the hotel to the main highway heading south.  I just followed the signs and got used to driving on the wrong side of the road again.

 

My first stop was Sublime Point, where you get a nice view of the coast to the south.

 

There were a couple of Crimson Rosellas around the park area there, and I got a picture of one of them on the ground.

 

They are fairly common, but they are so striking that I always notice them.

 

I stopped next at Windang to look for shorebirds, but I couldn’t figure out how to actually access any place where the birds might be.  I guess I could have gotten there with a long walk, but I wasn’t willing to do that.  I did pick up my first trip bird there, though, SPOTTED DOVE.  It is an introduced bird and I’ll see a lot of them up north, I think, but it went on the list today.

 

I got back on the main highway south, and my next stop was Killalea State Park.  I hadn’t planned to stop there, but I had time, so I thought I would check it out.  As it turned out, it wasn’t easy to get to from the highway, but I found my way there after only having to turn around once.  I had been hoping to get to the coast, but that took a walk, it seemed, and I wasn’t willing to take that much time.  There were a couple of surfing beaches there, and a campground.  Here is a picture of one of the bays, from up on the cliff top.

 

From there, I went on in to Kiama.  I found a nice spot overlooking the harbor and ate my humble lunch, which consisted of ham rollups (sliced ham rolled around processed cheese slices), broccoli (cooked in the microwave last night), corn chips, and a couple of cookies.  Here is a picture of my lunchtime view of Kiama Harbour.

 

After lunch, I decided to check out a birding site called Spring Creek Reserve, on the edge of Kiama.  There wasn’t much I expected to see there, but there were a few birds reported from there that I would have liked to have.  While approaching the reserve, in a residential neighborhood, I picked up another “plastic” introduced species, EUROPEAN STARLING.  So, I had two species for my trip list, but neither was exactly a desirable species.

 

I walked along Spring Creek, and there were a few birds, but nothing new for my list until I came to some reeds and heard a bird calling loudly.  From the habitat, I had an idea what it might be, and I played the call on my phone for that bird, and that was it, no doubt about it.  I think my playing the call might have inspired the bird, because it kept calling continuously, and finally I spotted it, clinging to a reed.  I added AUSTRALIAN REED-WARBLER to my trip list.  I wasn’t at all sure I would get that one, and I got pictures as well.  Here is the Australian Reed-Warbler.

 

I also got this picture of a male Superb Fairy-wren.  I like the colors and the lighting on this one.

 

I like the way the background blurred out, too.  Fairy-wrens are very attractive little birds, and I hope to see several species of them on the trip.

 

So, having done the Kiama birding that I had planned, I made a stop at Woolworth’s for groceries and wine, and headed up into the hills to my next home-away-from-home.  I’m staying in the little village of Jamberoo, at the only motel in town, the Saleyard Motel, which is owned by the same people that operate the Jamberoo Pub, the only pub in town.  The 8 motel rooms are located behind the beer garden that is located behind the pub.  I checked in and put my cold stuff in the little fridge.  This place is one of only two places I plan to stay where I don’t have a microwave in my room, so I have had to improvise for my meals.  I boiled some eggs this morning for tomorrow morning’s breakfast, along with some Greek yogurt, and for dinner tonight, I plan to have some raw vegetables, some sliced ham, and a cold can of baked beans.  I like cold baked beans fine, so it will be a fine meal for the Old Rambler.  I could have gone over to the pub for a pub meal, but I didn’t want to take the time it would have taken.

 

So, having checked in at about 2:30, I had time on my hands.  There are a couple of places around Jamberoo where I could maybe see something new, but nothing exciting.  My whole reason for coming here was to visit Barren Ground Reserve, which is only about ten miles away.  There are four special species I wanted to look for there, as well as others that would be good.  The birding is best early in the morning, but I decided to head on up there anyway, just to check it out for tomorrow.

 

As I left town, heading that way, I got a rude surprise, though.  A large sign announced that Jamberoo Mountain Road (which I needed to use) was closed Monday through Friday, from 8 AM until 5 PM.  Oops.  That kind of threw a monkey wrench into my plans.  I wasn’t sure what to do, but since it was Sunday, the road was presumably open, so I went on up the escarpment to check it out.

