Guthega birds & flowers

Fri 21 February 2014 05:00pm

Jean Casburn

Friday 21 to Sunday 23 February 2014 – Guthega birds & flowers

Accommodation for 16 people will be in comfortable Kyilla Lodge, Mount Tate Road in Guthega. The lodge has a fully equipped kitchen and each bed has a doona and pillows. You will need to bring your own sheets, pillowslips, towels and food for the weekend. Final details will be sent to participants, but in the meantime further information about Kyilla Lodge can be found at www.brindabellaskiclub.org.au.  The cost will be approximately $60 if there are 16 participants.  Payments are due no later than 15 January 2014 and participants will be contacted before then with the final cost.  You will need to also pay a daily fee of $16.00 per car to enter and use Kosciuszko National Park unless you hold an ALL PARKS PASS (NSW). Bookings are essential, either by email to casburnj@bigpond.com.au or ph: 02 62883929.

Leaders are Sue Lashko and Jean Casburn.

Post event report

On Friday evening, 13 members met in Guthega at a ski lodge with beautiful views over the hills and Guthega Pondage.  There was time for a pleasant walk around the local area for an hour before dinner.  On Saturday morning we drove to Sawpit Creek to walk the 6 km of Pallaibo Track to Thredbo River.  We recorded a surprisingly high 48 species in the 5 hours it took to cover the distance.  Highlights included Olive Whistler, Crested Shrike-tit, numerous Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Red-browed Treecreeper and Satin Flycatcher.  After a late lunch back at the lodge, we descended to the pondage, crossed the dam wall and walked along the northern side of the Snowy River to a waterfall.  It was a perfectly still, sunny day, but in the open heath vegetation with just a few snow gums, bird variety was low but Brown Thornbill, Silvereye and Little Raven were numerous.

Dinner on Saturday night was the feast that we have come to expect on COG weekend outings, with contributions from everybody enjoyed by all. We had delicious casseroles, curries, lasagne and salads accompanied by various red wines, then finished off with desserts and muscat. Yum! A few hands of 500 were enjoyed by four of us, before retiring to our comfortable beds.

On Sunday morning we walked the 5 kilometre return trip to the Illalong suspension bridge and back. It was another pleasant outing with good views of Black-shouldered Kite and a pair of Brown Goshawk, with 9 Gang-gang Cockatoos (not one with a red head) back at the lodge.   A Copperhead Snake, sunning itself on the stairs down to the road, necessitated a detour to pack the cars.

The bird species count for the weekend was 55, quite an impressive list for the Snowy region. Thank you Jean for organising the lodge and leading us on such interesting walks; we had a lovely time.

Lia Battisson

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