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| Chesnut-rumped Heath-wren |
We departed the western plains of
NSW (see previous post), heading east to the pretty town of Bingara, where we
overnighted in a caravan park and dined at the RSL Club. Then it was on to
Kings Plains National Park, north-east of Inverell, which I’d not visited
previously.
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| Kings Plains National Park |
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| Kings Plains National Park |
We had the delightful Ironbark Camping Ground to
ourselves, set beside a creek in the beautiful NSW western slopes woodlands
with their wonderful granite rockeries - a region so familiar to us through many
visits to sites such as Girraween and Sundown national parks.
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| Camping at Kings Plains |
We had only a few days of our round-Oz trip left, and had
prided ourselves on not having had a single mechanic mishap with the vehicle, not even a flat tyre. Then
we discovered that the stony road on the way in to Kings Plains National Park in north-east NSW had punctured not one but two
tyres. One tyre had a pretty savage tear but the other was a slow leak. Glenn, ever the capable handyman, managed
to get the vehicle back to Inverell for new treads by stopping and inflating
the slow-leak tyre at 10-km intervals.
Fuscous Honeyeater and Yellow-tufted Honeyeater were common in the woodlands. Other birds included quite a few that were new
for the trip as we hadn’t been in far eastern Australian before here: Buff-rumped Thornbill, White-naped
Honeyeater, Eastern Yellow Robin, Leaden Flycatcher, White-throated
Treecreeper, Pied Currawong. Also about were Brown Treecreeper, Azure Kingfisher,
Eastern Rosella, Crimson Rosella and Dusky Woodswallow.
On the first afternoon I found a very nice Chesnut-rumped Heathwren, which I managed to get a few snaps of. It was near the road in suitable looking
metre-high heath.
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| Chesnut-rumped Heathwren |
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| Chesnut-rumped Heath-wren |
Mammals included good numbers of Eastern Grey Kangaroo,
Swamp Wallaby and Red-necked Wallaby.
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| Swamp Wallaby |
In the morning I reconnected with the hylacola and saw
the first of the eastern races of Black-chinned Honeyeater and Crested
Shrike-tit for the trip; I had seen the golden-backed race of the honeyeater in
north-west Queensland and the NT, and the western race of the shrike-tit in WA.
Also about were Brown Thornbill, Striated Thornbill,
White-browed Babbler, Little Lorikeet and Striped Honeyeater.
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| Black-chinned Honeyeater |
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| Crested Shrike-tit |
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ReplyDeleteThanks Benjamin. The two species have very similar habits - skulky and hard to photograph. This particular bird was just a tad more co-operative.
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