Wednesday walk – Lake Jerrabomberra

Wed 18 September 2024 09:00am

Sandra Henderson

Meet at 9.00am in the carpark of David Madew Oval off Bicentennial Drive in Jerrabomberra. This will be a 2km walk on the lakeside path, with a short stretch along a suburban street. Over 100 species have been recorded at the lake over the years, making it the top eBird hotspot in Queanbeyan, but I don’t recall COG ever visiting the lake.  Please register with Sandra at shirmax2931@gmail.com

Post event report

As usual, Sandra did a great job providing Wednesday birders excellent views of interesting birds on a nice easy ramble – even though the wind didn’t help us to hear birds calls.

 

We started by exploring a small dam across the oval from the parking area. The large number of Australian Wood Duck on the oval (over 40) was not quite matched by the number of Pacific Black Duck on and around the dam.  These were augmented by Welcome Swallow, Dusky Moorhen, Eurasian Coot and Australasian Swamphen, and the call of an  Australian Reed Warbler.

 

People obviously feed birds at the lake as the Hardhead, Black Swan and some of the other water birds were keen to check us out as we stood on the fairly large public jetty.  Not so the Great Cormorant, Australian White Ibis and Australian Pelican, which stayed on the island, along with the Nankeen Night Heron, and Masked Lapwing which stayed on a smaller private jetty on the other side of the lake. We heard, and saw, several White-plumed and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, and Red Wattlebird.

 

It’s a very easy flat walk on the footpath around the Lake, but we did move onto the grass to check out the creek and the Spotted Pardalote, Superb Fairy-wren and Red-browed Finch which favoured that habitat. We saw one European Goldfinch, which had flown into a tree as we watched several Galahs.  Nearby, we saw Eastern and Crimson Rosella, and Red-rumped Parrot.

 

Only one each of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and Common Blackbird  were seen.

Although the wind was a nuisance, we were able to use calls, as well as sightings, to distinguish the House Sparrow and Yellow-rumped Thornbill which were perched in bare branched trees of local house gardens. The real Laughing Kookaburra we saw looked better than the ornamental one in a garden, and the Australian Magpie, Magpie-lark, Willie Wagtail and Grey Fantail were as delightful as always, especially since it still seems to be before swooping season.

 

Michael Robbins

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