Map 27 D14 (UBD). Meet at 9.30am. Park at step-through access gate on the right hand side of Kambah Pool Road which is about 700 metres from the roundabout where the Kambah Pool Rd crosses Allchin Cct/Barritt St, Kambah. The gate is opposite the start of the golf club driving range and 400 metres before the entry to the golf club.
We’ll head first to the small farm dam to check if there is anything on it besides Wood Ducks, then across to the reserve proper, where we’ll walk the perimeter track anticlockwise, hopefully seeing some of the interesting finches, thornbills, robins and raptors recorded on previous visits. No bookings required. If you have any questions, contact Michael Robbins (mrobbinsathome.netspeed.com.au)
Fourteen new and long-standing COG members joined in a pleasant stroll around this small but floristically fairly diverse unit of the Canberra Nature Park on a beautiful, frosty morning. And we enjoyed some good birding, with 32 species in total.
Our first highlight was about 15 Double-barred Finches in a flock of Yellow-rumped and Buff-rumped Thornbill. At that stop we heard Red Wattlebird and had a quick look/listen to a White-eared Honeyeater. Although honeyeaters weren’t abundant we also saw White-plumed Honeyeater and Eastern Spinebill feeding on blossom in a Yellow Box on the western facing slope.
Most of us were fortunate to have a fairly close view of a Wedge-tailed Eagle flying away, which we must have disturbed as we sought better views of Buff-rumped Thornbill, which we eventually got, along with much better views of Scarlet Robin, and an excellent opportunity to see the differences between Yellow-rumped and Buff-rumped Thornbill. Soon after, we saw a large flock of small birds which included 30 Red-browed Finches.
Our mystery bird for the day called several times on the western slopes where the frost still lay in the shade late in the morning, but no ID has been decided upon.
