CasaBelle (Bellingen) - Day 1

Deb had organised a few days away to celebrate her 60th birthday, our anniversary and my retirement ... all equally worthy reasons! Bellingen was the agreed area. We had driven through visiting Dorrigo in years past, but never really stopped and spent time there, so no time like the present. With the restrictions on travel imposed by Covid, finding a B&B for a few days was a significant challenge - this was trerrific to show how many people seemed to be taking advantage of visiting local 😀, and it was within those restrictions that CasaBelle was chosen. Sue and Fritz surpassed the promises on the website ... fantastic location, facility, hospitality and the food ... well, let's just say you don't need lunch after the sumptuous breakfast and only a light meal after a delicious afternoon tea complete with freshly baked treats. Thankfully there are many local attractions catering for walks among the periods of relaxtion on the property! Highly recommended (thank you) and we hope we will return (soon).

So my intention for the next few posts is to share photos of the wonderful and varied range of birds we managed to photograph on each day of our visit (3 nights). We saw a few more that remained too elusive for my focusing skills, but as you will see, there was not one day that did not offer many highlights, including several new finds for me, adding extra delight to the experience 😁.

So day 1 was afternoon check-in and after being shown to our room, we were invited to one of the terraces for afternoon tea. Choice of tea or coffee served with a delectably fresh rasberry and chocolate cake dusted with icing sugar. We were immediately treated to antics around a nearby very sheltered bird bath. 

Despite the leaf cover I begin with this capture of the gorgeous call of a golden whistler in full cry. This is followed by the same one perched and in the process of shaking itself dry after a bath. Quite the welcome!!

Not to be outdone, and each with it's own awareness of the pecking order, some sharing and some biding their time for space, you quickly get a sense of the busy periods catered to by this bird bath. Remember, too, if you click on a photo, you will be able to scroll through the photos in a fuller (larger) screen view.

Silvereye

White-cheeked honeyeaters looking out for eachother

The pair up close and getting personal!

Shared space, but still wary

A grey fantail enjoying it's turn

Then it was time for an exploratory wander of the grounds - just to see what might be about ... and down on the pond was the drake of the property. Very distinctive facial feature and a fantastic comb a barber would be proud to have created 😏. He will feature in later posts and be revealed to have a very important role!

Further meanderings revealed an unexpectedly wide range of birds - perhaps I should not have been so surprised, but with the forest and woodlands behind (to the north) the property, the environment offers much habitat for the birds and other fauna. So ... much to look forward to he was thinking already 😜 ...

Pale yellow robin keeping an eye on the intruder (me)

A pair of red-browed finches grazing for seed

A lone red-browed finch offering scale on dandeline stalks

Black-faced monarch on the lookout

Eastern yellow robin (leg colour is the tell)

This next one is just a striking avian specimen. The contrast against the mauve of the jacaranda flower and the fresh green leaves provides a wonderful perspective for the size and delicacy of the scarlet honeyeater. I promise more delights of this combination. This tree was a magnet (for the birds and for the photographer 😀)! This is merely a "tease"!

The eastern spinebill was as common as I have experienced so far in my travels. Like so many of the smaller birds they are incredibly acrobatic in their lust for nectar and thus provide wonderful opportunities showing off the beauty that is nature! The next three offer some good clear examples ... quite the exploration this had turned out to be!

And to cap off my meander through the grounds, as I approached the porch to our room I spotted movement in a citrus tree ... a second glimpse of a new find for me ... dinner was really good on our first night!

Black-faced monarch basking in afternoon light