Putta Bucca Wetlands

During my recent trip to Mudgee for their Readers' Festival I was keen to find some local birds too. A trip to the local tourist information helped greatly, and the staff told me about the new Putta Bucca Wetlands on the edge of town. Perfect.

Click on the photos to see them in larger format. Well worth it for the bird shots.

Thankfully no snakes on my visits!

 The entrance into the car park is only open Monday to Friday 8-4. All of my visits were outside these times. There is another parking area just outside, and it's a short walk in.

There are two areas, one a creek off to the left from the car park.

Where I saw this most attractive fellow. An Azure Kingfisher! Alcedo azurea, a new species for me. Not a perfect picture because of the difficult light, but you can still appreciate how gorgeous that blue is. Off to a great start.

And this young fellow. I think this is an immature Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae). Which can apparently be difficult to distinguish from a White Bellied Cuckoo-Shrike. 

If you keep walking around the track you get to the main water area. A filled in quarry. Where there was an astonishing variety of birdlife.

A pair of Red-Rumped Parrots (Psephotus haematonotus) taking a drink

The sky reflected in the water

Three Little Black Cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) taking a rest

A male Red-Rump Parrot showing off his assets

 There were three predominant species of ducks on my visits. Grey teals. Australasian shovelers (new for me! Woo hoo). Hardhead ducks.

Grey teals (Anas gracilis)

I was very excited to get this shot of a White plumed Honeyeater
Lichenostomus penicillatus

I visited three times over the weekend. Each time was lovely, and I saw something new. Like ibis roosting in the morning. 

Straw necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) and
Australasian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca)

Then heading out for the day.

One lonely pelican seemed a bit out of place

A pair of Australasian Shovelers (Anas rhynchotis)

Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)

On an early morning visit the ducks were having a party!

Grey teals

A reminder of the former quarry. 

Putta Bucca Wetlands were opened in 2010. A week later they were almost destroyed by a flood! There are two great bird hides, and more plans to keep expanding and improving the area and facilities.

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