Prue and I spent yesterday blitzing in the southern part of
Namadgi, including the Naas Valley Fire trail, and sites along Boboyan Road. The
weather was really nice.
Highlight was a flock of 500+ Masked and White-browed
Woodswallows exploding from trees along the Naas Valley fire trail as 2 Brown
Goshawks cruised past, they flew high in a tight mass, but most returned after
a few minutes. Many birds were diving back into the trees at high speed from
100 metres or more above them, all very spectacular. We walked amongst the tree
where they were to try to get a better feel for the numbers of each species
present and estimated about 4 WB to every Masked. Their chip-chip calls were
heard on and off throughout the day but we could rarely see them, how many
there were over the southern part of the ACT yesterday is anybody’s
guess, but I reckon thousands.
A Brush Bronzewing calling away not too far from the carpark
at the start of the Naas Valley fire trail, naturally it stopped as soon as we
went looking for it – I have still to see this species in the ACT
Lyrebird and Spotted Quail-thrush at 2 sites each, breeding
records for 7 species
Very few cuckoos (except Fan-tailed which were recorded at
most sites as usual) compared to previous surveys, only a single Horsfield’s
Bronze
8 spp of lizard and 4 spp of frog, no snakes though
Small Snake Orchid (Diuris subalpina) along Naas Valley Fire
Trail
cheers
Steve
