Out of area - Fivebough Swamp and Deni

[sandra henderson <>]

I know numbers of COG members visit Fivebough Swamp at Leeton. I was there yesterday for a couple of hours.

There has been a lot of work done there in recent times to improve the visitor experience. Those who've been frustrated in the past by the lack of viewing opportunities through the thick reed beds will be pleased to know that while there are still lots of reeds, viewing spaces have been opened up at regular intervals along the paths, all paths have been cleared and weeded, the old hides have disappeared and 3 new covered viewing platforms have been constructed. The water level is currently quite high, so water cover is extensive. There were two whistling kites keeping a close eye on things, so hundreds of grey teal in the air much of the time I was there. Smallish numbers of white-winged stilt, red-necked avocets (the latter more visible from Hooey Rd lookout), the usual Pelicans, dotterels and a few hardhead, shoveller and Aussie grebe. One of the new viewing platforms overlooks the sewage ponds, which had a big group of little pied cormorants as well as plenty of grey teal and a few other ducks - but no freckled ducks that I could find. Nearly 20 black-tailed native hens in the shallower parts of the swamp, close to where most of the black-fronted and red-kneed dotterels were feeding.

At Narrandera Wetlands the usual suspects, including the grubbiest Yellow-billed spoonbill I've ever seen. Little black and little pied cormorants sitting on every stick in the water. 

The previous day in Deniliquin I visited the Wanganella TSR where a nest area has been created by Phil Maher for white-backed swallows, and 4 were circling overhead as I watched from a distance. Nest holes were visible in the sandbank. Horsfields Bronze cuckoo calling persistently there, and a fan-tailed cuckoo out in the woodland near Mathoura reed-beds, so they think spring  is on it's way!

Sandra H