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Friday, 4 October, 2013

 

Today was a travel day, one of my longest of the trip.  I had about five hours of actual drive time to do.  I slept well again and was up at about 5:15.  By the time I took care of everything, including making a lunch, packing, and loading up the car, it was about 8.

 

My first stop was the Plum-headed Finch site just up the road, where we had seen them on Wednesday.  The weather was great again today, warm and sunny, with little wind.  They were showing themselves again, too, and I got some better pictures this time.  Here are a couple of male Plum-headed Finches.

 

You can actually sort of see the plum color of the cap.  Here is one on a fence wire.

 

And, finally, here is a picture of a juvenile one.

 

So, I dragged myself away from there, and my next stop was at the Genowlan bridge, to try again for the Black-chinned Honeyeater.  I again missed it, and didn’t get anything new or any pictures worth showing.

 

So, I headed out for Nyngan, my current home away from home.  I followed the directions I had printed out from Google Maps before I left home, and I also had my GPS app running on my cell phone.  One advantage of running the GPS app is that it beeps at me when I am exceeding the speed limit by an amount I can set.  I have it set for 10 km/hr over the limit (which is about 6 mph).  It amazes me that it knows the speed limits on every road stretch in Australia, and of course, it can calculate my speed as I move along.  It is a handy reminder when I come into a town, where the speed limit is always lower.  Amazing technology.

 

As I drove up the Capertee Valley, suddenly there was a large raptor flying right alongside me, about 6 feet off the ground, and only maybe 20 feet off the road, on the passenger side.  It seemed huge, and I tried to memorize the colors and patterns.  Since I was more or less looking down on it, all I could really tell is that it was a lightish brown and had a barred tail.  I kept thinking it was going to land on a fence post, from the way it was flying, but I guess it was just hunting.  It soon flew off to the right, up the hill.  I got my camera on it and took some pictures, but they are all out of focus and motion blurred, which isn’t surprising.  I was hoping that maybe they would be good enough to allow me to identify the bird, though.  At one point, the bird was harassed by a magpie, and the raptor was much larger than the magpie.  I have a very blurry picture that shows the size difference.  My best clue to the identity is the barred tail, I think, along with the size.  I came to the conclusion that it was a LITTLE EAGLE, so I put it on my list.  Here is a terrible picture that does show some patterns that confirm (to me, a duff Aussie birder) that it was a Little Eagle.

 

If I’m wrong, I’d like to know it.  I think I have one or two Aussie birders who read these reports on the web, so if anyone wants to weigh in with an opinion, I would appreciate it, whether it confirms my opinion or not.  Until I hear otherwise, convincingly, it stays on my list as Little Eagle.

 

[OK, after discussion with a couple of Aussie birders and a further consultation with a couple of field guides, I’m changing the Little Eagle call to a SPOTTED HARRIER, which is actually a better bird, anyway.  It doesn’t affect my totals.  Thanks to Ken and Steve for the correction.]

 

So, after that excitement, I made my way to Mudgee.  In Mudgee, I drove around the town a bit, looking for an introduced species that I had missed earlier in the trip.  There were tons of starlings around town, but I did see one flying dark bird with an orange bill (not the yellow of starlings), and I am calling it a COMMON BLACKBIRD.  I wanted a better look at one, so I spent another 15 minutes cruising the residential areas, but never saw another one.  While doing that, I did see a Sacred Kingfisher, though, and I got pictures.  The other day I showed a Sacred Kingfisher from the back, and here is a picture that shows its front side.

 

My next major waypoint was Dubbo.  I found my way to the big Woolworths there, and loaded up again on groceries.  As I came out of the store, there were a couple of ravens on the roof, and one of them was sounding off.  There are two raven species found in Dubbo, and the only real way to tell the difference is from the calls.  I had studied up on it, and even though I am terrible at calls, I was convinced that what I was hearing was not the Australian Raven call, which I had been hearing for a week, but the call of a LITTLE RAVEN.  I played it for myself on my cell phone, just to be sure, and I’m convinced that is what it was.  I hadn’t expected to see Little Raven, so I was pleased.

