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Tuesday, 1 October, 2013

 

I had an excellent day today, although I did get tired of driving.  Four and a half hours of driving sounds really easy, but the roads over here make it a chore, and I’m glad it is behind me.

 

I had a tough night last night.  I went to bed about 9, as I have been doing recently, and I slept well for about 4 hours, and then I woke up because my nose was congested and I couldn’t get enough air to breathe through my nose, which I have to do, because of my CPAP machine.  I tried Afrin, which normally really opens me up, but it didn’t do the trick last night.  Eventually, I decided to increase the pressure on my CPAP machine, but I had neglected to bring along the instructions on how to do that.  Not to worry, there is always Google.  Because I was lucky and had internet in my room, I was able to get up, log on, and find out how to adjust the pressure on my machine.  I did so, and it helped a bit, but I still ended up being awake for about two and a half hours.  I got up about 5:15, and I was on the road by 8.  I had some complications to deal with, due to my cold, and that slowed me down.  The complications involved Instant Messaging with Christina for a half hour or so.

 

On my way out of town, I couldn’t resist driving through some residential areas, in one last gasp attempt to get Common Blackbird or European Goldfinch.  Neither of those species exist anywhere else I will be on this trip.  I missed them, so they won’t be on my list this year.  By 8:20, I was finally leaving Jamberoo.  Oh yes, I did add one species while driving through the residential areas, HOUSE SPARROW.  Not inspiring but it counts as much on my trip list as the Eastern Bristlebird would have.  A bird is a bird.

 

So, I wended my way across the countryside, traveling north and west around the outskirts of Sydney, to the highway over the Blue Mountains.  It was windy as hell up there in the mountains, and I only stopped once, at Evan’s Lookout, in the forlorn hope of seeing a couple of other species that now I won’t see.

 

I stopped in Lithgow to look for ducks at the Lithgow STP (Sewage Treatment Plant).  STP’s have ponds, ducks like ponds.  I found where you can view it from a public road.  Here is the view from the road.

 

From the first place I stopped, I could only see two ponds, and there were some ducks on them.  I managed to pick up AUSTRALIAN SHOVELER and HOARY-HEADED GREBE, and I was happy with that.  There were three or four other species that have been reported there, but at least I got something.  Then I moved on down the road to get a better view of the second pond and I saw there was a third pond.  Bonanza!  The third pond had a lot more ducks than the other two combined, and I got PINK-EARED DUCK and BLUE-BILLED DUCK, both of which are hard to see up north, where I am going.  So I was very pleased with that result.  Here is a picture of some of the ducks.  The ones with the zebra stripes are Pink-eared Ducks.

After that, I fueled up my car, since there aren’t any petrol stations out here where I am staying now.  I also hit Woolies and stocked up on groceries, since there also aren’t any grocery stores out here.  I also stopped at a pharmacy and a medical clinic, to talk about getting an antibiotic that I might need if this cold develops into walking pneumonia, like my colds often do.  That is part of the complication I mentioned earlier, the one I Instant Messaged about with Christina.

 

When I left Lithgow, it started to rain, but I decided to make one more stop anyway, to look for another duck that wasn’t at the STP today.  I arrived at Lake Wallace and drove around the edge.  On the way to the water, I saw a little group of WHITE-WINGED CHOUGHS (pronounced Chuffs), another one for my list.  At the water, almost right away I got my target duck, MUSK DUCK.  The males have a funny thing hanging down from their bill.  Here is a picture of a male Musk Duck.  It was the only one I saw today.

 

I have no idea what the purpose of that flap hanging down from his bill is.

 

A little farther along, I got this picture of a Great Crested Grebe, a bird I picked up yesterday.

 

Fortunately, I was able to get both of those pictures from the car, as it was raining by then.

 

So, by then it was time to head for my new digs, out here in the Capertee Valley.  It rained for about half an hour, and I wondered what the unpaved roads here in the valley would be like in the rain.  It made me glad that I have a high clearance All Wheel Drive car.  As it turned out, the rain stopped before I got to the unpaved roads, and there aren’t nearly as many unpaved stretches as I remembered and thought I had read about.  I stopped a couple of places, and at one stop, a currawong was harassing a WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE, which is a huge, impressive bird.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the Capertee Valley, but the weather was gray, so they don’t really do it justice.

 

 

I’ll have more pictures, especially if I get a sunny day here.

 

There were birds along the road, just as I remembered there being (I was here in 2006).  I saw some Red-browed Finches, but they were too shy for pictures.  I saw several RED-RUMPED PARROTS, but none of them stuck around long enough for pictures, either.  Then there was a little bird on a fence wire, and it turned out to be a lovely little DIAMOND FIRETAIL.  I was able to get a picture of that little beauty.

 

I also got pictures of a very plain little bird with a great name, JACKY WINTER.

 

I wonder who thought up that name, and why they chose it.  Continuing the great name theme, I got a picture of another bird whose name I really like, sitting on a nest.  Here is a Willie Wagtail, sitting on a darling little nest, right out in the open.

 

Willie Wagtails are very common, and I saw tons of them today.  They seem to be really friendly little birds, and often will follow you along if you are hiking.

 

I had been checking my cell phone coverage as I went along, and I had nothing until I was approaching the place I’m staying.  I had been told that there was marginal coverage in this particular part of the valley, and it proved true for me today.  I stopped and read my email on my phone, and even made one reply.  Then I drove on into my new little home for the next three nights, Glen Alice Farm.  I have the cottage, which is located about 30 or 40 feet from the house and has its own private driveway.  Here is a picture of the cottage.

 

There are great views from all the windows you can see there, as the cottage sits on the edge of a hill.  When the weather gets better, some time in the next couple of days, I’ll show you the fantastic view.  Meanwhile, here is the main room inside.

 

And, here is the bedroom, which has a nice bathroom attached.

 

The kitchen is very well furnished, and there are provisions, as well.  There are a number of free range eggs from a neighboring farm, a loaf of nice looking bread, butter, some good looking bacon (more like what we would call Canadian Bacon), milk, tea, coffee, and all the condiments anyone could want.  I’m going to enjoy my stay here very much.

 

To top it all off, my hosts have wi-fi, and they gave me their password, and I should be able to read my emails, send out my reports and upload them to my website.  The connection seems kind of slow, but if I walk over to their sheltered patio, which has a table and chairs, the signal seems strong.  Sometimes I can connect here in my cottage, but it is super slow, and it fades in and out, so I think I will only be able to use the internet by carrying my computer over to the patio area.  Still, that is more than I expected, so I am very pleased.  That’s assuming it will actually work as I think it will.  If you get this email in a timely fashion, then it has worked.

 

My cold was better today.  I feel much stronger tonight than I did last night.  Maybe the worst of it is behind me, we will see.  My nose didn’t run nearly as much today.  It remains to be seen how clear I can get my nose for tonight, and how well I will sleep.  I plan to hit the sack by 9 at the latest, and I might even take a sleeping pill tonight, as I need to be up very early tomorrow.  I have a professional bird guide picking me up at 6:15 tomorrow, and I expect a very long and productive day of birding.  Tomorrow’s report might very well be delayed a day, if we get back late tomorrow afternoon.

 

So, to do the numbers, I got 11 more species today for my year list.  That brings me to 109 species for the trip, of which 2 are lifers.  The beat goes on.