HILLEND TO BETHUNGRA

In late October 2012, after departing the beautiful Capertee Valley, we travelled south through inland NSW visiting the historic gold mining town of Hillend. While exploring the sights of this unique National Park, a couple of colourful locals gave us pause to stop and snap some pictures. 

Australian King Parrot -male

Crimson Rosella

We've seen our share of wild rabbits on our travels but a couple of big and very dark specimens were a surprise sighting on one of our sight seeing walks.

At Bellevue Hill Reserve in Cowra some lovely blooms were showing well in the spring sunshine. Any assistance with identifying these would be appreciated. 

We had no trouble ID'ing this bird, a lifer for both of us, after first hearing the call then finding it perched high up on a dead limb, from where it conveniently flew down for a more photogenic pose.

Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo

Near our campsite at Bethungra Dam Reserve a cockatoo kept us amused with its wonderful antics, responding to the calls of some mates nearby.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Cheers & Happy Birding

QLD BIRDER HITS THE ROAD

Clare and I had planned on doing some travelling sooner, rather than later, and with that in mind we purchased our van last year and decided to spend 2012 on the road. We left home on the 8th of January and headed south into New South Wales. First stop was at Bigriggen Park near Rathdowney (QLD) a lovely site by the banks of the Logan River. The temperature hit 37 here so we spent a lot of time in the water.

Logan River

Relaxing after our first setup.

The crows were taking it easy in the heat but why they weren't in the shade has got me beat.

I thought they were supposed to be intelligent? 

Torresian Crows

One of the locals was having a good look at the newbies.

Red Necked Wallaby

And this pair seemed to be panting in the heat, perched high up in one of the massive gums around the campground. 

Dollarbirds.

 This little bloke had the right idea hanging round the river on the rocks, in between catching tiny insects flying above the water.

Juvenile Eastern Water Dragon

Our next major stop was Tenterfield NSW, where we had the chance to explore the nearby Bald Rock National Park. We hiked to the top (the biggest granite monolith in Australia apparently) and enjoyed the expansive views from the summit. 

Bald Rock

 Some of the rocks on the walk up were quite impressive too.

Balancing Rock

 This skink got a good feed out of the apple core we left for it.

Okay, don't feed the animals etc. but I don't think we were going to make a serial pest out of this fella.  

Cunningham's Skink

The scenery was stunning and we were overawed by the sheer size of some of the rocks around the park. 

Clare dwarfed by the massive boulders.

 This King Parrot spent a lot of time hanging around our van waiting for a handout (we didn't oblige).

  

King Parrot - male.

And another of the locals was looking totally bored while waiting for his owner to come back.

PIPERS, PARROTS AND PIGEONS.

This robin is one of my favourite birds and we have one that inhabits the scrub in our backyard.

I call it the piper at the gates of dawn*, being the first one to start off the morning chorus.

It's also usually the last bird to call in the evening.     

Eastern Yellow Robin

Some fresh seed in the feeder brought in a couple of unusual visitors, a pair of King Parrots, which I've only seen fly over our place occasionally. These two weren't shy and I assume they may have utilized some other feeders in the neighbourhood. 

Australian King Parrots - males.

Another bird to drop in for the first time a few days later was this large pigeon. The news must be getting around that there's a free feed at the our place!

White-headed Pigeon

These are normally a shy, rain-forest dwelling, fruit eating species and it may be the case that these birds have also become more confiding around human habitation, especially with the destruction of their natural habitat and their reliance on the introduced Camphor Laurel tree.

This cousin of the above mentioned bird was spotted by Clare sitting on the roof of our van out front.

A beautiful, pure white racing (or feral) pigeon that on closer inspection was bleeding from wounds in it's breast and rump. Maybe a raptor attack? We have three species of Goshawks on our backyard list.A distinct possibility! But most probably a Peregrine Falcon, the bane of pigeon fanciers worldwide.   

This was one lucky bird and in an attempted rescue operation it flew off when I tried to throw a towel over it. It took off strongly and disappeared into the distance hopefully to survive another day. 

The culprit may have been one of these magnificent killers, a Brown Goshawk. This one I saw recently at the Cooroy wetlands scaring the wits out of the nearby feathered inhabitants.

Brown Goshawk - female.

This bird was also spotted at the wetlands, singing for all its worth and obviously not too worried about killer raptors!

Olive-backed Oriole

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_at_the_Gates_of_Dawn