Round Hill trip
Splendid Fairy-wren Malarus splendens adult male
Last weekend I went out west with a few friends, surveying birds in some National Parks in and around the mallee of New South Wales, centred around the Round Hill National Park. The trip was organised (very well) by Mark Clayton, and other members were, Suzie Bond, Steve and Pru Holliday, Kim Sebo and Jennifer Hine.
There were high numbers, thousands, of Masked Woodswallows
Artamus personatus and White-browed woodswallows
A. superciliosus chattering in huge flocks above us when at most of the sites. And there were hundreds of Black Honeyeaters
Certhionyx niger and Pied Honeyeaters
C. variegatus feeding on the flowering trees and shrubs, especially the
Eremophila. We didn't see any Malleefowl
Leipoa ocellata - they are scarce due to predation by cats and foxes- but we did record most other local species, such as Gilbert's Whistler
Pachycephalata inomata, Chestnut Quail-thrush
Cinclosoma castanotus, Southern Scrub-robin
Drymodes brunneopygia and the stunningly blue Splendid fairy-wren
Malarus splendens.
Southern Scrub-robin Drymodes brunneopygia
male singing from a low branch in the mallee scrub
The dark streak through its eye with the contrasting white flick is a diagnostic feature,
as are the pair of off-white wing bars, and the way the bird lets its wings hang down.
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill Acanthiza uropygialis
carrying food, a small moth, into its nesthole to feed chicks.
Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae feathers caught on barbed wire where a bird has jumped over a fence.