Some more public transport birding

Evening all,

Today was a massive trip – not for birding purposes, but to take the kids to Thirlmere for a ride on various steam engines and Thomas-related activities. Two-and-a-half hours on three trains got us as far as Tahmoor, with an unidentified raptor (medium-sized, light under the shortish wings) and a lot of Cattle Egrets on the way. Outside Tahmoor station, we came across large numbers of Little Wattlebirds (and being somewhat sleep-deprived, I accidentally wrote ‘Little Lorikeets’ in the Birdline submission – if the correction doesn’t go through before the report is published, then disregard that…). A fair number of Noisy Friarbirds also appeared, giving the rest of the family their best views they’d had of them. After a fair walk into Thirlmere, there was also the first lifer of the day for the Mrs and kids – a single Spotted Pardalote. After hours of trains and engines, we had to make our way back. Luckily we left enough time spare as a few minutes down the road, the second rest-of-family lifer was seen: an Echidna, in broad daylight. The scattered remains of an ant nest were nearby and it let us take quite a few photos from quite short range. The third was a hundred metres further down when our youngest (piggy-backing on the Mrs for the 50-minute walk) pointed out some pigeons, which were a pair of Common Bronzewings. The last lifer was one for all four of us (I’d seen the previous three before): a little outside Picton on the way home, a single White-headed Pigeon flew alongside before turning and flying over the train. Overall, it was seven hours travelling time, five of which were on trains. While a lot of people I know complain about the trains around Sydney, they are really quite good and really cheap compared to similar services elsewhere. Cheers,

Tony

Photos, paintings and drawings of Australian, NZ, Swiss and British Birds www.tonykeenebirds.co.uk ===============================

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