 

I found where the road will be closed.  There seems to have been a slide, and they had one lane open on the weekend where the slide occurred, but presumably they are repairing it on the week days, from 8 until 5.  I decided that I had better do what I could at Barren Grounds this afternoon, and I started thinking about what I would do tomorrow, since I have booked in here for two nights.  By the time I got to Barren Grounds, I had figured out that I could drive around the long way and still get there.  It would maybe be an extra 30 miles or so, but I could still get there.  Eventually, it occurred to me that I could simply get up early enough to get past the closed section before 8 AM, and then come home the long way, later in the day.  I had intended to make a loop trip tomorrow anyway, so the closure wouldn’t really affect me.  I had wanted to get there early anyway, for the birds, so now I had an additional incentive to get there before 8 AM.  It is interesting to me how I went from thinking the whole day tomorrow was ruined to realizing it really wouldn’t matter to me at all, in about 15 minutes.  I just had to go through it step by step, to come to the realization.  It means I won’t be able to come back to my motel the short way, but I probably wouldn’t have wanted to do that anyway, so no big deal.

 

So, I went on to Barren Grounds, and I stopped just inside the grounds, as my books told me to do.  There were some birds around, but I didn’t see anything new.  I went on up to the main parking area, and I wandered out onto the track you are supposed to walk around.  Well, the track is about a five mile loop, which I had walked in 2004 when I was here before, but I am not about to do that this year.  I walked for a few hundred yards in one direction, but saw no birds at all.  Here is a picture of that part of Barren Grounds.

 

Maybe there will be some birds there in the morning; we will see.

 

Next I walked the other way around the loop, for about ¾ of a mile, to the Illawarra Lookout.  Here is a picture taken from that lookout.

 

Again, there were virtually no birds.  I played the calls of a couple of the species I was looking for, but got no responses.  Again, maybe it will be better in the morning.

 

Back at the parking lot, as I was getting ready to leave, I heard the loud call of a cuckoo that I had heard several other places on the trip.  Even I can remember this one, a descending trill.  I looked around, and eventually spotted the bird.  Here is a picture of a FAN-TAILED CUCKOO.

 

 

Here it is from the front.

 

So, with that one under my belt, I headed for Jamberoo.  I did stop at the entrance again, though, to try again for birds there.  As soon as I got out of the car, I spotted a pigeon-like bird which was obviously something new for me.  As I tried to identify it, it saw me, and scurried away.  I knew it was one of two species, though, and I had memorized a couple of features (gray on top of the head, chestnut brown on the back of the neck), and that enabled me to identify it as a BRUSH BRONZEWING, the less common bronzewing species, no less.  I see now that I only had that species at 10% in my spreadsheet, and I won’t have any chance of it after I leave this area.  That’s even better than I realized when I saw it.

 

But wait, it wasn’t over yet.  I walked down the road a bit, and a small dark bird flew across in front of me.  Then I heard a loud call from where the bird had gone.  I thought it sounded familiar, so I played the call of a bird I had been looking for earlier, and it was the same, no doubt about it.  The bird hung around and while it stayed in the undergrowth, it got quite close, and I got great views of a PILOTBIRD (lifer).  That is one of the four special birds I was looking for at Barren Grounds.  Amazing.  First the Brush Bronzewing, and then the Pilotbird right afterwards.

 

I got back here to my motel about 5:15, and I have been processing pictures and writing this report since then, as well as Instant Messaging with my friend, Fred, in Sacramento.  I also had my veggie, ham, and beans dinner.  I was expecting to have to use my phone to attempt to access the internet here with my laptop, but it turns out that the pub has free wi-fi, and I am connected to that.  Score!

 

The other story of the day is my damn cold.  This has been nose-running day.  I have gone through dozens of tissues, and my nose is sore around the nostrils.  I thought this stage of the cold came later in the process, but it has been a long time since I had a cold, and maybe I don’t remember right.  Anyway, in addition to the nose running, I just don’t feel 100%.  The mile and a half or so that I walked today wasn’t easy.  I hope my nose stops running tonight so I can sleep.  I hope to settle down early, sleep well, and be up and out of here early, to beat the road closure thing.

 

I added six more species to my trip list today, bringing me to 94 total, of which 2 are lifers.  It’s nice to be on the road again.