Mt Budawang - Sun 18 Sept

On Sunday I walked what I believe to
be the best half-day walk within an hours (approx.) drive from Canberra
- the hike up Mount Budawang in Budawang National Park. The summit is at
around 1180m and the 2 hour walk is an unrelenting ascent from the car
park through many habitats along a 3 km track.

On the drive in I stopped briefly where
the Northangera Road crosses the Mongarlowe River in Monga State Forest.
Here there were many honeyeaters including Eastern Spinebills, Yellow-faced
and White-eared Honeyeaters and Silvereyes. Many feeding
on the profuse flowering Grevillea species. Along the Mt Budawang
Road I saw Satin Bowerbirds.

From the car park in national park the
track starts amid moist sclerophyll forest with an understorey of stunted
Banksia ericifolia where I flushed a Wonga Pigeon. The track
then dips into temperate rainforest with tree ferns lining Feagans Creek
as it meanders through the stoney creekbed. Here I watched a female Rose
Robin flit around and listened to the Eastern Whipbirds and
Fan-tailed Cuckoos. Further along the track rises steeply and wont
straighten out until it reaches the saddle just below the summit. In the
wet sclerophyll forest near the creek were Eastern Yellow Robins
and a pair of Large-billed Scrubwrens.

As you get higher the forest gets drier
and soon I was in dry sclerophyll forest with among all the greenery the
red tubular flowers of the Common Heath, yellow flowers of Peas, white
tubular flowers of another heath, blues of flax lily(?) and several pink
and purple flowers as well. Here Flame Robins including a male foraged
along the track. Tree ferns were common along the track all the way to
the saddle. I also noticed a small flock of migrating Yellow-faced Honeyeaters
heading in a southerly direction along the ridge.

As I got higher still the forest canopy
of beautiful old Silvertop Ash thinned and the heathy understorey (which
is dense and varied throughout the walk) dominated. Another species of
Banksia started to predominate - Bankisa serrata. Upon reaching
the saddle there was a wet heath with sedges and small ferns interspersed
with tea-tree thickets where I counted 3 separate Olive Whistlers
calling, although despite waiting for ages wouldnt show themselves. nearby
a Pilotbird called (one of some 4 separate birds I heard on the
walk in all habitats and at all altitudes). Here there were also New
Holland Honeyeaters, although mostly quiet, and many vocal Crescent
Honeyeaters. I heard some Gang-gang Cockatoos nearby.

After a short walk through more sclerophyll
forest with an understorey of wet heath up to 2m tall the canopy disappeared
and I reached the open heath covered summit with its fire tower. Here in
the predominately Dwarf Allocasuarina, Leptospermum and Banksia
at above 1100m were more Crescent and New Holland Honeyeaters, Pilotbirds
and a Flame Robin as well as White-browed Scrubwrens.

From the summit I had 360 degree views
to the ocean and the Clyde River valley, to Durras Mountain and as far
as Jervis Bay, north in a grand arc were Currockbilly Mountain, The Castle
and Pigeon House Mtn, to the west Braidwood, Mt Gillamatong and the Tallaganda
Range, and to the south Deua and Monga National Parks.

Cheers
Marnix

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