South Pacific Heathland reserve- Ulladulla

I visited South Pacific Heathland reserve on Thursday from 11:30am 1:30. Turn off Pacific Highway onto Dowling St Ulladulla. All up I got 25 bird species, which was better than I expected, although the number of individuals were dominated by only a few species. The amount of flowering plants did surprise me. The main ecosystems are Heath, Coastal scrub and Bloodwood woodland. As soon as I entered the reserve I ran into a mixed feeding flock, and some YFH flying west. Then a sea eagle flew over, I headed South and found a poor Masked Lapwing with a broken and hanging foot.

 

Some of the things that interested me were:

1 butcherbird, satin bowerbird (green- feeding at ground level), 1 kookaburra

Many New Holland and Little Wattlebirds (often >15 in one 360 degree view) and scrubwrens and brown thornbills were found throughout.

While doing a figure of 8 through the Reserve, I re-entered from the North through the Red Bloodwood (E. gummifera) woodland and found my highlight of the day, being a group of 5 Variegated Fairy wrens. They were tame, and came within 1m. A male was in part colour, enabling me to see the different coloured cheeks (sky blue cf Superb Blues which have blue), and chestnut shoulders.

Lizards included lots of garden skinks, and the cutest little Jacky lizard (?) babies (5), only 2.5cm long bodies but tails twice that, plus one adult about 40cm long including tail. In the middle of the reserve in a wet area with dense taller shrubs (at the intersection of Old Coast Path and Lookout Path) there were diggings, triangular, about 2.5cm deep, plus a bit wider. About 20 of them and they look fresh. There was also a trail in the undergrowth about the height and width of a Bandicoot. It would be worth staking out this spot at dusk to see what it is.

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Flowering Plants (I dont have my Coastal Plant book so dont quote me). Most common were Banksias, particularly B. spinulosa (Hairpin Banksia) and also some B. integrifolia (Coast B) and B. serrata (Saw B), some heath plant species had flowers, including Pimelia glauca (white), Westringia (pale purpley), Persoonia (yellow), Epacris palludosa (white tube flowers on a single stem), Sprengelia incarnata (Pink), and the rare Grevillea barkleyana.

A small reserve but worth a look.

 

Benj