This last formal trip of the 2008 COG Field Trips Program was a reprise of the final 2006 outing with a minor variant. It was one of the rarer COG trips when walking is a significant component of the outing. A smallish group of COG members, again led by Julian Robinson, enjoyed a very pleasant walk under bright but somewhat breezy conditions, surveying a variety of habitats in a rough figure of eight route starting from the Yankee Hut car park and along the Old Boboyan Road. We then cut up the creek halfway along by following the Rehabilitation Trail, up and over a saddle to Hospital Creek, which we followed upstream for about 1 km. We then cut back up to the road and dropped down into historic Hospital Creek Hut for lunch, returning to the cars via a loop road once half way back.
The walk underlined my views that bird numbers are well down this year. Despite the early promise on reaching the car park, birds remained somewhat elusive and very few seemed to show themselves well, with many of the records (such as Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Common Bronzewing, Sacred Kingfisher and Brown-headed Honeyeater) aural rather than visual. The best bird observed in the morning was due to Terry following up a slightly different sounding treecreeper call and being rewarded by a sighting of a Red-browed Treecreeper; unfortunately he was the only one to do so. Nevertheless all participants had thoroughly enjoyed themselves when we sat down together under the shade of a single tree to have our lunch on the edge of a much greener clearing at Hospital Creek Hut than two years ago (but unfortunately no Brush Cuckoo this time).
It was also one of the rare COG trips I've been on when most of the highlights were post lunch. First of all Julian led us to a small spring where we had great views of the Yellow-faced, White-naped and Fuscous Honeyeaters as they chased each other round, including resting in the bare branches of a dead tree above the ti-tree surrounding the pool of water. The often overlooked latter species (one of the more common birds of the day) was in breeding plumage, with small yellow plumes, a dark gape and the characteristic dark smudged eye.
We then returned to the wetter gully (not very really) along the road where we looked for the Satin Flycatcher we had heard calling on our way up, and were rewarded with great views of a pair building a lovely dainty nest in a rather slender upright fork of a completely dead sapling. Nearby was a Dusky Woodswallow on a nest in a typical spot against the trunk of a relatively thin but tall sapling. Otherwise this was surprising for two aspects, one a relatively thick forest surroundings and second that there appeared to be only one pair.
On return to the car park going a slightly different way we came upon the birds that we had missed on arrival. First of all we heard the plink-plink call of the Brown Treecreeper and had reasonable views of a bird that appeared to be gathering food, but breeding could not be confirmed. Another Dusky Woodswallow nest was found on a dead branch this time. Finally just as we were getting back into the cars there was the unmistakeable calling of the Rufous Songlark in amongst a patch of bush. This remains my first and only record of this species this spring/summer.
A sighting of a different kind was two rather large dogs along Hospital Creek, the first a very unusual shape and colour, mainly white with a black head, followed by a second all-black dog rather more resembling the shape of a dingo. We got very close (within 10 metres) to the first as we flushed it from hiding in the long grass beside the creek, and it ambled away.
A total of 43 different species (down from the 57 last time) were recorded, all within the one COG grid cell. Certainly a very enjoyable day and my thanks once again to Julian Robinson for leading it so enthusiastically.
— Jack Holland