Tuesday, March 12, 2013

GUNDABOOKA NATIONAL PARK




We headed south from Bowra into north west NSW, staying in Bourke for a couple of days where a few town birds graced us with their presence while we were in the local van park.


Galahs



Crested Pigeons



Little Crows


It was only another seventy kilometres to Gundabooka National Park, but the last twenty took us over an hour with the road in from the highway being pretty churned up from recent rain, even though it had dried up.  


  Dry Tank Campground and Mt Gunderbooka



Not long after setting up camp we had an unwelcome visitor snooping around the site.


Red Fox


Being winter and with the probable limited availability of food, this particular animal was scavenging and hunting (we observed it pouncing on grasshoppers) in broad daylight. Even with its terrible reputation it was still a beautiful looking specimen.  






This visitor was one we missed at Bowra, although we did see and photograph a bower there. We noticed a leg band and assumed it may have been the subject of some scientific study.


Spotted Bowerbird


A five kilometre return hike along the well graded track to the Mt Gunderbooka lookout gave us some good birding, including a sun-bathing member of the nightjar family. 


Australian Owlet-Nightjar








White-browed Treecreeper


On our walk we noticed a few of these small earthen craters with tunnels branching off underground. A cooling tower for an ants nest was the most obvious possibility, but the ants were nowhere to be seen.






The National Park gazetted in 1996, is named after the former pastoral station, a slight variation on the name of the mountain range within it's boundaries.  


Gunderbooka Range 


Cheers & Happy Birding



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