Hawkesbury swamps (5th November '06)

Rainbow bee-eater

The plan was to return to the Scheyville NP again this weekend but unfortunately a weekend of rain prevented a nice stroll in the woods. Instead, Malcolm and I just took a drive around the Hawkesbury river flood plain to see what was about. We stayed in the car pretty much the whole time but still managed to rack up 50 species including one new one for the list. It should have been three more but a large raptor flying over was gone too quickly - possibly a little eagle - and a small crake fluttered between two reedbeds, with its legs dangling, before disappearing fom sight. I'm pretty sure it was the Baillon's crake but "pretty sure" isn't good enough for list status! The one definite addition was the Australian hobby #256 which perched obligingly on a fence post for a while. Other observations of note included the white-browed woodswallows which were still around in abundance, several pallid cuckoos and 5 rainbow bee-eaters which I managed to photograph from the car.

Feeding on the ground

Dave arrives from Boston on Sunday so the serious business starts then! I've also found the NSW rare bird alert on the web so I can see things getting more obsessed. Dangerous times!