South-East Australia Road Trip Spring 2019: Part 2, Warrumbungles to Eskdale

Black-eared Cuckoo

Following our visit to Deepwater (following post) we headed south to Tamworth for an overnight stay, then on to Warrumbungle National Park for two nights at Blackman Camp. We last visited the Warrumbungles in 2013, soon after the area was razed by particularly devastating bushfires. I was interested to see how it had regenerated.  
. While plenty of trees and shrubs had sprouted, as expected, huge numbers of trees remained blackened trunks, killed by the fires. So many trees with hollows were lost that authorities have built and placed scores of nesting boxes.

Fire-killed trees

Warrumbungles

Conditions were drier even than around Deepwater. Emaciated kangaroos were digging into bare earth in search of grass roots. A brief shower during our visit was so unusual that it prompted an Echidna to surface in the heat of the day. Along roads around the park, crops had perished and livestock removed as the drought intensifies.

Echidna

Best bird was a Black-eared Cuckoo in a patch of cypress pine just west of the national park boundary. Other cuckoos included Channel-billed and Pallid. 

Black-eared Cuckoo

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Pallid Cuckoo

A few White-browed Woodswallows mixed with White-winged Trillers and Rufous Songlarks were along the road. Speckled Warbler, Red-capped Robin and Yellow Thornbill were among the birds in woodland remnants. 

Red-capped Robin

Speckled Warbler

White-browed Woodswallow

A small flock of Turquoise Parrots flew through the camping ground late one afternoon. A White-winged Chough was enamoured with our car window and a couple of Emus were seen.

White-winged Chough

Emu

We moved on to the delightful town of Parkes for an overnight stay. South of here a stop at Lake Forbes was productive with several hundred Pink-eared Duck and at least 40 Freckled Duck seen. 

Freckled Duck & Grey Teal

Pink-eared Duck & Grey Teal

We moved on to Wagga Wagga for another overnight stay. Along the Murrumbidgee River, several Long-billed Corellas – here at the eastern end of the range – mixed with flocks of Little Corellas. At the town golf course I had three encounters with Superb Parrot – a pair and two singles – but they were flighty and could not be photographed.

Long-billed Corella

We continued south across the Victoria border to the delightful hamlet of Eskdale, where we had a couple of nights staying with our dear friends Bill and Sandra Watson. A Peregrine Falcon put on a show in the late afternoon and a pair of Grey Fantails were attending a newly constructed nest.

Peregrine Falcon

Grey Fantail on nest