The September nature walk on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 5 attracted a record 15 participants – there were more people than birds!
We parked down at Cedar Creek and before heading down towards the waterfall we first rambled up the road as far as the creek, looking at the forest on our right. Though this yielded a couple of bird species there was more interest on the left hand side of the road where in one garden we saw a pair of pale-headed rosellas and in the next garden a pair of brush bronzewings and about 15 plumed whistling ducks. Also some HUGE domestic turkeys, chickens and a peacock. Our assumption was that the food being given to the home birds was attracting wild birds to mix in with them. As far as we know (and going by the NHA records) this is the first sighting of whistling ducks on the mountain.
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Report
Other birds observed during the day included crimson rosellas, spotted and striated pardalotes, the inevitable noisy miners, pacific black duck, eastern whipbird, grey butcherbird, currawongs, magpie, lewin's honeyeater, grey fantail, black-faced cuckoo-shrike, kookaburra, rainbow lorikeets and a brush cuckoo.
The keener-eyed members of the group spotted orchids in full flower on the rocks across the gorge; Susan kindly took the trouble to confirm that these were lily of the valley (Australorchis monophylla) and pink rock orchids (Thelichiton kingianus). Julie took a photo of the latter and though the distance was too great for a clear picture, we've published it here so people can get an idea of what to look for.
As always, a pleasant afternoon in good company. However, as walk leader Julie would like to note that we are not observing nearly as many birds (or anything else much) on the afternoon walks as we do in the morning, possibly because we are walking too early. Except for June and July, afternoon walks might be more productive if we go from four to six pm rather than two to four pm. It's just too hot still, in the middle of the afternoon, for birds to be very active.
Walk Leader: Julie Lake Map Location: Cedar Creek Falls Road
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