A curates egg of a day

A good nights sleep, which was unusual for our visits to Lake Cargelligo where the dogs are usually very noisy most of the night.  But they were quiet, and our fellow guests - tradies - silent as they left for work around 6am.

The beginning of the day was again foggy, this time at Lake Cargelligo.  Strange bird calls were being made which turned out to be a gang of bolshie Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters.  An early contender for Bird of the Day (BAD).

They were very stroppy: here is one giving a steely gaze to a Black-faced Cuckooshrike.

We packed up and headed off in heavy fog towards Condoblin, en route to Gum Swamp at Forbes.  This was not really a problem although it did draw attention to the amount of standing water in paddocks and the creeks all running full  Just after Condoblin they were several dead Galahs in the middle of the road: the number of corpses then rose by 1 as a bird flew in to the top of our windscreen.  A second Galah then whacked the front bumper, presumably also a fatal.

We started seeing signs about sculptures, many of which were visible as we drove by.  This is an art project Sculpture Down the Lachlan and is generally brilliant.  This one is Sonata, by Susie Bleach and Andrew Townsend located at Waroo.

Our attention was grabbed by a flock of very noisy birds.  They turned out to be Grey-browed Babblers, the first I have seen for a long while.  They had a nest in a eucalypt which some of the birds visited

A bit blurry but flight shots are always good.

The birds were very active (as well as noisy).

This is an Apostlebirds nest, with the tail of an occupant visible.

You remember the car hitting the Galah?  That was drawn to our attention by the parking sensor on the car going off with a red light and much noise.  As there was nothing within 10m of the car we went to check and the sensor had shifted back into the bumper so that it was in effect sensing itself and running continually.  A phone call to the very helpful Sam at Rolfe Mazda told us how to turn that off so that we could continue our journey.  I stuck a dot band-aid over the hole to keep the wind, dirt and bugs out, until I got the car to Rolfe's, arranged for the following morning.

The sculptures continued.  This one, by Jimmy Rix, is entitled Roadkill.  The kangaroo strikes back: I'm wondering if he could do a smaller version featuring a Galah!  Note the caravan!

Our next target was the Gum Swamp Nature Reserve.  This followed from positive comments by a couple of Canberra naturalists commenting on the sculptures at the Reserve as well as the birds.  The first sculpture see was "Varanus" by Glen Star (a very appropriate surname).

The work is HUGE.

There were much smaller works at each of the 4 hides but I didn't take photos of them.

Going into the first hide and up to the upper deck gave looks at a range of birds.  Magpie Geese are always good to see.  (Less good to see were the hordes of feral pigeons perched on the dead stumps: I wrote down a conservative estimate of 200, but there could have been 1,000.)

A general view.

The interior of a hide.

I noticed a huge nest in one of the dead trees and then the likely builders thereof.

Long-necked Turtles were on many of the logs, in this case sharing with 2 Pink-eared Ducks.

2 Blue-billed Ducks were visible.

Near the car park was another large sculpture, in this case called "The Hunter" by Damien Vick.

A nicely posed Darter.

A barely focused pair of Plumed Whistling Ducks were a contender for BAD ...

...  as was this Peaceful Dove.

But the Babblers won BAD as result of being unusual for me to see and particularly interesting birds to watch.  

Overall this Reserve was one of the best I have visited anywhere.  It is Brilliant!

For those unfamiliar with English similes the description of something as being "like a curates egg" means that "it is good in parts".  The history of the saying is covered here.