Capertee Valley

Capertee Valley

The Capertee Valley is a large area of, primarily, farmland hemmed in on its east side by the Wollemi NP. Being in the rain shadow of the Blue Mountains its much drier than other areas so far east and is therefore a top spot for birds more normally found further inland. Its only an easy 3 hour drive from Sydney. Its also one of the few places that the Regent Honeyeater can regularly be seen and is famed for its many finches.

Car camping

Allan, Jarrod and I set out after work on Friday for a bit of car camping. It was the first dry weekend for a while and so my mosquito net was fine on this occasion. The place was swarming with finches, as hoped, and although I missed the rare Plum-headed, I picked up the Diamond Firetail #368 and also White-browed Babbler #369. There were also loads of Little Lorikeet, Bee-Eaters and Hooded Robin which was nice.

Diamond Firetail

Double-barred Finch

Allan isn't one for the birds so much, although I think he's about to cave in and start ticking, so we went for a bit of bush-walking too and ended up scaling the valley wall. Thanks a lot lads. A bit of a hot climb but we did see a smashing 5ft Lace Monitor and a few nice spiders. No snakes though this time.

On top of the valley wall

Redback on the offensive

Whoah!

Lace Monitor hiding up a tree