Morning meanderings

[martin butterfield <>]

Having a wee while on my hands this morning I went to Shepherd's Lookout to see how the Murrumbidgee was looking after a downpour or two.  There looked to be quite a bit of watermoving through and another couple at the lookout commented that there was a lot more water than on Friday.

There were very few birds at the lookout itself but a walk down the road towards the gate to the LMWTW produced many Dusky Woodswallows (inc DY) several Willie Wagtails (DY) Common Starling (IH) and 3 Diamond Firetails.

I then went to take a look at Scrivener Dam.  3 vents were open, attracting quite a bit of interest from sightseers.  Notices taped to the railings warned of the grave perils of inhaling the mist as it contains blue-green algae.  So I went to river level to inspect the works undertaken to clear the undergrowth from the banks.  They seem to have done a pretty good job and from peering into the protectives the native plants they have planted look to be going well.  I hope they do some maintenance on the area to control the verbascum and mustard weed which currently seems tobe enjoying the open habitat.  In terms of birds the main enjoyment was watching Little Black Cormorants failing to swim up against the current: this had the unusal effect o birds swimming backward!

Martin