Wednesday Walk to Gigerline East

[Martin Butterfield <>]

The editors of Gang-gang may wish to use this as the trip report.  Sorry it is a bit long but it really was an excellent day with many good birds.

In sending out some notes about this outing I included "The forecast is for a possible shower (I wish)”  As I drove out in the middle of a thunderstorm I mused upon the adage "Be careful what you wish for as you might get it.".  When I joined a fair horde of folk already at Williamsdale  everyone was sitting in the cars  sheltering from the downpour.  We ended with 26 folk.   For the first time in my memory there were raised brollies on a COG outing, as well as many varieties of raincoats.
 
After consulting the BoM on various phones, all of which suggested it was raining, we decided to person-up (the phrase "man-up" would not reflect the gender balance of the group) and migrated about 500m back towards Canberra.  Here the weather suddenly improved and we set off across a soggy meadow of African Lovegrass and crossed a small creek.  
 
There were birds everywhere.  By the time we moved on from climbing the fence I had written down over 20 species.  Notable were 4 species of finch: Double-barred and Red-browed Finch; European Goldfinch; and Diamond Firetail.  The last species was carrying grass stems, presumably to build a roost, rather than an incubation nest.  Two Scarlet Robins and 2 Jacky Winters were other good sightings.  Several Dusky Woodswallows were swooping around and occasionally perching for a preen.
 
 As we moved off a flock of 70 Common Starlnmgs was noticed - possibly a tad early for building up into the large flocks of Winter  A number of migrant species were observed on our way to the drop into the Murrumbidgee Valley including White-throated and Western Gerygone, Rufous Whistler and Sacred Kingfisher.  The first of two Fan-tailed Cuckoos appeared at this point, showing the chestnut breast and yellow eye ring.
 
A distant raptor was provisionally identified as a Brown Falcon which was confirmed on the way back when the bird obliged by a nice flypast.  The other identified raptors of the day were a group 3 Wedgetailed Eagles.
 
On descending to the Murrumbidgee 2 Eastern Yellow Robins were seen and heard as were Tree Martins, Welcome Swallows and White-throated Needletails (estimated as at least 6 of each).  Further excitement was generated by at least 2 Brown Treecreepers close to the River and 4 Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters in trees along the bank.  Climbing back up from the River and all did very well on this pretty steep track further low level fly-pasts by White-throated Needletails gave most members an excellent view.  Our final exciting bird was seen halfway back to the cars: the lack of a clear eye-stripe indicated Shining Bronze-Cuckoo.

 

In total I wrote down 56 species (including the 7 Little Ravens which I saw in NSW, but was assured they flown across the road from the ACT!)  An excellent day's birding for the quite large group who braved the very ordinary weather at the start.

I have put a few snaps and some additional banter on my blog.  A birdlist is attached and it would be appreciated if it could be added to the appropriate page in the trips area of the COG Website.

The editors of Gang-gang may wish to use the following as the notice for the next walk and it would be appreciated if the text and image could be put on th e trips page.

The Wednesday Walk for April will be on 15 April.  Meet at 9:00am in the car park to the soccer ground off Owen Dixon Drive near the intersection with Wiiliam Slim Drive shown as 1 in the following image,  We'll go to McKellar ponds and Ginninderra Creek and pond (marked as 2 -5).  

 

​

Martin Butterfield

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

150318 COG Gigerline.xlsx
Description: MS-Excel 2007 spreadsheet

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