A trip to the Plain

Over the past few wet years a swamp in the middle of the Hoskinstown Plain has produced many exciting records. It has been drying out recently but I thought it worth going for a visit to see what is there.

For the swamp itself the answer is a lot of dry brown vegetable matter and no waterbirds (nor indeed any water).  However despite the weather not being promising as I headed off ...
... nor much better when I got down to the Plain (despite some attractive Herefords being present).....
 .. we (my friend Julienne joined me) found some good birds.  The first was a flock of Red-rumped Parrots.  We counted 61 in a row of trees, and there may have been more.  This shows a few of them.
There were also 21 Crested Pigeons and about the same number of Yellow-rumped Thornbills  in this area.

On our way back from the ex-swamp we found a single Golden-headed Cisticola, which is not a common bird in the area.
 As we got back towards the road the expected Flame Robins put in an appearance.  Julienne couned at least 7 and at least 3 of them were males.
 This one decided to improve a thistle by perching on it.
When the Robins moved off they were joined by a Diamond Firetail but this was too far off to photograph.

As I headed off back home a large flock of seed-eaters flew amongst the hawthorns.  There appeared to be about 100 birds with approximately equal numbers of Double-barred Finches (very close to where we saw them 2 days earlier) European Goldfinches and House Sparrows.

Comments

Swan Pond said…
Lucky you. I'd be happy with that result despite the lack of water and waterbirds.
10 June 2013 at 22:10:00 GMT+10
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