Winton

Crested Pigeon

We checked into the Matilda Country Tourist Park, where we were given a great spot under a group of trees, and set up our 'big camp', a screened gazebo under which we could have a little tent for sleeping, Dusty's crate, a kitchen table, and a chair and coffee table. It was HOT, and flies were BAD, so we were the envy of those who had to choose between the caravan and the open.

Birding was good from the gazebo with Yellow-throated Miners, White-plumed Honeyeaters, and Inland Thornbills foraging in and under the trees, and a dripping tap attracting a steady stream of birds.

Apostlebird

Of an evening birds gathered on the powerlines to bath in pools left behind by the sprinkler.

Black-faced Woodswallow

Diamond Dove

White-plumed Honeyeater

Zebra Finch

Galah

White-breasted Woodswallow

Carey's Reserve

Carey's Reserve looks a little bleak with this end of the Burrunjuck Dam completely dry, and sheep ignoring fences in the search for new grass. But the grass seed supports a colony of finches including Double-barred and these Diamond Firetails.

Australian Pipits foraged along the roadside and Dusky Woodswallows hawked for insects.

TSR #21 Mudgee

The travelling stock route and reserves network (TSR network) in New South Wales and Queensland is an extensive network of public land that was established for the droving of sheep and cattle during early European colonisation, often along traditional Aboriginal pathways through the landscape. Travelling stock routes are roads along which livestock can legally be driven, and usually have wide verges on which cattle can graze. Travelling stock reserves include stock routes as well as fenced areas for camping with or watering stock overnight. Because TSRs have remained publicly owned and generally have not been cleared, many protect remnants of woodland vegetation in the otherwise highly-cleared wheat and sheep farming belts.

The administration of NSW TSRs is complex, and differs between the geographic divisions of the state. In the west the TSRs are leased by private landholders with the condition that they provide access to travelling stock. In the east the Livestock Health and Pest Authorities currently oversee management, the collection of rates and the movement of stock, and are under increasing pressure to provide a clear economic case for the value of TSRs under their care. A range of uses are permitted including picnicking and walking, but this varies from reserve to reserve. There is a concern that some TSRs may be sold to neighbouring land holders, leading to the further break-up of the TSR network, loss of access for current users and the probable loss of key network functions. The TSR Network also faces a range of other threats, including overgrazing, invasive species, firewood collection, and mining.

Travelling Stock Reserves, with remnant vegetation and permanent water, play an important role in protecting bird species whose habitat has been reduced by broad scale farming.

Declining songbirds of the NSW sheep-wheat belt:
Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus
Speckled Warbler Chthonicola sagittata
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill Acanthiza uropygialis
Southern Whiteface Aphelocephala leucopsis
Grey-crowned Babbler Pomatostomus temporalis
White-browed Babbler Pomatostomus superciliosus
Varied Sittella Daphoenositta chrysoptera
Crested Shrike-tit Falcunculus frontatus
Rufous Whistler Pachycephala rufiventris
Crested Bellbird Oreoica gutteralis
Restless Flycatcher Myiagra inquieta
Jacky Winter Microeca fascinans
Red-capped Robin Petroica goodenovii
Hooded Robin Melanodryas cucullata
Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis
Diamond Firetail Stagonopleura guttata

To get to Travelling Stock Reserve #21 head out of Mudgee towards Gulgong on the Castlereagh Highway. Pass Cullenbone Lane on the left and the TSR is on the right 0.7km further on, just before the crest of a hill. Driving over the crest there is a driveway on the left where you can safely turn to come back to the gate. Close the gate as there may be stock in the reserve. The track down to the river is rough but easily negotiated in 2WD. 

Striated Pardalote

Eastern Rosellas

Red-Browed Finch

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos

Surrounding Area

Lees Reserve

There was a cloud of these little finches feeding on grass seeds, unfortunately on the far side of a drainage ditch so I couldn’t get close.  Known here as the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, they are also called Chestnut-breasted Munia. Typical finches, their feeding antics are fun to watch – they tend to perch on the grass stalks rather than find dropped seed on the ground.

Roebuck Roadhouse

Driving up to Derby for the day, we stopped at the Roebuck Roadhouse around 30km north of Broome and found a group of around thirty long-tailed finches drinking at a dripping tap beside the driveway.

These guys are popular with caged bird enthusiasts, but it was wonderful to see such a large group in the wild. They are also called the Blackheart finch, but that seems too dark a name to these happy little fellows.

Wambina Nature Reserve

Brown Thornbill

Brown Gerygone

Silvereye

Red-browed Firetail

White-throated Treecreeper

The 53 hectare Wambina Nature Reserve  protects the headwaters of Erina Creek. It covers a variety of habitats from ridges of open forest to deep rainforest gullies. The reserve provides habitat for flying foxes, powerful owls and southern angle-headed dragons.

It is one of a series of reserves and parks stretching along coastal New South Wales, which provide habitat for a range of migratory and nomadic animals. It is also provides a link to other reserves on the Central Coast, such as Katandra and Rumbalara, which are managed by Gosford City Council. The vegetation includes warm temperate rainforest with sub tropical elements; and open forests of Blackbutt Eucalyptus pilularis, Spotted Gum Corymbia maculata and Sydney Blue Gum Eucalyptus saligna. Twelve animal species found in the reserve are listed as Vulnerable.

It was a day for little brown birds when we visited. Many Superb Fairywrens, Eastern Yellow Robins, and White-browed Scrubwrens as well as those pictured above.

Stone Cottages

Black-chinned Honeyeater (Wilpinjong)

Painted Honeyeater (Wilpinjong)

Diamond Firetail (Baerami)

Not great images, but my first sightings of these birds with a camera in hand. I spent the weekend at the Goulburn River Stone Cottages with some fellow birdos. While there were plenty of birds just outside the cottage door, it was also a perfect base to explore some of the great birding areas in the Mudgee region - the visitor information centre in Mudgee provides a useful Bird Routes pamphlet.

Some of the notable spots are Munghorn Gap with over 160 species recorded including the endangered regent honeyeater; the Drip, home to the origma or rock warbler; the White Box Camp in Goulburn River National Park for painted honeyeaters; and Stony Creek for diamond firetails. We found great birds all along the Wollar Road with a group of seven wedge-tailed eagles roosting on the edge of mine tailings, a variety of honeyeaters along the creek beds, musk lorikeets feeding on flowering gums, and rufous whistlers calling from every vantage point. The area is also home to the only wild emus in the Sydney basin.

Kooragang Island

The infrequently-mown grass beside Hi-Fert provides a buffet for Double-barred and Red-browed finches. Today they were joined by a flock of Chestnut-breasted. The Chestnut-breasted Mannikin or Chestnut-breasted Munia (Lonchura castaneothorax) can form flocks of several hundred birds - this group were a paltry twenty or so, but good to see them there.

John Gould wrote of it:
“I had not the good fourtune to meet with this bird in a state of nature, but I have been informed that it frequents reed beds bordering the banks of rivers and lagoons on the eastern coast, and that it much resembles the Bearded Tit Panurus biarmicus, of Europe in the alertness with which it passes up and down the upright stems of reeds, from the lower part to the very top, a habit for which the lengthened and curved form of its claws seem well adapted."