The early
birders assembled at Dr Donaldson’s place in Stanley St at about 8.40am to walk
to his nearby recently scraped large dam, which was perhaps only about 10%
full. The feature was a flock of about 50+ pink-eared ducks which were on land
at the water’s edge. They took flight, circled for several minutes and, thank-fully
for those arriving later, landed back on the water.
At Shooter
Park, the Mugga Ironbarks were still in flower, though no longer in fresh
blossom; however the musk lorikeets were still in attendance to delight the
photographers. We made our way to Oakey Urban Land-care’s HQ by 10.00am for morning
tea with Dr Eric and Trevor Cockburn and six or seven of their volunteers – and
polished off some more of Julie Statham’s over-supply of biscuits and slices
from the Friday night supper and toasted her good health.
Then to work.
This working bee was at the project that had impressed us on our April outing –
and was our homage to World Environment Day. We had 11 Field Nats by morning tea,
plus our two guests from England, Jim and Myra Holt, who joined us for the day.
The 20 of us formed ourselves into two teams of mulch spreaders, being supplied
by two utes, and two of our members’ trailers (thanks, Mike). The day was mild with
mainly clear skies, and the work was mostly not hard – though the jumpers soon
started coming off. The atmosphere was most convivial, and we finished our task
in the neat two hours. We were pleased with the nature and purpose of our day
and several said we should continue to observe WED in such a way.
After lunch,
we finished our outing with a drive along Boah Waterhole Road – off the
Oakey-Cooyar Road, about six kilometres north of the Oakey Showgrounds. Trevor
had earlier advised us that we might see koalas along the roadside here. Jim
and Myra had expressly desired to see some in the wild. So, six of our Nats
went looking for koalas, but it was left to Jim to spot a large koala for
himself!
A good day was had by all.
Thanks to Trevor and his volunteers for their hospitality and Landcare
displays.
BIRD LIST for Shooter
Park and Dr Donaldson’s
Waterbirds: pink-eared duck; maned wood duck (with very young
ducklings); black duck; black cormorant; spur-winged plover; straw-necked ibis;
Pacific heron; white-faced heron. Parrots: rainbow, scaly-breasted and
musk lorikeets; short-billed corella; galah; sulphur-crested cockatoo; pale
headed rosella; quarrion; (possibly two red-winged parrots, flying away from
us). Others: pied butcherbird; peewee; magpie; noisy miner; crow. At
Boah Waterhole Road - black-faced cuckoo shrike; grey butcherbird; superb
fairywrens; apostlebirds; wedge -tailed eagle; and also, of course, our koala!
Ferals on the day: rock pigeons,
a goose, and two Indian mynas losing a dispute over a nesting hollow with a
galah. Also, a fox that Jean flushed from cover at Boah Waterhole, for the rest
of us to see as it took to the road.
 |
Field Nats and Oakey Urban Landcare members
(and Myra from Manchester, UK) placing mulch around
the
koala tree plantings |
 |
Pink-eared Duck at
Dr
Donaldson’s Farm |
Report by Ben Gundry
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