Outing to Urambi Hills and plan for next month

[martin butterfield <>]

Gang-gang editors please include the items in next edition.

Outing to Urambi Hills 19 August

21 members and guests turned out for a trip led by Michael Robbins to his local patch.  Excellent weather was arranged, with birds to match.  In total 47 species were recorded comprising a mixture of Winter birds and returning migrants.

The catalyst for going to this venue was Michael recently noting large numbers of Flame Robins and some Diamond Firetails in the area.  Despite the reports of large numbers of Flame Robins in Namadgi and similar locales, we spotted 3 brown birds of this species as well as at least 4 Scarlet Robins.  The Diamond Firetails were unfortunately elsewhere.

Honeyeaters were well in evidence with flocks of 4 and 6 Red Wattlebirds almost certainly being returning migrants.  Other honeyeaters seen were White-eared, White-plumed, Yellow-faced and Eastern Spinebills.  3 Black-fronted Dotterels were seen on a dam and 3 Australian Pipits were chasing each other on the hillside.  Raptors were evident with Wedge-tailed Eagle, Brown Goshawk and Nankeen Kestel seen over the hills.

Bird of the trip was a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo.  This was initially seen clinging to a mullein stalk and later observed walking on the ground being chased by a female Flame Robin.  The bird then flew to the top of a dead tree where it was further harassed by a White-eared Honeyeater.  Both assailants are listed in HANZAB as host species for this Cuckoo.

Next Months mid-week walk
It is planned to undertake a longer outing next month, on 16 September, to explore 3 Travelling  Stock Reserves on Mountain Creek Road (Tinker's Creek, The Mullion, and  Cavan Woolshed).  As with our previous longer foray it will be possible for people to come to as many of the venues as they wish.  In view of the extra distance I suggest we gather at Stromlo Forest Park (SFP) on Urriara Road for car pooling, aiming to leave at 9am. If people wish to arrive a little earlier we could spend a few minutes scoping out the White-fronted Chat situation at SFP before leaving.  I will put a map of the area, showing the location of the Reserves and SFP, on the chatline  closer to the date.

Martin

0910819 Urambi.xls
Description: MS-Excel spreadsheet

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