Black Spring TSR

On Easter Saturday, a walk through the Black Spring TSR was hot and dusty. It is a remnant of the once vast Grassy White Box Woodland that covered the area, and runs alongside the road about 6.5k south of Barraba. Maureen and I trudged the 3k to the end without coming across water in any of the three waterholes. Heading up to the top of the ridge we were snapping Mistletoe birds when a  Speckled Warbler came down to scold us. It followed us as we worked our way uphill.

Mistletoebird - female

Speckled Warbler

A number of tiny birds were chasing insects in the top of the eucalypts. Buff-Rumped and Yellow-Rumped Thornbills, White-Throated Gerygone and Weebills.

Weebill

Australia’s smallest bird, Weebills are a bit of a challenge for photographers, as they move fast high in the trees. I managed to get my best shots yet of the little cutie. On the way back to camp we stopped to watch several Jack Winter catching insects on a large mistletoe clump.

Jacky Winter

Ocean Baths

I’m not much of a twitcher. I do have a tagging system for photos of new species, and occasionally remember to update my birding list on Facebook, but I don’t keep a list of birds seen. Occasionally in the past I’ve seen a Tweet reporting a new bird somewhere close by, but when I dash over the rarity has always departed for the distant hemisphere from which it has wandered, so I rarely follow up on the information nowdays. But today I‘d dropped a friend off in the East End of Newcastle and was driving home past the Ocean Baths where a Common or Brown Noddy has been spotted over the last couple of days, so I pulled into a parking space.

The Noddy was sitting on the rocks just behind the baths, visible as I walked along the pool deck. I snapped a few shots, and edged closer staying on the pool deck. A gull was snapping at it and it flew up, but came closer to me offering a profile view. The gull followed it and continued to harass it, and after a few minutes the Noddy flew off towards the rocks at the top of Nobby’s beach.

There were at least 25 Sooty Oystercatchers on the rocks, lots of Silver Gulls and Great Crested Terns, and good numbers of Ruddy Turnstones in breeding plumage.

Borah Creek

Kookaburras woke us bright and early next morning but were soon followed by a dawn chorus that had me vowing to make a determined effort to learn more bird calls. I recognised the distinctive Crested Shrike-Tit, and the Grey Shrike-Thrush, Rufous Whistler and Pied Currawong. Lots of thornbills and fairywrens, and three King Parrots flew into the top of a nearby dead tree. We had tea and breakfast bars, and waited for the sun to rise.

Headed out on a walk around the reserve there were Brown Treecreepers on every trunk, and a pair of Hooded Robin where we were told to expect them. Little Lorikeet usually stay high up in the canopy, but a group perched on a dead tree in the early morning light.

A pair of Rufous Whistlers were trying to ignore the begging of their almost full-grown young. The young birds seemed to have no fear of photographers, or perhaps they were trying all possible sources of a fee meal.

White-Throated Gerygone and Fuscous Honeyeaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters and a young Brown Songlark were hunting for insects. Ann directed us to a tree in which both Diamond Firetails and Striated Pardalotes were feeding young, and we sat on a log and watched for some time, taking way too many photos given that the size of the birds and their distance from the ground limited any chance of a ‘crippling’ image.

A Wedge-Tailed Eagle flew high overhead, carrying a large branch. For early autumn there were a large number of birds nesting or raising young.  Dusky Wood-swallows were hawking over a patch of open grass, and White-backed Swallows circled above. Back at camp a Grey Shrike-Thrush had found a spider, and an Eastern Yellow Robin looked on.

Borah Creek TSR

We camped on the creek, around thirty people spread out among the huge trees along the bank. A late start, slow trip, leisurely tent raising and a cold beverage meant there was not a lot of birding time left in the day, but I went for a walk along the creek, back towards the entry road.

Fuscous Honeyeaters were coming down to drink, a large group of mixed finches played amongst the tree roots on the far bank, and moulting Superb Fairywrens showed off the last of their summer colours.

A call went out that a Goanna (Lace Monitor) was feasting on a wallaby carcass further down the creek, so I grabbed the camera to capture the scene in the last of the sunlight.

Tarpoly Creek TSR

After being seriously let down by the printed directions, abandoned by my GPS and led astray by Alwyn, I eventually linked up with him, and with Maureen, and located the turnoff. I drove slowly through Tarpoly Creek TSR, looking for promised Plum-headed Finches in vain. Paragliders lurching out of the scrub with immense packs kept stopping me to ask where they were. Tiny, mainly yellow, birds kept to the top of the trees and only this Hooded Robin and a Jacky Winter paused to offer a photo opportunity.

Barraba Birding Routes

Barraba is one of the best bird watching regions in New South Wales, and was the first area in Australia to produce a guide to the local birding routes. The Bird Routes utilise old droving roads now known as travelling stock routes and all 14 are signposted. Most of the Travelling Stock Reserves allow camping, though few have facilities. The TSRs generally have permanent water. Over 190 species of birds have been seen in the Barraba region, including the endangered Regent Honeyeater and the vulnerable Turquoise Parrot. Barraba is also the home of the endangered Boronia ruppii, a rare plant species only found here.

So I set off on Good Friday for a weekend in the region with the Hunter Bird Observers, with all my camping essentials packed and the dogs in Angie’s capable hands.

Tighes Hill

Having spent all day Saturday on the Pelagic trip – and consequently Saturday evening lying on the sofa moaning softly – I vowed to spend Sunday at the computer catching up on marking. I was rewarded by a Spangled Drongo coming to sit just 2-3 metres from me, perched on a tree-fern frond calling for some minutes. Luckily I had the camera beside me, unluckily I had to shoot through glass and flyscreen.