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.

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