Séjour dans les Blue Mountains (Australie), le domaine de l’Origma des rochers

The New South Wales State is located in southeastern Australia. It is crossed by the Australian Cordillera, or « Great Dividing Range », which is composed of high plateaus and mountains which culminate at 2,228 meters of altitude (at Mount Kosciuszko). The Blue Mountains, covered with vast eucalyptus forests, are part of this long and ancient mountain range. They are partly protected by the Blue Mountains National Park, one of the most famous in Australia, and remountable for its natural and arboreal heritage, its symbol being the Three Sisters, a spectacular rock formation. A wide variety of parrot and marsupial species can be observed easily, thanks to more than 140 km of marked trails and viewpoints, and the park is a popular place to relax and stay in Sydney, as it is located only at 100 km away. Unfortunately, for several years, because of unfavorable weather conditions (heat, droughtness and winds), large fires are devasting parts of the forests of this region, and those of 2019 were particularly violent, with nearly 20% of the surface of the Blue Mountains burned between July and December.
From the 8th to the 13th of September 2018, a British birder, Mark Smiles, spent a week with his wife in the Blue Mountains Natonal park, in particular to search for the looking for the Rockwarbler (Origma solitaria), the only endemic bird of New South Wales. He finally found it, as well as other species that were missing to his list, including several honeyeaters and cockatoos, as well as a sympathetic marsupial, the Common Wombat. We propose you a translation of his illustrated travel report.