Meet at 8:30 am at the unnamed Entry to Mt Taylor Nature Reserve off Colquhoun St, Kambah (almost opposite the end of Bolden Place).
This will be a 2 to 4 km walk, through grassy woodlands. Depending on how high we decide to climb Mt Taylor there are also some great views to south and west. When I visited site on 14 September 2023 the most interesting sightings were small flocks of Yellow-faced Honey-eater migrating west to the mountains, and most interesting ‘hearing’ was a Bronze Cuckoo, which didn’t call long enough for me to guess at which species. There weren’t many birds associated with the two small dams, but we will visit them in case. Most walking will be on tracks or “foot pads”, but the woodland is open enough and easy enough to move through, we’ll do so, if bird activity warrants.
Please register with Michael (mrobbins@home.netspeed.com.au) with your name and phone number, and the name and number of an emergency contact.
Five COG members braved the blustery weather to explore the lower western slopes of Mt Taylor. Indeed, the birding wasn’t initially good. However, our efforts were well repaid by the time we finished the outing at roughly 11 am.
Earlier we had worked really hard to get views of Weebills. Interestingly our birding luck changed when we had almost given up birding and were paying more attention to the plants, and enjoying sorting out the trees, shrubs and forbs. By the end we’d had good views of Red-browed Finch, Silvereye, Striated Thornbill, Brown Thornbill, Grey Fantail, Superb Fairy-wren, Red Wattlebird, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike and a fleeting glimpse of Dusky Woodswallow. Eastern and Crimson Rosella, Galah, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Australian Magpie, Pied Currawong and Laughing Kookaburra all put in an appearance. We didn’t manage good views of either Spotted or Striated Pardalote, although we certainly heard plenty.
We also had brief glimpses of Rainbow Lorikeet, and several other species which we guessed at but weren’t sure enough to include in the bird list which, although, not long was reasonable for a rather windy day.
Michael Robbins
