Twelve members of Canberra Birds were hosted by John and Celia at their Ballalaba block (pronounced B’lall a bar), to follow up an initial visit in October 2023. The ridge of the Deua National Park formed the green horizon to the east. The current owners bought the run-down farm of 120 acres 5 years ago. Today it has a small herd of beef cattle and is being rehabilitated to bring back biodiversity and health to the environment, using Natural Sequence Farming. It includes creating contour banks, slowing water flow using a chain of ponds, and enormous structures that John calls medieval compost heaps. The latter include fallen branches, dead feral pigs and roadkill. Over time the minerals and nutriments from these heaps are dispersed. The cattle are rotated through paddocks and excluded from parts of the creek line with electric fences. This will allow regeneration. We saw how much improvement has occurred to the pasture, soil, and waterways and how much it will benefit birds. A total of 34 species was observed. There was a large dam just below the living quarters with Pacific Black Duck, Welcome Swallow, White-faced Heron and Little Pied Cormorant. The nearby woodland included Snow Gums, and it fell away into a small valley. Here we heard the constant call of Sacred Kingfishers loudly advertising their territories. Varied Sittellas entertained us as they constructed their tiny nests in dead sticks at the top of the tree, but went quiet when Noisy Miners arrived. Flocks of Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters, Red Wattlebirds and Silvereyes were on the move though the morning. Other woodland birds included Tree Martins, Grey Fantail, Grey Shrike-thrush, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Brown, Striated and Yellow-rumped Thornbills and Rufous Whistlers. Little and Australian Ravens were seen with a Little Raven on the nest. We followed the creek down and came to a clump of unruly exotic trees which yielded European Goldfinch, a pair of sittellas and some had brief glimpses of Rufous Songlark. Raptors seen were Black-shouldered Kite, Nankeen Kestrel and a Collared Sparrowhawk heading into the woodland that sheltered migrating honeyeaters. In contrast to the birdlife in Canberra, there were only four Australian Magpies and one Common Starling. Our hosts provided us with tea, beef sausages from their own beasts, pork and apple cider sausages, and chocolate brownies. The luncheon capped off a delightful morning with our charming hosts. We have been invited back in two years’ time. Bill Graham