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Well today was the day to identify as many birds as possible
within a 50km radius around Orange. The area I covered ranges in elevation from
370m to 1397m above sea level. The country I visited consisted of eucalypt
forest, sub alpine vegetation, several dams and reservoirs, built up areas, open
farm country and white box woodland.
I began at 5:45 am at Borenore Reserve which is about 17kms
west of Orange. After nabbing 17 species including Rufous Songlark, a new bird
for my reserve list, I headed into the Mt Canobolas SCA for an hour and a half.
Highlights here were Flame Robin and an unexpected Rufous Fantail. It was now
time to get some waterbirds happening. I drove to Lake Canobolas followed by a
quick tour of two roadside dams just to the south of Orange. From these stops I
now had most of my ducks I was expecting plus Darter and Intermediate Egret. A
quick stop at Gosling Creek Reservoir gave me a Great Crested Grebe. The nearby
Spring Creek Reservoir was the last of my major water bird areas. Council has
recently approved rowing on this site after winning the legal bout and I was
anxious to see how the birds were affected. A marked course runs the whole way
along the reservoir and the majority of birds were all down one end of the
reservoir, as far from any rowing as possible. Two bird species I have seen
here every time, Musk Duck and Great Crested Grebe, were absent. I hope
this isn't a pattern of things to come for this once excellent bird spot.
From here I headed east from Orange along the Mitchell Highway
until I turned off into the village of Byng. The day had turned out to be very
warm and the birds were very quiet as I drove through Byng and Lewis Ponds and
onto Ophir Reserve. At the reserve I walked down to the creek and waded across
to the Girralang NR where I picked up White Eared Honeyeater and Buff Rumped
Thornbill, two birds I was expecting here. I missed the Speckled Warbler I was
hoping for.
I now had most of my forest birds and decided to head for
the one site I knew would give me some harder to find birds for Orange -
Long Point on the Macquarie River. On the road to Long Point I got Rainbow Bee
Eater, Southern Whiteface, White Winged Triller and White Browed Woodswallow.
After the steep walk down at Long Point itself I was rewarded with Brown
Treecreeper and Hooded Robin. It was now time for the finish line, Orange
Botanic Gardens for the two certainties, Australasian Grebe and Dusky Moorhen.
This concluded the day at 8:15 with a total of 92 birds. I had initially
estimated between 80 to 100 birds so I was happy with this total, particularly
on such a warm day for Orange standards.
A list of birds and locations can be made available upon
request.
Regards Steve Gross
Orange NSW
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