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| King Parrot |
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Crimson Rosella on Hil's head!
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The sky was overcast when we got up but looked as if it was breaking up. At
8:30 I remembered that the Lodge feeds the birds at that time so we hustled out
to the nearby barbie area to find one of the employees with a large pan of
sunflower seeds which he offered us to take handfuls of. As soon as we did, the
sweet Crimson Rosella parrots hopped onto our hands to eat! And then a few
larger Australian King Parrots arrived. The man who offered us seed said that a
few days ago Gang Gang Cockatoos had come in to feed also. This is a parrot that
Bob has wanted to see for many years. Other lodge guests wandered away but we
stay and suddenly a beautiful female Gang Gang Cockatoo arrived! She was dark
grey in color with apricot and grey barring on the breast and a wispy delicate
upward curving crest. The male is similar but has a red head and crest. We were
very excited to see all three lovely parrots at the same time!
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| female Gang Gang parrot |
We took off about ten and headed further northwest from the Blue Mountains.
While the east side of the Blue Mountains plateau rises gradually, the west side
ends abruptly in steep vertical cliffs. We wound down into the valley below, as
the weather continued to improve. We passed through tiny towns to a turn off to
the Gardens of Stone National Park and the Capertee Valley. We visited here
seven years ago and found it a wonderfully birdy area. Now the road has been
paved for most of its length and, with its sharp asphalt edge, this makes it
much more difficult to randomly pull off and park. Also the occasional cars tend
to drive much faster, endangering the animal life. But we managed to find ranch
driveways and some parking spots. Hilary spotted a family of four Eastern Grey
Kangaroos which hopped away from us and settled in the shade of some eucalyptus.
We saw Laughing Kookaburras “in an old gum tree”, and the brilliant turquoise
Superb Fairy-Wren. The rolling pasture land edged with high stone escarpments
was very scenic and beautiful.
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Old Aussie farmhouse
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We stopped for icecream bar at a gas station in Capertee, and the clerk,
noticing our binoculars, asked if we wanted the new birding brochure! There was
all sorts of information, complete with GPS waypoints and where to look for
particular birds. Obviously we'll have to come back!
We returned to Blackheath and drove to the end of our road to Evans’ Lookout
which has a vista of the huge valley cut into the plateau filled with endless
eucalyptus forest. We had stopped there yesterday, but couldn’t see anything in
the fog and rain.
We sat on our porch drinking beer and Bob saw a Superb Lyrebird with its long
sweeping tail walk right by our deck, stopping to scratch the forest floor with
its powerful feet!
We had a dinner of large meat pies and homemade ice cream at the lodge .
Tomorrow we are off to Canberra - the last of the large Australian cities that
we have yet to explore.
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