We managed to time the COG visit to the park perfectly, between a very hot week and a colder period, so we had three sunny, mild days and good birding, before weather conditions changed and 10ml of rain fell on the last afternoon. We explored various habitats in this park in the northern Riverina of NSW, did some bird surveys at monitoring sites where weed and rabbit control is being undertaken, as well as general birding and spotlighting on foot. The spotlighting was very rewarding with Stubble Quail with tiny babies, Little Button-quail, Tawny Frogmouth and Boobook Owl.
The early spring wildflowers in the native grasslands were stunning this year, with many different paper daisies in mass flowering. On the birds front, the trip highlights were close views of Black Honeyeater, Crimson Chats and Black-eared Cuckoo, plus a large group (50) of White-winged Trillers, flocks of White-browed and Masked Woodswallows, and Black Falcon. There were many grassland birds breeding as you would expect and Brown Songlarks were particularly abundant, and other birds like Banded Lapwing and Emus had young. There were also abundant kangaroos of three species (Red, Eastern Grey and Western Grey) around. The bird mix was a little different to the last visit in October 2006 when conditions were much drier, with fewer raptors around, for example. We did not get to see Plains-wanderer this time; unfortunately, the rain downpour on the last afternoon meant the vehicles could not go out into the paddocks. COG wishes to thank the Ranger, Michelle, for allowing us to visit. All things going well, I am expecting to take a COG group there again in spring 2011, so we can continue to collect data at the bird monitoring sites, and enjoy the birds at this large and interesting park.
— Jenny Bounds