A birding weekend away.

The following birds are DEFINITELY not from Robertson.

A family of Emus being led away by Dad (right)

I went to West Wyalong with Mark Clayton and some other bird banders from Canberra. My association with Mark goes back further than most people have been alive, so I shall not bore readers with the details, save to say that Mark was a youngster (as was I) when he first teamed up with my father and myself and a bunch of other young enthusiasts, and started to learn about bird banding. Mark has had an entire career in CSIRO in the intervening years.

Mark invited me to join him at one of his favourite haunts at The Charcoal Tank Nature Reserve, near West Wyalong. Mark has banded there since about 1986, so he has established some very valuable bird life-history data over those years.

Mark preparing to band an adult male Common Bronzewing Pigeon.

Here he is taking the "head/bill" measurement.
And now the bird is about to be released.
You can see the large patch of cream feathers on the forehead.
That indicates it is an adult male.An Eastern Yellow Robin - prior to release.

The weather at West Wyalong was very hot.

Sunrise at 6:00am.
The temp was already 21.6 degrees Celsius.

It reached 38 degrees Celsius at 3:00pm, on Saturday,
with just 9% humidity.

The temperature meant we had to be very vigilant with the birds in the nets, particularly the small birds, which are potentially subject to heat stress.

Here is a Peaceful Dove -
a close-up view of the colouring of the soft tissue
above the beak and the around the eye.
The same bird, with the wing held out
to show the lovely chestnut colour on the under-wing coverts.This bird is one of Mark's favourite species.
The White-plumed Honeyeater.
He has established good life-history data of this species
through re-trapping many banded birds at Charcoal Tank.
This next image is a portrait of the Yellow Thornbill.
This specimen lacks the typical colouration.
The fine marks behind the eye are about the only distinguishing features.

This image of the bird in the hand shows the size from which it was previously known by the name of the "Little Thornbill".

I have a number of other photos which I shall publish over the next few days.