On 17 November 13 folk, including a pair of excellent juniors, gathered at Shepherd’s Lookout to explore the area and some would continue to Uriarra Crossing. Target species at the lookout were Southern Whiteface and Speckled Warbler and at the Crossing we hoped to pick up the Common Sandpiper.
While none of these were achieved some very nice birds were seen and we ended with a list of 55 species which generated six and a half breeding records (the half was a little eagle that absolutely refused to step 1 metre to the left and get in/on the nest). A Yellow-faced Honeyeater had young in a nest hanging over the Molonglo and a pair of Leaden Flycatchers were building a nest in a casuarina that featured a Magpie-lark on nest and a White-winged Triller also building.
Some people were entranced by the Rainbow Bee-eaters posing on a casuarina branch over the river. My favourite was the pair of Mistletoebirds collecting spider webs for their nest. At one point the spectacular male perched about 2m from me: needless to say, I didn’t have the camera out.
Martin Butterfield