Blue Mountains and Capertee Valley
5th Dec 2025 - 8th Dec 2025
Long weekend trip with Jodie.
First stop on the way from Sydney was a bust: Penrith Weir was closed for trail work. Did catch our first Satin Bowerbird hanging out with some Australasian Figbird in a particularly fruitful tree.
I wasn't hopeful for Euroka Campground as it was late morning and the sun had come out fierce. Jodie found some Tawny Frogmouth on her own for the first time, something I have still to achieve. We chased the call of a Noisy Friarbird into the bush until we saw it, got a fleeting look at a Black-faced Cuckooshrike, and found a massive Goanna at the base of a tree with two Satin Bowerbird.
We had more stops planned along the way, but it was too hot so we skipped them.
Some short evening hikes along the cliffs in Katoomba yielded a small number of commons, but most excitedly a Gray Butcherbird feeding its young and two soaring Little Eagles.
The next morning we got up early to hike the Grand Canyon Loop near Blackheath, and it was the best location in the area. Large Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo on the ridge, a number of tame Superb Lyrebird, four Eastern Whipbird down low where we got fantastic looks, and even two Rockwarblers came out on to the path as we descended. Saw our first Australian Rufous Fantail which was my bird of the trip - absolutely gorgeous.
An evening out and back down the Furber steps was notable for two Lewin's Honeyeater out in clear view at the bottom of the cable car, and a spectacular Suphur-crested Cockatoo perch under Katoomba falls - see photo.
Sunday we drove out to Capertee Valley. So many honeyeaters! Coorongooba Camping Area was particularly fruitful with a number of lifers: Fuscuous Honeyeater, Rufous Whistler, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, and a Restless Flycatcher. Not to mention Yellow-rumped Thornbil at the park entrance ("birdwatching site #8").
Site #10 we picked up Rainbow Bee-eater, and two others I couldn't ID until I checked photos after: Rufous Songlark and White-bellied Cuckooshrike.
We would never have stopped at Genowlan Bridge if it wasn't on a map, and even then almost skipped but some folk we met in the morning had stopped their for lunch. A somewhat reluctant ramble down the dry creek bed led to a fleeting Diamond Firetail and a flock of Brown-headed Honeyeater.