Mark
Yes that is the spot. As you say it used to be a top spot, but has been dry for a long while. It isn't now!
Martin
On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Mark Clayton <> wrote:
Martin,
I presume you are talking about the area to the left of the road driving IN on Lake Road, not all that far from Bungendore Road. Many moons ago I travelled this road fairly frequently as we were banding in the general area near “Douglas” homestead. To the best of my knowledge this area was always a natural depression that, in normal years (is there such a thing???) had water in it. It did not at that stage have the fence across the southern end that is now present. I don’t know when the fence went in, it was well after we stopped banding, but the area was dry and I assumed , probably wrongly, that it had been drained. There was earth pushed up to hold the fence posts up and I assumed that that was the end of the depression. I hadn’t visited the area probably for more than 15 years until Erika Roper I think it was, commented on her visit to the area that I went back along the road. In the “good old days” it was a place to show people Red-kneed Dotterels and many other species. I am sure there are old COG records listing all the things we used to see.
I will be interested to see what others recall if people can remember the site.
Mark
From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Tuesday, 27 March 2012 10:07 AM
To:
Cc: COG List
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Lake Rd Bungendore
I returned to Lake Road yesterday and paid more attention to the big dam. In fact there are quite a few waterbirds on it , including a Musk Duck (possibly young male - the 'sac' wasn't obvious) and at least one immature Australasian Grebe.
Going out on to the Lake bed - with the permission of the landholder - I was able to establish that most of the flock of ducks i was able to ge near were Grey Teal with quite a few Pacific Black Ducks and a small number of Chestnut Teal. Then a pair of Australian Shelduck spotted me and everyone left for Currawang (on the far side of the Lake)!
The number of insects on the lake bed approached the numbers reported from the Summer Arctic. Fortunately they appeared not to be interested in my bodily contents and, as soon as I stopped walking on them or their habitat, returned to their normal business.
A final comment is that tit was suggested that the big dam isn't in fact a dam but a natural hollow forming a wetland. Does anyone else have a view on that little bit of trivia?
Martin
Martin and others, after an interesting visit to Bungendore and an excellent lunch, we drove along Lake Road and saw most of the same species you reported but as we were leaving the area we saw a pair of Black-shouldered Kites near the Lake View Homestead. Only raptors seen and, indeed, it is not very common these days to see any raptors around even on a drive to Sydney and back.
Lake Road used to be a favorite of ours about 15 years ago and we would visit several times each year but that was when the water was lapping up to the road and many Asian people would be there fishing. But it is good to see the water coming back and the grass up to the cattle's bellies.
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