Capertee Valley Camping With The Gang Part 2

The arrival of our final participant spurred yet another walk. Late afternoon and mornings never disappoint when it comes to looking for wildlife. Kangaroos are always abundant in Australia, but seeing wombats is a less frequent treat.

A lesson I have learned in life is to do things when you got the chance - not to postpone to the next day! .. Notice that I said I had "learned" not that I (always) follow :-) Apparently the same wisdom can be applied to owl spotting, the first night we had heard multiple calls during the evening and night, but had not followed up on any of them - the thrill of the card game might be to blame? However, despite trying hard Saturday night, even utilizing help from petrol propelled vehicle - cheating? - "The Valley of the Owls" was dead silent and none of the night predators were seen.

Once again we had an absolutely amazing (slightly less) early morning in the valley.


Great morning walk, managed to see another Dusky Woodswallow (looking at my pictures it seems I also saw one Saturday) and a few Little Lorikeets, which are both new to me. Walking seems to generate a healthy appetite and once again we found ourselves around the table anticipating a bit of breakfast.

A few pitstops had been planned for the return leg of the trip. First of all we gave Crown Station Rd a chance - being center of the universe for Regent Honeyeaters it was no surprise that we saw quite a few binocular slinging and tree planting BWs, unfortunately all the RHs took the day off so we had to settle for a bit of BIF training opportunities.

A final stop before reaching the comfort of good old Coogee was done at Lithgow sewage treatment plant - I surely understand how to take Gemma to all the romantic spots around Sydney - Having expert help along aka Mr "400"-Blake meant that I could bag the Hoary-headed Grebe and Blue-billed Duck without breaking sweat - tick-tick :-D

You can never get enough reach! Good enough for identification, but I might have to invest in a teleconverter to get some proper long distance excitement. A 1.4X would bring the Bigma to f/8.8@1050mm on the D300 .. tempting! And 2x giving f/12.6@1500mm ... that would probably mean I should cut down on the coffee before hand-holding. Another option is to give Gemma a scope with a Nikon adapter for her birthday! ;-)
There is a few extra photos from the trip in the Picasa album below - just press the little picture here:

Capertee