Last November Timothy and I went to the Australian Birdfair at Leeton. Along with Carol Probets, Fiona Lumsden and Jill Dark, we manned a "Blue Mountains" stall. Jill, as the President of Blue Mountains Bird Observers, was there with bird lists and her wealth of information on birds, plants and walks to share. Carol is a well known bird guide of the Blue Mountains and Capertee Valley and her web site is a must see if you're planning a visit to these areas. Fiona is an Artist who specializes in flora and fauna, and had a selection of her paintings, including cards, prints, and larger original works. I had my CDRom, A Bird in the Hand.
I'm not sure what I expected The Birdfair was going to be like, as this was only the second one. It's not a big affair, but it is very well run by a very cheery and helpful group of people. We were warned about the hot weather (I think I died seventeen times). There was a diverse array of speakers, which gives the ordinary person a glimpse of how much research is going on out there. There was some excellent bird tours organized, Timothy and I did the 'Comedy in the Cumbungi' tour with Sean Dooley which was a lot of fun and an opportunity to meet some new people and see some good birds.
The Fivebough Wetland is amazing and well worth a visit at any time.
Some of the birds we saw there. Freckled and Pink-eared Duck, Australian Shelduck, Australian Grebe, Darter, Pelican; Great, Intermediate and Cattle Egret, Glossy, White and Straw-necked Ibis; Royal and Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Black-shouldered Kite, Swamp Harrier, Brown Falcon; Ballion's and Spotted Crake; Purple Swamphen, Dusky Moorhen, Black-tailed Native Hen, Black-tailed Godwit (a new bird for us) Marsh Sandpiper, Red necked Avocet, Red-capped Plover, Black-fronted Dotterel, Wiskered Tern, White-fronted Chat, Zebra Finch, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Little Grassbird, Golden-Headed Cisticola.
Sean also hosted a Trivia night, "Teal or no Teal", on the Saturday night. He did an excellent job and there was a lot of hard work put in to achieve a great result! And he looked very fetching in his red suit! Our Team, "Origma Enigma" were the winning team... and named 'Bird Brains 2007'
L to R ... Timothy Hyde, Jill Dark, Fiona Lumsden, Carol Probets, Michael Todd, Phil Hansbro(out of shot), Andrew Patrick, and me taking the photo. Eat our Dust!!!!!!
The Grasslands tour to Oolambeyan National Park on the Sunday was excellent. A two hour trip to the park with a stop on the way to see Superb Parrots in the River Red Gums. We encountered a large storm on the way and things didn't look good for the evening walk.
The sky's had cleared by the time we arrived and we were in for a fantastic night. We were given a short talk on the history of the property and its current status and were then able to wander around by ourselves.
The NWPS and DECC put on a wonderful barbecue dinner and as the sun went down the anticipation was growing.
To be quite honest Timothy and I didn't think we were going to see a Plains-wanderer.
Our guide for the night (I think, please correct me if I'm wrong) was David Parker, who is studying the birds. He gave a talk on the birds explaining their habits and preferred habitat and showed us a mounted specimen.
How were we going to find this tiny bird in the vast grassland!! A short bus trip later we were all standing in the dark, and told that we were going to be walking towards the only tree on the horizon. It seems the Plains-wanderer doesn't like trees, there might be a predator in them. They are not a nocturnal bird, and roost on the ground at night. We set out in a straight line, three guides with spot lights and 20 of us, this seemed to be an impossible dream. Within 10 minutes we had found a Plains Wanderer,a female, unbelievable!! Another new bird. Again I'm not sure I have the correct person, I think it was Michelle, who spotted it.
Within 5 minutes we had found another, Michelle again! And another female. We only took a small digital camera with us to get the above shot, I quite like this photo it really reminds me of the evening and how small these birds are,also how silly bird watching can be. However, I had met Brian Harris earlier at the fair, he is from Gloucestershire England and he and his wife now spend a few months of each year visiting his family. He had a DSLR and showed me a few of the shots he had taken. In a passing comment I asked if he could email me one and to my absolute delight and surprise a few weeks later I received an email with photos attached. Brian has kindly allowed me to use his photos here. Thank you so much Brian.
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The whole trip was well organized by happy and enthusiastic people.
We stayed in Leeton on the Monday and went out to Fivebough again. All the other birders had gone home and we had the place to ourselves, This is when we saw the Australasian Bitten,(another newie) exactly where we had been told it would be, Timothy had walked to the end of one of the tracks, me close behind he heard rustling in the reeds and the bird climbed out and flew toward the birdhide. What a great weekend, I've almost forgotten how hot it was.We're looking forward to going back to Leeton .
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