Evening all, Spent a few days last week surveying the birds using some environmental water flows off the Murrumbidgee River just to north of Balranald in south western NSW. Most of the sights are on private land so can’t provide details but good birds included: 2 Painted Snipe 1 (and probably 4) Pied Honeyeaters – a female seen well and then disappeared with at least 3 other birds 1 Fork-tailed Swift on Burke and Wills Road (AMG 54 735833 6179557 on a public road) rapidly flew from the north just above tree height at about 20 metres before just as rapidly disappearing. Was amongst a huge, circling flock of Woodswallows (Masked and White-browed) and there may have been more about. Weather was hot (about 35) and windy from the north east. My first sighting of this species in SW NSW. A good mix of waterbirds including 20000+ Black-tailed Native-hens, large numbers (one wetland probably held 150+) of Red-kneed Dotterels, 2 Freckled Ducks, a few Blue-billed Ducks and Glossy Ibis (first for the year). The only scolopid waders this time were Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (had Ruddy Turnstone and Red-necked Stint at the same spot in October) but other birds (Red-necked Avocets, Whiskered Tern, 2 spoonbills and Great Crested Grebe) were in similar or greater numbers. Will be back in the same area in February so might be interesting to see what happens as the water dries up. Cheers, Peter
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
