Thank you Anthony. How interesting that so many of our great birding spots are human-created. Surely the main bird-attracting feature of the Tucking Yard Lane site is the liberal spreading of stock-feed in the fattening paddocks. Most of suburban Canberra
is a bird-attracting smorgasbord of exotic plantings, far removed from the earlier clapped-out sheep paddocks or even earlier grasslands or woodlands. A minor example of habitat creation is the more recent accommodation of the invasive Noisy Miner (as discussed).
I wonder what would be the best local example of a 'naturally-occurring' species in relatively undisturbed habitat.
'Relatively undisturbed' would be a challenge to find, given that so much of our wooded hillsides is regrowth. Perhaps some spots in the wet gullies of the ranges would qualify, with a handful of qualifying bird species.
Any mention of the watery Lake Road depressions recalls the abundant bird life there in 2017, including the non-breeding p-snipe. I have slightly revised the below graphic from that time. At this remove, I am unable to remember why the filter-feeding had
to stop before Chris Davey got there. You could probably find it in the list archive.
-----Original Message-----
From: Canberrabirds <> On Behalf Of Anthony Overs via Canberrabirds
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 4:10 PM
To: COGChat <>
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Trucking Yard Ln and Lake Rd
Yesterday morning, my friend Steve and I went to have a look at the dam on Trucking Yard Lane at Bungendore.
The moment we got out of the car, there were a couple of hundred ducks, galahs and corellas wheeling about in a panic. We looked up and scanned the sky, but could not see any raptors.
After quickly setting up the scope, we could see a large raptor just 20 metres past the far side of the dam. It was a very large female Peregrine Falcon. She was standing on and devouring a Grey Teal. It took her about 15 minutes to have her fill before
she disappeared (while we were momentarily not watching). A pair of Australian Ravens then wandered over and helped themselves to the leftovers.
After the birds had settled we counted loads of ducks, including 38 Australian Shelducks. There were no whistling ducks. There were hundreds of Little Corellas and about 75 Galahs.
At the large dam over on Lake Rd, there were plenty of coots, wood ducks and Australasian Grebes. The highlights were four Pink-eared Ducks, a pair of Red-kneed Dotterels and two pairs of Black-fronted Dotterels.
A great morning’s birding!
Anthony
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