Meet at the old service station at Williamsdale on the Monaro Highway for sign up and then drive 1km North to start the walk. It about 4km return with a steep descent (on a track) down to the Murrumbidgee.
NOTE: the Highway has a speed limit of 100kph and can be quite busy. Exercise great care when turning into the Service Station area.
Wed 20 March 2019 08:30am
Martin ButterfieldPost event report
22 members and guests gathered at Williamsdale for a walk to the Murrumbidgee River at Gigerline. This outing usually gives a high level of diversity and with 53 species reported by various members of the group today was no exception.
The particular “target species” were Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and Brown Treecreeper. Calls of both species were heard by some members who ventured a tad upstream at the Murrumbidgee.
The excitement began with a large – estimated as 200 birds – flock of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters moving through the woodland just over the creek. By the time we left that area another ~100 birds, in flocks of 10 to 20 each, had been added to that count, and by the end of the outing my count was 402. As the birds were moving with purpose towards Burra there was low probability of double counting. A small number of White-naped Honeyeaters were along for the flight.
Several White-throated Gerygones were seen or heard and our final estimate of Dusky Woodswallows was 17 birds in several small flocks. 1 White-throated Needletail was seen and a Fan-tailed Cuckoo was heard.
A number of other species were present in large numbers, especially in a mixed flock near a dam. My memory of this group was Grey Fantail (20) Spotted Pardalote (20) Striated Thornbill (15) Yellow rumped Thornbill (6) Brown headed Honeyeater 6, Rufous Whistler (3).
Continuing the traditions for this walk several extra species were recorded towards the end, or indeed during the bird call. The stand-out was a flock of 9 Varied Sittellas.
A full birdlist is at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S54030903