BURRADOO, BONG BONG AND BOX VALE

We stayed in the leafy suburb of Burradoo which was a birding paradise in itself. Driving down the drive to our accomodation- a cottage in the garden in the back of our host’s property- we surprised a group of crimson rosellas feeding on the grass. Later we saw more crimsons, king parrots, kookaburras and magpies in “our” private garden.

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Just down the road from our cottage was an entry to the Bong Bong walking and cycle track along the Wingecarribee River. Walking past one of the homes near the entry we could hear a melody of birdsong and looking between the leaves of the hedge to the garden beyond we could see the tell tale path scattered with blue-violet collectibles, batteries, bits of broken bottles, pieces of ribbon and wire leading to a straw bower. Then we spied the glossy black satin bower bird darting behind the hedge and in nearby shrubbery. 

Along the Bong Bong track we saw many water birds on the river along with king parrots and crimson rosellas in the trees and the grasses.

We also attempted walking the Box Vale Track near Mittagong as we hoped the track had dried off from the three days of heavy rainfall we had in Mittagong. Unfortunately it was quite a difficult track to navigate in the best of conditions and it was still quite muddy from the last rains and it started to rain again as we negotiated the beautiful track through the bush and across waterways. However we were rewarded with seeing a two yellow-tailed black cockatoos high in a gum tree and flying off together.

Another jewell was a kookaburra at close range - always a joy!

Sadly, this was our last pit stop in the Southern Highlands - for now! We loved it, and are sure to return...for now, it's off to Albury for the road home.