WW 21 August to Newline Paddocks

[Martin Butterfield <>]

24 members and guests gathered at the usual spot for this site on a cool, but not as windy as recently, morning.  By the time we had moved off 14 more common species had been written down.  As an innovation, we walked along the road to the quarry first before exploring the paddock.

This strategy was immediately rewarded by several members hearing a Brown Treecreeper call within the paddock.  Not to worry, we'll find it when we come back.   

A Brown Goshawk did a high level fly past forming the leader of 4 raptor species seen in the day.  Brown Falcon not too long after, 2 Wedgetails - one member suggesting this might be a pair whose nest would be in range of the site - and a Nankeen Kestel hunting when we got back to the cars.  Another highlight were Double-barred Finches, of which somewhat over 20 were recorded.

The only breeding records were both parrots.  The first were a pair of Red-rumped Parrots with the female sitting in a nest hollow.  A little later your correspondent saw what looked like another silhouetted Red-rump, but on being looked at with binoculars it transformed into a Rainbow Lorikeet which promptly dived into a hollow not to reappear while we were present.

There was no evidence of returning migrants (refer opening comment about the weather).  In  paragraph 2  you will find a very optimistic statement about finding the Brown Treecreeper later.  We didn't.  In total I recorded 39 species of which a full list will go on the trips page of the COG website in due course

The editors of Gang-gang may wish to use the foregoing as the trip report for their tome and also include, under future trips:

The September mid-month walk will be to Lake Rd Bungendore, meeting at the Big Dam at 9am on 18 September about 1km from the start of Lake Rd.  We will bird along the road checking out the bed of Lake George where possible, although the main water has receded well out of binocular range

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Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/