Cool and windy but plenty of birds around – 7.30am to around 11.30am. 55 species from Amy Ackman car park via the bird walk and around the big dam.
Of the bush birds the most interesting were Horsfields Bronze Cuckoo, Fantailed Cuckoo, and a couple of good feeding flocks of small birds. One of these flocks, located near the wool shed included 4 Scarlet Robin, 8 Varied Sitella of
which quite a few were young birds, several Silvereye, several Brown-headed Honeyeaters feeding young, a Brown Thornbill, a White-throated Gerygone,
several Buff-rumped Thornbill, 1 Sacred Kingfisher standing nearby, Speckled Warbler, Weebill, White-throated Treecreeper,
a female Rufous Whistler, an immature Golden Whistler,
Striated Pardalotes and Grey Fantails. Also a pair of Black Duck with 6
golden ducklings were seen in shallow water on one of the dams. Nearby, a Bettong scooted out of sight and there were Swamp Wallaby and Red-necked Wallaby as well as the more common Eastern Grey Kangaroo.
Further around to the big dam, as the water level was retreating there were more water birds than we have seen there on previous occasions. Pink-eared Duck, Freckled Duck, Grey Teal with 7 tiny ducklings, 4 Black-fronted Dotterel, 1 Hardhead,
Australasian Coot, Black Swan, Hoary Headed and Australasian Grebe, Pacific Black Duck, Straw-necked Ibis (also a flock of 12+ flying over), 1 Shoveler, 2 Little Pied Cormorant,
1 Little Black Cormorant, 3 Darter, 2 Little Black Cormorant, several Tree Martin,
and a Royal Spoonbill.
There were no Pied Currawongs, White-winged Chough, Fairy Wrens, Red Wattlebird, or raptors seen.
Jean Casburn and Steve Read
