Stoney Creek Nature Reserve 19th October, 2005 Field Trip Report.
On a mild, overcast Wednesday morning 7 of us set out on a leisurely
amble through the Stoney Creek Nature Reserve. This reserve is approximately
80 ha with a small parking area and gate located on the Captains Flat Road
4.5k from the Kings Highway. On the advice of a local cogger, Graeme
Clifton, we set off on our amble in a vaguely anticlockwise
direction. The most obvious bird of the day were Striated
Pardalotes. I believe we heard them calling throughout the
entire walk. However as bird species were not plentiful we chased up
bird calls and admired the beautiful display of bush flowers. Surprisingly an
Australian King Parrot called and sure enough after a 5-10
minutes search we saw the red and green parrot flash through the trees. I had
never seen one in the area and Graeme had seen only a few and then only
in the spring migration time. Varied Sittellas were sighted
as well as Buff Rumped, Yellow and Striated
Thornbills. White Throated Tree Creepers were
plentiful. During latter part of the walk we saw a good number of
Leaden Flycatchers both male and female, a male
Mistletoebird, a Sacred Kingfisher both
Rufus and Golden Whistlers and several
Olive Backed Orioles, one of which treated us to a fine mimic
chorus. We saw 2 raptors, a Wedged Tailed Eagle and a
Nankeen Kestrel.
There was plenty of nests. In the parking lot we could see 2
Magpie chicks in the nest and during the walk we had a nest
building display by one of the plentiful Noisy Friarbirds.
There were unoccupied nests of Wedged Tailed Eagle and possibly a Brown
Goshawk.
The bird calls skills and persistence of our small group were needed to
see the 35 species for the walk. Alex McLauchlan kindly shared his knowledge
of wild flowers to add colour to the pleasant morning outing.
Julienne Kamprad
COG
