Plover

 Red-capped Plover

During our road trip across the Nullarbor, the same Northern Shoveler that eluded me in Leeton turned up again in Canberra. Sadly it was gone again by the time I got back but it seems that the bird might be slowly headed my way...!

Semipalmated Plover

In the meantime another vagrant appeared down at Shoalhaven Heads where I've twitched a bunch of things in the past. It seems to be a real hotspot for blow-ins from North America. First observed on the Thursday I wasted little time in getting down there with Paul on the Saturday morning. A handful of other twitchers were on the scene and we were pretty quickly onto the Semipalmated Plover #509 which was just as well because it was seen again on the Sunday morning but then not since.

Sand Whiting

Emily and I have managed to get away on a couple of weekends recently with a bit of fishing on the cards but also a trip to Mudgee in search of some rarer birds from the drier inland.

'Frog Rock'

Aboriginal cave art 

The drought and bushfires round the state have meant that some species are showing up in places where they might not normally be seen.

Bearded Dragon

Sadly the flocks of Painted Honeyeaters and Ground Cuckoo-shrikes reported from the Upper Hunter were not present when we visited but I did see only my second ever Plum-headed Finch by the river in Mudgee. Crested Shrike-tit and Rainbow Bee-eater at the nearby Putta Bucca wetlands were also nice to see.

Always time for some caching