Lake Ginninderra- Moorhen colony [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

["Whitworth, Benjamin - BRS" <>]

On the 6^th and 7^th Nov I walked around Lake Ginninderra.

6^th- At Yerra beach there was a pair of dusky woodswallows with a nest with young (ny), plus a pair of friarbirds, and white plumes with dy. 24 little black cormorants, 3 greats and under the pontoon clearly some swallows have ny by their actions. Bargang beach- 67 coots and 1 feral duck.

On the peninsula I was happy to find a pair of sacred kingfishers. Lots of flowers in the grassland patch (Chryso apic, Goodenia hederacea, Pultenaea).

 

7^th- At John Knight Memorial Park, magpie larks with dy, a dy raven, many coots and black ducks and 2 aggressive feral ducks. Just to the North was a little grassbird and strangely 5 adult moorhens looking after 6 chicks. I watched for ages because I didn’t believe it myself. I didn’t think they raised chicks in colonies, however as all the chicks looked identical in age it may be possible that the chicks got mixed in together, the parents got confused and just had to raise all the chicks together. The parents seemed to have taken on different roles with a very aggressive male charging me and hissing at me, another behaviour I haven’t seen before. Another one with an injured leg seemed to search out tasty morsels, while two others dug the whole time.

 

Up near the bridge with Ginninderra Dr was a reed warbler with two dy.

 

Benj Whitworth

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