Wednesday walk in the Tinderries

[Martin Butterfield <>]

The editors of Gang-gang may wish to use the following as the report for this walk.

9 members and guests met at Michelago and headed up the road towards the high Tinderries.  
Just before the first stop a Spotted Quail-thrush flew across in front of the lead car.  We then paused briefly for a short walk passing through some very floriferous vegetation and scaling some rocks for a great view across the Murrumbdgee Valley to Southern Namadgi.  A few birds were recorded here and then on to the main stop at the start of the Round Flat Fire Trail.  
We had a brief discussion with some road maintenance guys about parking so as not to impede their work and set off down the track, fringed by dense regrowth following the 2009 bushfires.  We followed the track for about 1.5km to the top of a steep ridge (about 1150m AMSL), finding that the fire had not crossed the ridge.  We walked another 1km to a creek through an area that seemed not to have burnt and took lunch, returning by the same route.
Several migrant species were seen/heard during the walk.  Noisiest amongst these were at least 2 Sacred Kingfishers which seemed to be given a call made around a nest site.  We didn't see them actually enter a hollow so no breeding record.  Cuckoos were in good supply with at least 2 Fan-tailed Cuckoos calling, 1 Horsfields Bronze-Cuckoo being seen while the group paused for morning tea, and several Shining Bronze-cuckoos heard and or seen.  Possibly two of the last species were tail-chasing but the event wasn't seen closely enough to rate a Display record.  
In the flycatcher department Grey Fantails were everywhere (over the entire walk we estimated at least 30 birds) and several Leaden Flycatchers were heard calling.  Honeyeaters were also well recorded with 6 species and several lurid male Flame Robins were seen beside the track in various spots.
Over both sites we recorded 37 species.

<not for Gang-gang>  On the way home Julienne and I saw spotted 16 Australian Shelduck in a paddock on Carwoola Station.  I have done a blog post with various photographs - 2 of which actually include birds!

For the forthcoming outings section of Gang-gang

--
Martin Butterfield

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

131016 COG Tinderries.xlsx
Description: MS-Excel 2007 spreadsheet

131016 COG Tinderries.xlsx
Description: MS-Excel 2007 spreadsheet

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