Sunday 13th April - we were driving back from Rushworth via forest
country, looking for birds. We found ourselves south of the Whroo
Historic Reserve at Reedy Lake, which we understand is a Wildlife
Reserve, often seen on the map but never visited. The ground was hard
and dry so we explored by 2WD. A track leads in to the Lake from the
south through beautiful Yellow Gum woodland. When we arrived at the
Lake we were delighted to find that it was full of water, and full of
birds - notably about 25 Yellow-billed Spoonbills, two Black Swans, one
Strawnecked Ibis, a White-necked Heron, and lots of Black Duck, some
leading young ducklings, and Teal - some were Chestnut Teal, and others
unidentified. One Swamp Harrier sailed overhead.
We were not so pleased to find a number of shotgun shells and 22
cartridges lying about, as well as a fairly recent dead Welcome Swallow
-?shot.. (My husband picked up a lot of the brass 22 cases for his
scrapmetal collection). The edges were too muddy to investigate closely
but there were certainly plenty of waterbirds about.
We drove on round the Lake on a vehicle-track and noticed two or
three young men with cars and a camp set up near the track. We made an
assumption about the origin of the shooting debris. We found more
shotgun shells as we drove round . We also noticed a 4" plastic pipe
leading to the Lake, apparently taking water, but whether in or out we
don't know.
After a fruitless morning looking for information on the web and by
phone, we would like to know:
What is the status of this Reserve?
Is camping permitted?
Is shooting permitted? (we assume not).
Is it patrolled by Parks or Wildlife authorities?
Is the Lake used as a water-source for irrigation or domestic supply?
Is it artificially connected to State Rivers installations such as the
lake at Nagambie?
How long has it held water? - we have been told that it had been dry for
years.
Other birds seen were Musk Lorikeets, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Noisy
Friarbirds, Eastern Rosellas,Galahs, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Grey
Thrush, Magpie-lark, Magpies, Australian Raven, Welcome Swallows, Willy
Wagtails, Brown Treecreeper, and a Wedgetailed Eagle.
Anthea Fleming
Ivanhoe, Vic
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
