Meet at 8am in the carpark on Horse Park Drive. This will be a morning walk through woodlands and grasslands where we may see species such as Superb Parrot, Speckled Warbler, Rufous Whistler, Southern Whiteface and Diamond Firetail. We will walk to the area where Hooded Robins were last reported from the reserve in 2010. It should be an easy to moderate walk over undulating (and possibly quite boggy) ground, and we may stop along the walk to look at whatever wildflowers and butterflies are out. Please bring appropriate sun protection, some water and possibly gumboots.
There will be a limit on numbers for this walk so please register with Suzi Bond (chowchilla29@yahoo.com) for details.
Eleven COG members met in sunny, mild and windy conditions at the Rocks carpark on Horse Park Drive. We tallied 51 species for the morning despite the reserve being a little quieter than usual in many places. Birding highlights included Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Varied Sittella, Mistletoebird, Grey Currawong, Tree Martins and Fairy Martins, with good views of Superb Parrot, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Pallid Cuckoo and Leaden Flycatcher. Later on the walk in the sky above us we observed four Wedge-tailed Eagles and (separately) a flock of Straw-necked Ibis on the move. We were surprised not to record Speckled Warbler or Scarlet Robin during the walk. Breeding observations included dependent young for Australian Magpie and Grey Butcherbird, a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike nest-building, a Western Gerygone on a nest, and a Tawny Frogmouth sitting on a nest with a fluffy chick beside it.
In addition to the birds, we saw an assortment of wildflowers including Sun Orchids, Billy Buttons, Sundew and Fairy Aprons (also lots of Capeweed and Paterson’s Curse in flower). The butterflies mainly consisted of Australian Painted Lady, Meadow Argus, Caper White, Chequered Copper and Common Grass-blue; and the mammals consisted of European Hare, Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Swamp Wallaby and Red-necked Wallaby.
