Travelling east from Brewarrina, over the next couple of weeks we visited various areas while enjoying the spectacular winter weather. These honeyeaters were basking in the sun next to our van at Lightning Ridge.
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| Blue-faced Honeyeaters |
As were this pair of swallows on our washing line, while staying near the farming community of Burren Junction.
This small town is renowned in the Aussie birding world as the temporary home of a vagrant wader from Asia in 2006, a Grey-Headed Lapwing. I twitched it with three friends, along with probably hundreds of others in the four months it stayed. This record was a first for Australia and possibly the Southern Hemisphere.
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| Welcome Swallows |
Nothing quite as exciting this time around, although the sunsets were quite impressive.
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| Sunset at Burren Junction |
It also boasts a top free camping site and bore baths with hot water direct from the Great Artesian Basin. Very nice on a cool winters day!
From Narrabri we explored the nearby Nandewar Ranges, the remnants of an ancient basaltic shield volcano, with Mt Kaputar being the highest point.
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| Red Wattlebird |
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| Mt Kaputar- 1508 metres |
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| Australian Raven |
One of the more spectacular sights was the forty metre high Sawn Rocks, a wall of pentagonal basalt pipes, the remains of a lava flow from the old volcano.
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| Sawn Rocks |
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| Looking for raptors |
The canola crops were flowering under the winter sun and made for a colourful foreground to the rugged ranges.
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| Nandewar Ranges |
Cheers & Happy Birding
