More flat and geese

The sunrise at Robinvale was rather good!

So I went out for a stroll around the clubhouse of the golf course.  Quite a few birds around including a couple of contenders for BAD.  This is a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater.

Although not obvious at this end, this is a Yellow-plumed Honeyeater.  Also a contender.

Before leaving the town we went for a walk along the banks of the Murray.  Wood Ducks were inspecting tree hollows above the river.

This is a memorial to a guy killed in a water-ski race in the River.

An area behind the walk is now operated as an Aboriginal Community Group.  I liked the design on the name board as the tree could also represent part of the river, with the dark shape being an island as well as a canoe scar.  (I must look up the Census stats for Robinvale as the cultural diversity is rather surprising.)

A view of the river which includes a large fork as one arm goes around the oddly named Bum-Bang Island.  That is the Aboriginal name for the place so probably means something different to what it appears!

A Red-rumped Parrot posed on the powerlines.

A Memorial Park was at the end of the main street with some interesting art forming part of the shelter.

On our way with a good part of the drive across the Hay Plains.  We did 250 km there on this trip (turning off at Darlington Point rather than going to Narranderra.   The Hay Plains are really flat: 1 hill of 10m in about 300km!  Louth (somewhat North of the Plain) @130m is about 1000 km from the sea: an incline of roughly 1:7300!

Lots of trucks and a few caravans.

Did I say it was flat?

Flat, a truck, nice vanishing point of the powerlines and lots of cotton beside the road.  Cotton seems to be the main agricultural activity now with the first paddocks not far from Balranald and last near Whitton.  Massive amounts of water must be used on this.

This is a crop near Whitton, where there is a large cotton gin.

A map of the area in the Memorial Park at Whitton.

Not a silo, but a water tower.  This is next to the Memorial Park at Whitton and is excellent.

The more traditional gates to the Park.

The courthouse is part of the Whitton Historical Museum, which appears to include several of the old buildings around the town.

An interesting art work including quotes from Henry Lawson.  One of the comments was about a fire starting in two "well insured" buildings in town.

I think three trailers qualifies as a road train

We got to Leeton and followed Polly's guidelines, through a surprisingly large town, to our accommodation.  We didn't stop there but pressed on to Fivebough Swamp.  Here is the overview map.

This is our walk: basically a square to Brolga.

I was initially surprised to see 5 Magpie Geese fly up.  Then found a few more nesting/roosting/loafing in the reeds.

Then a skein of 50 flew over, heading towards Hooey Road.  A few minutes later - too close for it to be the first flock on a second lap - another 60 flew over.  The resulting total caused a "Please explain" from eBird.

A little along the track we came across a bunch of geese (probably the second skein) hanging out with Spoonbills (both species) and Shelduck.

There were also a few 'good' birds along the Hay Plains: Black Kite; Pied Butcherbird, White-necked Heron and a bunch of Emus (as usual mainly on the Southern side of the road.).  Overall a pretty good day for the birdlist.