Wednesday Walk report

[Martin Butterfield <>]

As a point of clarification about the Australian Bittern situation: I had misunderstood the timing of sightings at the weekend and there was a day difference between the last sighting at the AIS (Saturday) and a return to McKellar Pond (Sunday).  So, no evidence of 2 birds at any stage.

The editors of Gang-gang may wish to use what follows as the trip report.

32 members and guests arrived at the designated point adjacent to Lyneham Ridge.  As far as I could see through the fog we just about filled the Western side of the street!  We were fortunate to have the guidance of Michael Lenz who has visited the area frequently in recent times.

 

The fog possibly concealed some birds, but soon after starting Brown-headed Honeyeaters were recorded.  They were initially quiet but a flock of 4 called as they left, followed by another flock of 6.  Scarlet Robins and Golden Whistlers were also evident through the mist.  A small feeding flock was examined closely and 2 Speckled Warblers were identified.  Moving on to some tall timber we were somewhat surprised to note 6 Yellow-faced Honeyeaters in the canopy.  A grassy hillside was hoped to contain more mixed flocks but they didn't eventuate.  Our total for this site was 28 species.

 

We then moved to park in Giralang and walked along Ginninderra Creek towards McKellar Pond.  A resident Great Egret gave good views en route.  Arriving at the pond we soon identified Julian Robinson who had located an Australian Little Bittern on the far side of the pond.  The bird put on a great show climbing out on top of the reds on occasion and flying right across the pond.  A White-necked Heron flew by and we totaled 18 species here (but didn't find an Australasian Bittern).

 

Most of the group moved to the final destination of the wetlands at the Australian Institute of Sport.  At the AIS we were hoping to find the Australasian Bittern found there on the weekend.   We were unsuccessful in doing this.  These ponds were rather quiet with only a few common waterbirds  present.  After the formal visit finished I went for an unsuccessful hunt for Superb Parrots around the main car park.  However, 4 Rainbow Lorikeets were doing their noisy thing in a tall flowering eucalypt at the South end on the Basketball arena.

 

For the entire morning 45 species were recorded.

The following could be entered in the forthcoming trips section of Gang-gang and the trips page of the COG website.

The Wednesday Walk for July will be on the 16th, meeting at 9am for a walk, led by Sandra, on Farrer Ridge.  The Meeting place will be announced to the Chatline closer to that date.

I have attached a spreadsheet with bird lists for the three sites and could that please be added in the appropriate element of the COG website.  I have put a few images of habitat and some of the birds on my blog.  Phog is not good for fotography.

Martin Butterfield

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

140618 COG Lyneham combined.xlsx
Description: MS-Excel 2007 spreadsheet

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