South-East Australia Road Trip Spring 2019: Part 1, Warwick to Deepwater

We embarked on a seven-week road trip on October 21, 2019 through NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. First stop was the Sandy Creek Pub, a quaint little hotel a few kilometres out of Warwick. Free camping with hot showers! 

I checked out the surrounding roads early morning but nothing much other than plenty of parrots, including Red-winged looking good and Cockatiel with recently fledged young.

We headed south to Kingfisher Camping Ground near Deepwater for a two-night stay. A very nice, spacious camping area set amid the rolling hills of this granite rock-strewn landscape. Unfortunately, like much of the country, the area is in the grip of the worse drought on record; creeks and swamps were dry and trees and shrubs severely stressed. Hungry livestock entertained.

Macropods were abundant and most unusually they were feeding throughout the day - a measure of how dry the conditions were. Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Wallaroo, Swamp Wallaby and Red-necked Wallaby were common.

Birds were in good numbers nonetheless. Of special interest was a group of 8-10 Diamond Firetails feeding on the lawn near our camp in the early morning and late afternoon; they were the only finches seen.

Diamond Firetail

No Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters were seen, oddly enough in this seemingly ideal habitat. Fuscous was the most common honeyeater while Brown-headed was nice to see.

Brown-headed Honeyeater

Fuscous Honeyeater

Australian Little Eagle put on a show a couple of times, including a shrieking but unsuccessful attack on some item of prey.

Australian Little Eagle

Restless Flycatcher and Scarlet Robin were among the birds that entertained us around our camp.

Restless Flycatcher

Scarlet Robin

A few White-winged Trillers were along the road in (one of which was stalked by a feral cat) and the first Brush Cuckoo of the season put in an appearance.

White-winged Triller

Brush Cuckoo