Friday – 5:45am: I leave home in the dark, my poor little car is loaded with more photographic gear then I care to mention, laptop computer, enough clothes for a week, food and plenty of water. After a breif stop at Lithgow for some breakfast, I was in the Valley by 7:20am and the weather was spectacular!

The road to Glen Alice: Along the side of the road on my way I sighted (some photographed) the following: Fairy Martin, Welcome Swallow, Rufous Songlark, Zebra Finch, Red-browed Finch, Eastern rosella, Kookaburra, Magpie and Currawong. A lot of these birds could be photographed using my car as a hide.

Glen Alice: After arriving in the township of Glen Alice I took a coffee break in the park right in the center of town, this is a very pleasant spot with a great deal of bird life active the whole time I was there. After my coffee I continued to the very end of Upper Nile RD. where I sighted the following species: Noisy myna, Supurb wren, Red-rumped Parrot, Richard’s Pipit, Plum-Headed Finch, Rainbow Bee-eater, Black-shouldered Kite, Apostle bird, Wagtail, Yellow thornbill, Cuckoo, White-necked Heron, White-faced Heron, Australia Kestral, Striated Pardalote, Double-barred Finch, Southern Whiteface, Pallid Cuckoo and Dusky Wood-Swallow.

Binalong: While I was in the valley I chose to spend the night at the property Binalong; Two guestrooms in a private house available for self-catering accommodation for up to 5 guests, situated on 140 acres of prime bird habitat. Sit on the deck and watch a variety of honeyeaters coming to the birdbaths. The property boasts a list of over 120 bird species. Full kitchen facilities, linen and towels provided, very reasonably priced. For enquiries and bookings phone April Mills on (02) 6379 7326. I highly recommend staying on a property such as this as you get to see a whole lot more as well as take in some local knowledge. Species recorded: Brown falcon, Black-faced cuckoo-shrike, Jackie Winter, Yellow-eared honeyeater, Noisey friabird, Crested Shrike-tit, White-browed, babbler, Hooded robin, Sacred kingfisher, grey strike-thrush, brown and white-throated treecreeper, Fuscous honeyeater, King parrot, Rock warbler, Diamond firetail and Golden whistler.

That’s about all from me for this outing, I hope you all take the time to visit the valley it truly is a wonderful place. All photos from this trip can be viewed in my gallery.

Craig.