Meet at 8.30am at Isabella St, close to the suspension bridge. We will walk to the Railway Bridge (about 2.4km) and return (partly on the opposite side of the river). The walk takes us from the Queanbeyan town centre to the ACT border (Oaks Estate). Most of the time we’ll be on footpaths, with occasional forays down to the edge of the river. As usual, wear sturdy shoes, hat, sunscreen. Register with Sandra at shirmax2931@gmail.com, with your name and number, and name and number of an emergency contact.
Wednesday walk – Queanbeyan River Corridor
Wednesday 16 July 08:30
Sandra Henderson
Post event report
The morning was a beautiful sunny, cold one. Sandra advised Monday 14th had been similar and she’d recorded 45 bird species. At least some attendees took note, and set out to record more. They did. However, considering the number of ‘good’ birders on the trip, and all observers didn’t stay together, I wasn’t surprised Lia recorded 50 bird species on the trip list.
The first ‘extra’ recorded, which I think everyone saw, was Tawny Frogmouth. One was sunning itself in the open on a dead branch near the top of a medium-sized Eucalypt, with the second in a fork to the left and lower.
Yellow Thornbill were only seen by the roughly four people who had ‘lagged’ behind the rest of party, to sort out a mixed feeding flock. The Yellow-tufted Honeyeater was only seen by three people, again ‘lagging’ behind. It helped that Sandra had shown us a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, downstream, near the NSW border on the June Wednesday walk. And as a good photo was obtained of the July bird, there was no dispute as to its ID. Unfortunately, the rest of party didn’t manage to see it on the return walk.
We saw water birds: Australasian Grebe, Dusky Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Little Pied and Great Cormorant, Australasian Darter, and Australian Wood and Pacific Black Duck, but probably not as many as some of us expected.
Parrots and cockatoos were well represented. We heard Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, and saw Rainbow Lorikeets, Crimson and Eastern Rosella, Australian King-Parrot, a flock of Gang-gang Cockatoo, Galah, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and Little Corella (this was our 50th species but we only saw one!). A Brown Goshawk was seen by many of the party, but only a few saw it in flight.
Not surprisingly the habitat seemed to suit Red-browed Finch, Eastern Yellow Robin, Satin Bowerbird and Common Blackbird, as well as Australian Magpie, Pied Currawong and Grey Butcherbird. The river is a known platypus hotspot, and Miro came along hoping to see one – and his patience paid off, with a sighting and photograph. It seems the Queanbeyan River through the centre of town gives a pretty good idea of what can be done to encourage biodiversity in urban areas.
Michael Robbins