22 June 2024
Leader: Robert Grosvenor
Thirty-five people attended the beginners outing at Woodlands, braving the cold start to what would turn out to be a pleasant sunny morning. While waiting for everyone to arrive we were fortunate that a majestic old River Red Gum was acting as a bird magnet, with ten species seen before our walk began. These included Sulphur-crested cockatoo, Rainbow Lorikeet, Eastern Rosella, Red-rumped Parrots, Noisy Miner, Indian Mynah, Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike, Little Raven, Wood Duck and Galah, all in the one tree.
Upon starting our usual walk from the carpark to the homestead and return, things remained very quiet. Initially two pairs of Wood Ducks and a pair of Eastern Rosellas were investigating an old tree, possibly for future nest sites. It was then some time before we saw our next birds, a Striated Pardalote and a Grey Fantail followed by both Weebill and Yellow Thornbill. Nothing was calling and there was very little overhead apart from the occasional Little Raven and Magpie.
It was some time before we came upon numerous Fairy Wrens and a number of large flocks of 20-30 were spied in the grass. This was to be a regular occurrence throughout the day with the wrens the most common bird of the day.
A Grey Butcher-bird called but fled the scene as we approached. Nearing the homestead we found a Willie Wagtail, a number of Magpies, a pair of Magpie-Larks and more Red-rumped parrots in the horse paddocks. At the homestead we found some more common birds such as House Sparrow, Spotted Dove and Crested Pigeons.
Returning to the carpark some were fortunate to see a small flock of Yellow-rumped Thornbills and everyone had good views of twenty or so Red-browed Finches followed by an immature male Golden Whistler.
After lunch we drove to what hopefully was the red robin hot spot and added another ten species to the list but unfortunately not all the Robins we had hoped for.
Additional species for the afternoon were a Collared Sparrowhawk, Grey Teal, Australasian Grebe, White-faced Heron, Grey Shrike Thrush, Brown-headed Honeyeater, New Holland Honeyeater and White plumed Honeyeater.
However, our main aim was to find some red robins which proved difficult. Eventually we had glimpses of a female Pink and a male Flame Robin.
Overall we had seen 49 species for the day, a respectable tally for winter. Thanks to Clancy Benson, Eleanor Dilley and Steve Hoptroff for their photographs.
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