Walk at Yerrabi Pond

[Martin Butterfield <>]

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

​​

30 members and guests fought their way through astonishing peak-hour traffic to the gathering point in Wunderlich St.  After going through the rituals we headed down to the shores of the pond (and a few members, including a tall beardie, decided that the weather wasn't as nice as first thought and returned

​to the cars ​

for an extra layer).

 

The most evident bird initially seen was Eurasian Coot.  Bill Graham advised that he surveys the area regularly and the Coot population averages at 650.  This seemed a very reasonable estimate

​ of the number present today​

.  The other members of the "eternal three" -

​P

urple Swamp Hen and Dusky Moorhen were also present, albeit in much lesser number

​s​

.

 
Moving a little North we had our first Must Duck encounter, with a very cooperative male Musk Duck.  About 500m further North we found the female Musk Duck with 2 well grown ducklings.  The female dived repeatedly and fed the ducklings who seemed committed to life on the surface.  The whole family moved surprisingly rapidly across the pond and gave another show on the Western side.

 

An Australian Reed-Warbler called from a small clump of reeds (of which there are few on this water body).  This was my first Spring 2014 return for this species.

​ 

Black Swans were evident on the Western side of the Pond and the surrounding lawn.  They included a pair with 7 cygnets.  

The final sighting of note was a flock of 5 Superb Parrots who flew into a small tree near the playground where we had started, and wheer a single male had been sighted by an early arrival.   Overall we recorded 37 species.

 

Mention is also made of the very good number of species (9) with breeding records:  Magpie lark (Nest Building and On Nest); Noisy Miner (Nest with Young); Magpie (NY x 2); Red Wattlebird (NY); Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Inspecting Hollow); Purple Swamphen (Dependent Young); Little Pied Cormorant (DIsplay); Black Swan (DY); Musk Duck (DY).

 

Some (24!!) of my photographs and a few ancillary comments are in my blog.  A full bird list is attached, and it would be good if that could be added to the appropriate page on the website..

The next Wednesday walk is from Pine Island South to Point Hut and return.  A mudmap of the meeting point The editors of Gang-gang may wish to include the following in forthcoming trips (and if someone could add it to the website trips section that would be good).

The October Wednesday Walk will be from Pine Island South to Point Hut and return (about 4km on a little-used track) .  Meet at 9am on 15 October 2014.  

Martin Butterfield

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

Attachment:

140917 COG Yerrabi pond.xlsx
Description: MS-Excel 2007 spreadsheet

*******************************************************************************************************
This is the email announcement and discussion list of the Canberra 
Ornithologists Group.
Emails posted to the list that exceed 200 kB in size, including attachments, 
will be rejected.
When subscribing or unsubscribing, please insert the word 'Subscribe' or 
'Unsubscribe', as applicable, in the email's subject line.
List-Post: <>
List-Help: <>
List-Unsubscribe: <>
List-Subscribe: <>
List archive: <http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds>
List manager: David McDonald, email <>