East Molonglo
As I have been trying to write a response on the Molonglo valley
development and reading all the statements saying 'no ecological value
in East Molonglo' I got to thinking 'well do I believe that?'
Being a bit of a cynic I decided to test those statements, before it is
too late.
Here is the area I walked- East to West.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=a
randa+act&ie=UTF8&ll=-35.281536,149.072456&spn=0.024033,0.036478&t=h&z=1
5&iwloc=addr&om=1
From the Glenloch interchange, passing just south of the Cork trees,
then heading West up the hill, I was surprised to find 12 southern white
faces and a speckled warbler. About 6 whitefaces looked young and may
have recently been dy. Plus a brown falcon. There was the odd paddock
tree. Native grassland lower down near the corks.
At the top of the hill, I jumped the N-S fence and headed down through a
small patch of b redgums and some yellow box, 5 more southern white
faces (2 young), 2 nankeen kestrels hovered overhead, lots of yellow
rumps and Fairy wrens.
The next small patch of mainly redgums housed 15 yr thornbills, a
speckled warbler and a hobby, plus fairy wrens, etc. North of here,
along the creekline are a few very large trees, either candlebark or
ribbon gum.
To avoid some cows I headed more southerly onto the border with the old
pine forest. Heard pipits.
I walked the borderline between the farm and ex pine forest to reach the
largest tree'd patch at the West, which is directly South of Mount
Painter- You used to be able to see this patch from William Hovell-
where Barry the Brown Falcon sat before the new road was built. The
patch slopes down to the NW. The trees are mainly b red gum, yellow box
and a few applebox. Understory is reasonable and Mid-story is mainly
hawthorn.
I was watching some willie wagtails acting suspiciously when a huge
wedgetailed eagle burst out of a tree only 15m away, then another and a
third. Caught me quite by surprise and I was thinking of Esteban Fuentes
comments about how they kill kangaroos (and people???). Other birds
included 4 white winged trillers, 1 rufous songlark, 6 dusky
woodswallows, 2 tree martins carrying food into a hollow, and 63
magpies. 1 Horsfield's b cuckoo, 1 BF cuckoo shrike attacking magpies
(couldn't see a nest). Another hobby flew over (could tell by different
plumage and size). 1 brown songlark was calling from near the stream a
bit further west.
In general in East Molonglo the mid and understory were not good,
although the trees were reasonable quality, and endangered yellow box
red gum. The number of small birds seemed to be related to mid-story
weeds. Not sure why so many raptors. The most westerly patch had good
understory, trees and birds and could be connected to Aranda and down
the stream to Molonglo which would be a useful corridor and reduce
flooding. Around the Cork plantation is also medium-good understory.
Benj
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