The Warrumbungles

After doing some wonderful relaxed birding at Capertee, we headed another 3 hours further north-west to the town of Coonabarabran near the Warrumbungles National Park. An interesting note, Coonabarabran is known as the astronomy capital of Australia, with lots of homes having white telescope domes in their yards or on hilltops!

The Warrumbungles is a rugged area of ancient volcanic vent plugs of solid lava, where the original volcano has eroded away. A good area for birding, but again we were a bit unlucky with lots of wind and rain in the area, but we did see 67 bird species.

One of the birds we were after was the Glossy Black-Cockatoo which is fairly common in the she-oak forest area called Pilliga, just to the north-west of the Warrumbungles, but due to the massive overnight rain most roads were flooded and the forest tracks were far too boggy. Oh well, next time.

On a track just out of Capertee, we came across this Eastern Bearded Dragon (Pogona barbata) trying to get warm in the cold conditions.

A great looking lizard and a new reptile species for us.