Afternoon all,
Yesterday (Sunday) I took three of the newest (overseas) members of the banding team for a quick jaunt around some of the birding sites in the north and east of the region. We started out at the main Forde pond area where I was hoping for a crake or two. I discovered later that this is NOT the area where Julie Clark has been keeping tabs on the breeding members of the Rallidae family (thanks Julie for pointing me in the right direction). Highlights here nonetheless were a single male Zebra Finch that flew into the bull rushes on the edge of a rapidly drying pond overflow area, a Purple Swamphen on a nest, and surprisingly to me, about a dozen Silver Gulls on the rapidly drying small “swamp” visible on the north-eastern edge of Horse Park Drive, opposite the main Forde Pond. There was a continuous stream of Superb Parrots, in flocks of up to 10 birds, flying over the site heading in the direction of Mulligan’s Flat NR – most appeared to be young birds. An incidental record for the Zebra Finch will be filled in.
I then decided to travel to the Bungendore area to look for the Plumed Whistling Ducks at the dam on Trucking Yard Lane. There were +/- 50 of the birds present plus two Australian Shelduck (Mountain Duck) feeding from near the cattle feed bins on the far edge of the property. Our attention was attracted by regular flocks, of up to 10 birds at a time, of the shelducks flying to the north-east over the King’s Highway. A quick scan showed the birds were coming from a large group of shelducks clustered around a farm dam to the east of Trucking yard Lane. I am not sure if this is the dam referred to by both David McDonald and Martin Butterfield in previous emails as the Bungendore Meadow and by Julienne Kamprad as the Hoskinstown Road dam. We drove up the Hoskinstown Road for a better view and at a conservative estimate (counting those birds that had flown) there were around 150+ shelducks. In the days when Lake George was living up to its name as a proper lake, it was an important moulting area for shelducks. These birds lose all the wing feathers in one go when moulting so would sit in the middle of the lake where they had a good view of any potential aerial predators heading their way. Again an incidental report will be filled in for these two species. A quick trip to the Bungendore Sewage Treatment Works followed but didn’t show anything of especial interest apart from some nice adult Australasian Shovelers, 4 Pink-eared Ducks and a female Collared Sparrowhawk.
A quick trip down the Lake Road yielded a Speckled Warbler, a Shining Bronze Cuckoo, White-naped Honeyeaters and lots of young Striated Pardalotes. A Brown Goshawk was also seen briefly.
Something not related to the above trip but the last time I recorded the local Keleen Pacific Koel calling was on Saturday afternoon. I will also put in a report on this bird.
Mark
