Patchwork of Birds of Patchwork Cottage

One of the little towns in the Mary Valley is called Imbil, and here we stayed at a B&B called Patchwork Cottage to undertake the next survey of birds in the area. We managed to get 61 species over 2 days.

Patchwork Cottage backs on to Forestry, and the birds seen provided a Patchwork of Colours against the green of the surrounding forest.

Just how many shades of green are in the bird world I would not like to even guess at, with the Green of the Catbird, King Parrot and Emerald Dove as well as the Satin Bowerbird female.

There was the Black and Gold of the Regent Bowerbird male, Pink and Grey of the Galah, Black and White of the White-headed Pigeon.

Brown of the Brown Cuckoo-Dove and Tawny Grassbird.

Black crown, Chestnut throat, White breast and Cinnamon buff underparts of the Eastern Spinebill, and all the colours of the Rainbow Bee-eater.

Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris)

Australian King Parrot (Female) (Alisterus scapularis)

Satin Bowerbird (Female) (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus)

This is not a very good picture, but I have included it to see if any one has noticed any barring on a female Satin Bowerbird before.

Tawny Grassbird (Megalurus timoriensis)

Yabba Creek

Just a short walk down the road from Patchwork Cottage you come to Yabba Creek.

Black-striped Wallaby (Macropus dorsalas) Scrub Wallaby

Some of the locals.

Mary Valley

Australasian Grebe can be found throughout the Mary Valley on farm dams. Not all dams have easy access to them, this one was right beside the road with enough room to pull over and have a good look at what was on there. Mainly Australasian Grebe and not much else.

Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)

Duwirri (Brooloo Bluff)

Every time we go to the Mary Valley I would say I must stop and take a photo of Brooloo Bluff but we always had to be somewhere at a set time. This time though I just had to take some photos. The last time we were up this way it was raining.

Birds of Brooloo Park

We are conducting a series of regular bird surveys through the Mary Valley with the aim of establishing a bird trail. The first place we visited was Brooloo Park Eco Retreat & Equine Resort. On this first visit we recorded 65 species over the 2 days we were there. A pretty good count considering it's Winter. (click on photos to enlarge)

Jacky Winter (Microeca fascinans)

We don't get to see too many Jacky Winter around our area anymore, so we were very happy to see at least 2 pair on the property.

Forgot to get the name of the horse, but the 2 spoonbills caught my eye as it was unusual to have one of each species together. They flew in together, were feeding together, and flew off together.

Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia) (Front)

Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes) (Rear)

Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea)

The Azure Kingfisher is one of the hardest to get a photo of, because most of the time all you see is a bird flying really fast along a creek. At one of the camping spots on the property where we were having lunch, we noticed this one just sitting on a branch in the deep shade by Coonoongibber Creek. You would think with the colours in this bird it would be easy to see, but as I walked down to the creek to take photos, I was surprised to find it sitting just on the other side.

Brooloo Park

Coonoongibber Creek