I started this morning by exploring a different area of Chiltern National Park with the hope of finding a few different species. I headed up onto one of the higher ridges, out of range of the aggressive Yellow-tufted and Fuscous Honeyeaters. Skeleton Hill Track turned out to be quite productive as I was finally able to see and photograoph Buff-rumped Thornbills as well as see Western Gerygone, both new birds for me. The thornbill was the last eastern thornbill species I had to photoraph so it was quite a relief as I was starting to get close to the range limits.
After this,I decided to leave the park since I really had covered all of my target species. This left two possible routes to the west and the mallee country. First, I could go back north to Leeton and Griffith where Ihad had a couple of productive days and I knew poeple, or I could in a more northwesterly direction to Deniliquin which was new territory. Since I had some contacts in Leeton and Griffith and some new information on some more birds there, I headed up there.
Once again, friendly, welcoming birders with extensive local knowledge proved to be indispensible. As I arrived in Leeton, I was taking in by a local birder who not only showed me around the town and all the local birding spots, but provided dinner, a bed, and good conversation, three things I don't often get living on the road. Keith proved invaluable in directing me to places where I could photograph three of my target birds, the Striped Honeyeater (above) and Superb Parrot, both of which I had seen before but not photographed, as well as the Long-billed Corrella which was completely new to me. A very productive evening photo session yieled photos of all three of these species despite the amazing heat. Tomorrow we are going to try a few other spots and see if we can come up with the nomadic Black Honeyeater.
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