A good-sized COG contingent (13 on Saturday and 15 on Sunday), supplemented with good numbers of our hosts, the Goulburn Field Naturalists Society (GFNS), participated in this joint outing over the Canberra Day long weekend. On Saturday afternoon we visited the Gorman Road sewage ponds, an area of large finishing ponds compared with those at our local sewage farm at Fyshwick.
With the aid of three scopes, by keeping the sun behind us and slowly advancing along the middle of the pond system, everyone was able to see and identify the waterfowl in this area. The water levels were noticeably down and the predominant species, numbering several hundred, was the dabbling Grey Teal. There were also good numbers of Australasian Shoveler and Chestnut Teal and lesser numbers of Pink-eared Duck. While the Hoary-headed Grebe predominated, as may be expected in deeper open water, there were enough Australasian Grebe, including in breeding plumage, to allow a good comparison of their identification features.
Non water bird highlights here included a number of dullish and very quiet Golden-headed Cistocola flitting about on the top of the rank grass, some equally silent but rather yellow Australian Reed- Warblers, and an Australasian Pipit teetering frequently. However, the undoubted highlights were first a Peregrine Falcon cruising overhead, often on very pointed wings, and later a circling light phase Little Eagle identified by the almost perfect M underwing pattern.
We moved onto the much larger and deeper "polishing" pond on the eastern side of the complex, and on climbing over the dam wall were immediately impressed by well over 500 waterbirds on this. As the many birds loafing of the southern side took off on our arrival, about 20 Australian Shelduck were identified by their large size and considerable area of white on their underwing when in flight. There were also good numbers of Hardhead here, and persistence and close checking identified about 20 Blue-billed Ducks amongst them; these species are easily confused by their superficial similarity from a distance. Even closer checking revealed about three Musk Ducks, including at least one male.
Our return to the cars yielded a Sacred Kingfisher which obliged us all by sitting quietly in a dead tree, its rather white underparts but blue rump clearly visible in the scope. At the cars was another surprise for us in several Diamond Firetails. In total 39 species were seen in the space of 3 hours including, with one exception, all of the local duck species.
On Saturday night we had a dinner with our hosts at the historic Old Brewery, the oldest in Australia still using the original buildings. A combination of the lovely setting, both inside and outside, good company and food, as well as learning about the history of the place, made this a very enjoyable and memorable evening.
Despite this, we still gathered early next morning which was surprisingly cloudy, brought in by the NE breeze that had come in late evening. We then spent a couple of hours birdwatching NE of Towrang alongside the Wollondilly River on the property‘Wollondale’. After a slow start we observed 37 species here, including another two obliging Sacred Kingfishers, a Rufous Whistler, still calling loudly, and three Southern Whiteface found by Rosemary. As we were making our way back to the cars, a mature White-bellied Sea-Eagle floated upstream above the river, and then perched right in front of the homestead, a magnificent sight but not to be outdone by the magnificent morning tea put on by property owner, Julia, on behalf of the Billyrambja Landcare.
This was followed by a short drive through private property to ‘Bush Bottoms’ adjoining the Tarlo River National Park. This is an area in which koalas have been reintroduced, but unfortunately we did not see them. The walk started in riparian tall open forest and black sheoak forest but soon we encountered the short conglomerate cliffs which signify the southern limit of the Blue Mountains pagoda formations. After climbing these we walked along the top small rocky plateau complex through mallee eucalypts and dwarf heath interspersed with grassy swales with ribbon gum/river peppermint open forest in the intersecting gullies. Given the time and the habitat this was a walk as much for the scenery, views, geology and vegetation as for birds, and in complete contrast to the sewage ponds most birds were only heard or seen by a couple of participants. The 15 species included Spotted Quail-thrush, Superb Lyrebird (which were very quiet although we did see a nest in a cave) and an Origma.
COG members thoroughly enjoyed themselves and my thanks again to our hosts, in particular Rodney and Bill, for organising such an interesting and varied program in which a total of 58 species were seen. We look forward to more such joint outings.
— Jack Holland