Back to the bird-fields

Echidna in the front garden

Well the international border was finally opened again a few months back and so I was able to see family again after a depressing couple of years of isolated exile. Kath wasted no time and was down here at the end of August.

Bondi

Sadly we're still suffering the unprecedented effects of three La Nina years in a row. This meant a very un-Australian amount of rain on the east coast and so we were forced to travel inland a bit in search of finer weather. We ended up spending a few days in country NSW in Orange which was a pretty random selection but proved dry despite the freezing cold.

Into the red dirt

Orange is also just about close enough to get in a (fairly long) day trip to the mallee country west of Condobolin. The first issue out there was the sand roads and their deep mud-traps after all of the rain. Thank goodness for the 4WD which saved us from certain bogging and being stranded in the middle of nowhere for goodness knows how long. Thankfully Kath kept cool among the swarming flies and plotted a safe route out through the trees, of which a few had to be removed! I'll therefore forgive her for a rather enthusiastic close approach to a passing deadly snake. I'm fairly sure it was a Mulga Snake but I wasn't getting too close to the head end for a full diagnostic assessment.

Home of the heathwren

Anyway, amid my panic at the situation into which I had blundered, I was able to pick off a pair of Shy Heathwren #515 and a first addition to the list in a very long time.