The next Wednesday Walk will be to Queanbeyan Sewage Ponds. Meet at 8:30am 19 February on Mountain Rd (off Railway St between the suburbs of Beard and Oaks Estate, refer map). Final details will be circulated to the chatline following discussion with Works management.
30 members and guests assembled at the works and after signing on and given a few cautionary words about this being a working site and thus not getting in the workers’ way we headed off to the ponds. Before getting to them we spotted Double-barred and Red-browed finches.
The plan had been to pass by Pond 2. However the sight of 4 Freckled Duck thereon caused a brief break in proceedings. The ‘eternal three’ members of the Rail family (Purple Swamphen, Dusky Moorhen and Eurasian Coot) plus several of the more common ducks were also seen here.
Pond 3 was occupied by a large raft of mixed ducks included at least 4 Australasian Shovelers, 40 Hardhead and 17 Pink-eared Duck. A further 4 Freckled Duck were sitting on a pontoon in the western end of the pond. I counted 217 Eurasian Coot in the main raft and suggest the member who arrived 216 omitted one which I saw dive.
A good range of general birds were seen in the surrounding area. The most interesting was an Australian Reed Warbler carrying a small fish which it presented to another bird. HANZAB does not record this species feeding on fist. In total we recorded 49 species for the site, of which 20 are usually associated with water features.
Many thanks to Queanbeyan City Council for giving permission for this visit.
(A copy of the full list for the outing will be placed on the website in due course. A few images and notes are on my blog)