Umbagong Park, Latham. Meet at 8.30am in the parking area on Florey Drive (between Handcock and Osburn). Note that some maps show Dalley Crescent crossing the creek at this point – it doesn’t. The only road access is from Florey Drive. It’s been some years since we’ve visited Ginninderra Creek in Latham.
Wed 20 February 2019 08:30am
Sandra HendersonPost event report
About 30 members gathered on the Western bit of Dalley Cr, Latham for a “figure of eight” tour of this reserve. The initial stages of the walk were pretty quiet with a family of Willie Wagtails and a small flock of Red-browed finches being highlights as we crossed Ginninderra Creek for the first time.
After using the stepping stones to get back across the creek we got into bushier country with a much more diverse avifauna. As well as quite a few of the usual bush birds along this stretch those at the back of the group scored a Collared Sparrowhawk while (some of) the front runners saw a female White-winged Triller.
Although there still seemed to be water in the creek waterbirds per se were very few. Two Great Cormorants and 2 Straw-necked Ibis flew over and 2 Australian White Ibis landed briefly. In the stretch to the west of Florey Drive the highlight was the relatively large number of Sacred Kingfishers observed . At one point 4 of this species were visible at one time (and 7 were recorded for the whole walk).
Returning to the cars a low point was a flock of 11 Common Mynahs – many of the group noted this to be a very large group in recent times. This was balanced by the pleasing sighting of 3 Double-barred Finches.
Overall members of the group recorded 44 species. A full list is at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S52946964