You can see the program at the Varuna Website, here – get in touch with us for bookings.

We’re sorry to say that both our family cottages, Banksia and Waratah, are pretty much full for the school holidays

However, if you have a younger child, we do have some vacancies early next week in Tea Tree Cottage and Wattle Cottage. We’re happy to provide a good portable single bed to either of these – and the child can stay for free.

White-Throated Treekeeper. Image by “Aviceda”, Creative Commons license.

There’s more than one species of Treecreeper around the Blue Mountains, and they’re very small and fast – which makes it a little difficult for us to decide which ones we’re seeing at Bunjaree Cottages.

It’s quite a cheerful sight, however, when you turn your head at a call and see these fellows sprinting up tree trunks! Whether you spot the White Throated Treecreeper or the Brown Treecreeper, their agility on tree trunks is quite impressive!

When they’re on tree trunks, it’s to feed. Treecreepers browse on ants on the trees, sometimes adding a little nectar for variety.

Listening to the call posted on Birds in Backyards, I suspect the Treecreepers we see most often at Bunjaree Cottages are the White Throated – Cormobates leucophaea if you want the Latin name.

Male Eastern Spinebill. Photo by Stilgherrian, Creative Commons license.

I have, in other posts, complained that the small birds around Bunjaree Cottages are difficult to photograph because they move very quickly and don’t sit still. This week, our friend Stilgherrian has managed a rare treat, getting pics of both male and female Eastern Spinebills.

The Eastern Spinebill can be seen all the way from Cooktown in Queensland all the way around to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia – but they’re less common around urban areas, because they like heaths, forests and woodlands.

Female Eastern Spinebill. Photo by Stilgherrian, Creative Commons license.

Their down-curved bill is designed for nectar-eating – in these photos, they’re feeding on the flower of the iconic Mountain Devil shrub that grows throughout Bunjaree Cottages. Their distinctive call is a high pitched, short, repetitive piping whistle.

While a kid of honeyeater – and they have a hummingbird-like hover while feeding – Eastern Spinebills also occasionally add small insects to their diet.

However, Pardelotes are among the many species of small birds which frequent the bush around Bunjaree Cottages. They pass through in flocks, sweeping between different locations on the site in a group, feeding, chirping, and moving on.

Spotted Pardelote - Image: Wikimedia

These birds are tiny – at 8cm to 10cm, they’re not much smaller than your hand, and are definitely smaller than some of Australia’s biggest moths! They have a quite musical call – Birds in Backyards has calls recorded here for the Spotted Pardelote and here for the Striated Pardelote, and since you’re more likely to hear them than see them, it’s worth listening to.

A lot of people also mistake female Pardelotes for scrub wrens, because their grey-and-olive plumage and small size makes them look a little wren-like.

Photo by Stilgherrian

Gang-Gangs are quite gregarious and curious when they’re around, but they are an unusual sight around the Blue Mountains, which are at the edge of their range. The NSW Department of Environment & Heritage lists them as “vulnerable”, mostly due to land clearing leading to habitat loss.

Photo: Stilgherrian

However, as it has turned out, this resident of Bunjaree Cottages is more likely the Slender-Billed Cuckoo-Dove, Macropygia amboinensis, native not just to Australia but also to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Some scientists consider the Australian population to be a distinct sub-species, and give it the name Macropygia phasianella.

Around Bunjaree Cottages, there are several breeding pairs that stay all year. They will sometimes dispute the bird-feeders with the more numerous Crimson Rosellas and King Parrots.

The photo doesn’t really do it justice: the Wonga is a seriously large amount of pigeon.

Source: Glen Fergus, O'Reillys Guest House, Queensland

While quite shy, the Wonga pigeon is a ground-forager. Around Bunjaree Cottages, early risers can get lucky and surprise a Wonga Pigeon around their cottages.

If the pigeon sees or hears someone, it will leave as quickly as possible, and here you will get your second treat: its takeoff is noisy and rather ungainly because they’re so heavy by pigeon standards. The wing-clapping noise is quite impressive.