Munmorah SCA

We set off to Munmorah SCA to try and get some decent images of the Southern Emu-wrens. We had previously seen the Emu-wrens in the heathland near the camping ground, so we had a reasonable expectation of success.   We set up the hide in an area that looked promising. The background would be smooth as the  vegetation was uniform and at a good distance. A couple of potential perches were located within view of the hide.
Rather than immediately focus on the Emu-wren we decided to let things settle down for a while.
Given that we could hear a Bar-shouldered dove call in the distance we played it's call. Within a couple of minutes we had about five birds come in close to investigate.

Two of these birds landed on our selected perch. The bonus was that they started to perform a display which involved fanning their tail feathers and raising them.  After being entertained by the Doves we decided to try our luck with the Dusky Woodswallows that we saw on the way to our location. Much the same as with the doves, the woodswallows responded reasonably quickly to their call. First to visit our perches were two juveniles closely followed by a single adult bird. It was great to see the different stages of maturity. It was now time to give the Emu-wrens a go. Unfortunately we had no success, not even a glimpse. Even though it was after 9.00am the light was still good due to some high cloud so we decided to move the hide 200 metres towards the coast. 

More success at this location, but alas only glimpses of the elusive birds.

There is so much good heath habitat within that reserve that we will have plenty of opportunities to track down more photogenic  Emu-wrens in other locations.
All was not lost as an obliging New Holland Honeyeater settled in a low branch near the hide.