A bush picnic – but few birds

Bushland nature trail near Walpeup, NW Victoria

Sydney Trip Report June 2011

On the first day of our trip to Sydney earlier this year we stopped for a picnic lunch at a roadside picnic area near the small township of Walpeup. This farming community is between Ouyen in NW Victoria and the South Australian border. This picnic area came with a short nature trail through the native scrub next to the road. Some of the plants were of particular interest to my wife who is an avid grower of Australian native plants.

Despite the day being quite sunny, the weather was most unpleasant. A stiff breeze blew from the south bringing bitterly cold air all the way from the Antarctic – or that’s what it felt like. The birding was very poor and I only heard a handful of individual birds calling. I didn’t actually see anything.

The following is a very short list of birds heard over the 20 minute period we were there:

  • Singing Honeyeater
  • White-browed Babbler
  • Grey Shrike-thrush
  • Little Raven

Oh well – you get days like that.

Good birding – and I hope you get a better list than that!