 

I gassed up the car at Woolworths’ gas station, and then found a city park to eat my lunch in.  While I was eating lunch, a BLUE-FACED HONEYEATER flew by.  I think they are a very attractive bird, and I hope to get pictures later in the trip.  I should see them a number of places.  So, all I was doing was traveling, and I had four new species for my trip list.  Not bad.

 

I drove the last hour and 45 minutes to Nyngan without stopping, and I checked in to the caravan park on the river here.  Caravan (trailer) parks here often have cottages or cabins or villas (all the same thing, but they give them different names), and I like to stay in them because I have a kitchen then.  They are usually less expensive than motels, too.  I had expected to use my cell phone here, to access the internet with my laptop, but when I checked in, I noticed they mentioned wireless internet, so I asked what it cost.  Well, blow me down, it is free, and it reaches my cabin!  I was amazed and pleased.  It seems to be a little flaky, and I keep losing the signal, but free is good, so I’m not complaining.

 

Here is a picture of the rather sparten interior of my cabin.

 

There was ice in the fridge, the bed seems comfortable, the a/c works great, it’s clean, and it smells fine, so I am quite happy with it.  Don’t forget the free wi-fi in my cabin, too.  Here is the exterior.

 

It was only about 3:30 when I got moved in, so I wandered out into the grounds, to see if there were any birds around.  As it turned out, there were.  Down at the river, there was a male Australian Darter on the shore.  They are kind of a strange looking bird, but the males are kind of handsome, I think.

 

Their necks are amazing, the way they can twist them around, or even pull in their heads.  Here is a close up of his head, showing his markings.

 

While I was taking his picture, he let out a loud squawk, and I got this picture of him with his mouth open.

 

As I approached him, he spread his wings, before slipping into the water and swimming off underwater.

 

Darters swim a lot underwater, and sometimes they just stick their long neck and head out of the water, which is why some people refer to them as snake birds.

 

There were several reed-warblers in the reeds at the river’s edge, and they were making a racket.  I got looks at a couple of them.  Then I saw a small bird at the water’s edge, at the foot of the reeds.  It appeared to be drinking.  Before I could get a picture of it, it flew across to my side of the little inlet and moved around the water’s edge on the ground and the tree roots.  I couldn’t tell what it was.  Maybe it was another reed-warbler, but it looked different to me, maybe only because it wasn’t hanging on a reed and calling.  Here is a picture of this mystery bird, and I would appreciate any suggestions from Aussie birders.

 

 

Any ideas, anyone?  Is it just another reed-warbler, seen in a different environment and behaving differently?

 

I walked around some more, and I added WHITE-BREASTED WOODSWALLOW to my trip list.  I thought I had some pictures, but none of them were good enough to show.

 

There were some parrots up in a tree, and I wasn’t sure which species they were, although I had my suspicions.  I took some pictures, which aren’t good enough to show, but they confirmed my suspicions, and I added MALLEE RINGNECK to my trip list.  I expect to see a lot of them, and I will try to get a good picture of this colorful parrot.

 

I walked back to my cabin, and was distracted by some White-browed Woodswallows.  I had promised a picture of them, the other day, and today I got one I like of a male White-browed Woodswallow.

 

All the woodswallows are attractive, but this one might be the most striking.  The female White-browed Woodswallow has much more subdued coloration.

 

I added one more species after that, YELLOW-THROATED MINER.  They are an inland version of their cousins, the Noisy Miners, which I have been seeing all along, right from the first day.

 

So, even though it was a travel day, and I only actually birded for about 45 minutes, around the caravan park, I still managed to add 7 species to my trip list.  That brings me to 156 species, of which 4 are lifers.  The bird of the day for me was the Little Eagle, which I feared I wouldn’t be able to identify without help, but my blurry picture convinced me, even though the picture is crap.  I was quite pleased to add Common Blackbird and Little Raven, too although the fleeting look at the blackbird wasn’t very satisfying.  I often debate with myself about whether to count a particular sighting, and this time I came down just barely on the side of counting it.

 

Tomorrow I only have about two hours of driving to get to Bourke, my next stop.  I have some birding places to check out along the way, and I expect I’ll walk around the caravan park here in the morning, too, to see what I can see.  I am into the inland now, and there are a lot of species here that don’t live near the coast, where I have been.