Myall Lakes NP (28th-29th January '06)

Ah, the doubters! They said it could never happen but the Bush Mobile made it the 240 km north up the coast from Sydney to Myall Lakes NP, and back again! And here she is at last in her natural environment.

The bush mobile back in the bush

Due to the uncomfortable heat, camping was out and instead I stayed at the unremarkable yet charming Bulahdelah Motor Lodge motel in nearby Bulahdelah. You thought Sydney was expensive? Eating out in Bulahdelah is ridiculous. Unless you're getting a pluto-pup from the servo that is. At least it was open-air cinema night in the beer garden of the Plough Inn hotel. Madagascar for all those beer-swilling infants.

Bulahdelah Motor Lodge motel

Myall Lakes NP is primarily a strip of land running between a beautiful golden beach and a large lake system fed by the Myall river. Huge sand dunes give way to heath and then dry woodland containing pockets of rainforest on the banks of the lakes. A very nice spot but spoiled a bit by the 4x4s driving up and down the beach and the number of campsites crammed into the woods.

The beach

The dunes

The dunes abruptly meet the heath and woodland

I know it was the Australia Day weekend but I'm thinking this place would never be deserted.
The beach, as a result, turned up nothing in the way of feathered birds and the local pod of dolphins also kept hidden. The heath and woodland, however, was a rich spot in terms of honeyeaters. Wattlebirds, Noisy Miners, New-Holland, Yellow-faced and Lewin's primarily but also a delightful flock of Scarlet honeyeaters. The expected groups of Silvereyes were present as well as White-throated treecreepers, Kookaburras and the odd Sacred kingfisher and remarkably, a new one for me - the Varied Sittella #241. Not many raptors - Whistling kites and Sea-Eagles only. Parrots represented by Lorikeets, Eastern rosellas, Galahs and Yellow-tailed Black-cockies. A few Koels which seem to be a lot more willing to show themselves on the north coast than they are in Sydney.

Lovely pockets of littoral rainforest

High hopes for the rainforest but the most numerous flying creatures were the mosquitoes. Golden whistlers, Whipbird, Brown cuckoo-dove and Scrub-wrens in there too. The lakes and river mouth turned up the usual Pelicans, Black swans, Cormorants, Great and Little egrets, White ibis and Curlew. Crested terns overhead. Nothing too dramatic.

The lakes - home to a few black swans

Disappointed to see the Indian Mynas up there taking over the towns too. They do seem to be spreading their range quite effectively.
All in all, very hot and not much joy! Lovely spot to return to though when its cooler and the people have gone. There are meant to be koalas, dingoes and all-sorts lurking. I'll be back but probably as a stop-off on the way further north.

Sacred kingfisher

Some sort of nasty spider (about 15 cm toe-to-toe he was)

Target bird: Pied Oystercatcher (negative)
Catch the Pigeon: Brown Cuckoo-dove
Roadkill Strike Assessment: Moderate (Roo)

Christmas Day and New Year

Christmas day and time to test the new camera. Firing through the dining room window into the grim Scottish 'light' was a bit of a problem but here's a couple of tits, a tree sparrow and a tasty pheasant.

Great tit with little blue tit looking on

Tree sparrow

Pheasant

At New Year I went to the Mull of Kintyre with my sister, Kath, and her boyfriend Dave and actually saw the sun at one point. If you're ever heading that way, make sure you get some lunch at the George Hotel in Inverary. Mmmm, tasty. (Pics from Kath.)

Loch Fyne at Inverary

Looking north from Carradale with Arran on the right

Fishing with the 'brother-in-law'

Welcome

Welcome to the blog where I'll hopefully bring you news of my ongoing search for the birds of Australia. I've been down here from Scotland for three and a bit years now and the current species list is standing at 240 out of more than 700 possible.

Australian King Parrot, Katoomba NSW

Up until now the going has been slow and steady with the pigeons notably giving me the run-around, but no more! I've just scored a clapped out 1992 Hyundai Lantra from some dodgy Spaniard and so now with the help of the "Bush Mobile", its most definitely on. My parents also very kindly gave me a camera at Christmas and so I can now show the hunt in glorious colour. Hopefully we'll get to see a load of national parks around the country and maybe get some shots of the birds and critters that live there.

Wee Lizard, NT

I'll have a new target bird for each trip which is a likely new tick for the list, a roadkill strike assessment will give an idea of the number of creatures throwing themselves into the road (ranging from, for example, Extreme (Roos and Emus) at Gundabooka NP to Zero in the Sydney CBD) and we'll also have a "Catch the Pigeon" feature which will determine the most exotic or silly pigeon of the trip.
I'm no photography expert but I'll do my best and maybe get some pictures like these in this entry which were taken by Dad when the folks came to visit at Christmas 2003...

Water Monitor, NT

And absurdly......

Frogs in a dunny, NT