Spent a happy morning at GrZ15 this morning, although a little brisk at
the beginning. In the vicinity of the river crossing, GrZ15 has cleared
areas, areas of regrowth, some areas of flats and rocky hills. There are
areas of dense, heathy vegetation. On the southern side of the bridge,
on the upstream side, there is recreation area which has good mature
trees but the ground layer consists mainly of innumerable tracks with
little undergrowth surviving. Noisy Miners dominate. On the northern
side of the river and upstream from the bridge, the riverbank is
completely dominated by blackberries and wattles. A large flat sand bank
on the upstream side seems to be being used as an off-road race course
with some consequent damage to riparian veg. A weedy broom is advancing
its area of occupation along the river and appears to be able to exclude
all native vegetation in some places. No trees appeared to be flowering.
Downstream of the bridge, on both banks, the going is often challenging
- rocky, steep in parts, and often with a dense shrub layer. There were
many large carp and some mosquito fish to be seen in the water. Avian
highlights were an Azure Kingfisher and a pair of Eastern Whipbirds. It
has been many years since I have seen an Azure Kingfisher and this one
reminded me what brilliant little beauties they are. I suppose the
riparian veg of the Shoalhaven might be an ecological connector between
the lower altitude, (more sedentary?) coastal birds and the COG AO1. The
country downstream of the bridge looked right for Chestnut-rumped
Heathwrens. I did not record any but have a bit less than a fifty per
centish notion that I may have heard an individual - definitely worth
another go. The monotremic highlight was a platypus. For those who have
an interest in the lowest elevation in the COG AO1, my GPS gave a
reading of 595m in the recreation area.
Con
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