Erika,
My wife and I did a trip out to Lake George last Friday to see what was happening. We started off at the lookout on the Federal Highway to get an overview of the lake then went down to Lake Road (off the Bungendore Road) where we drove for several kilometres past Douglas homestead before turning around. It was raining the whole time we were there. On the wildlife front, we stopped at the big flooded depression on the western side of Lake Road and were deafened by the chorus of frogs calling. There was a tremendous amount of frog spawn in the grass. The only birds present were an Australasian Grebe, a Pacific Black Duck and a Hardhead. Travelling further along the road the flooding was obvious immediately to the east of the road but birdlife was pretty scarce with small groups of PBD and Grey Teal but there were about 1000 Silver Gulls resting or flying over the flooded ground. Once we entered the more wooded areas we came across a small flock of Double-barred Finches while Red-browed Finches and Yellow-rumped Thornbills were quite conspicuous. Back in the late 1960’s, early 70’s we used to band along this section of the lake when it was covered in Blackberries. Many species that were common then now appear to be gone, e.g. Southern Whiteface. When you get to Douglas homestead the water in the lake disappears to well into the east and you can’t really see too far that way. It is going to take a LOT more water to fill the lake but this has been a good start. On the way back past Douglas we had a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles doing display flights. Watch out for a few big potholes and washaways.
Have fun,
Mark
From: Erika Roper [
Sent: Monday, 5 March 2012 5:22 PM
To: canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Lake George
Hello all,
I'm back in Bungendore after 2 weeks away and I was thinking of heading out to Lake George tomorrow to check out the new water. Would anyone be interested in coming along?
Erika
