Hi Landcarers

We have had an interesting week of bird (and other) related activities at Central West Lachlan Landcare.

Many of you would know about the Aussie Backyard Bird Count that has been running this week. Even if you haven’t been involved through counting, you can still keep track of what is happening through facebook and twitter and the overall count is on their website.

It was a pleasure to be part of the walk run by the National Parks Association Lachlan Valley Branch (NPA) on Saturday to Gunning Gap, led by Peter Cannon. We were fortunate to start the day observing the beautiful garden at Forbes Railway Station where we met.

I think that the weather was pretty close to perfect for our walk at Gunning Gap, but the plant life was just as fascinating as the birds, due to the significant amount of rain that we have had.

Monday and Tuesday’s kid’s bird walks were led by Martin Bell, also from the NPA. On Monday we had the opportunity to enjoy a casual walk up Memorial Hill at Parkes, observing approximately 20 species on the walk.

Elizabeth Briton and Michael Chambers from Parkes Shire Council assisted with plant identification, with Elizabeth giving the group an overview of the planting undertaken as part of the Theatres of War Garden and a salt bush taste test.

On Tuesday we were fortunate to visit the Bird Hide at Gum Swamp near Forbes. The birds seemed to be out in Force. The benefit of observing near the Hide is that we could view both water birds and woodland birds and once again, we were fortunate to have the expertise of Martin Bell on our walk.

Leon Ross, from Forbes Shire Council gave us an overview of the Painted Snipe Project that has been undertaken in conjunction with the Central West Local Land Services and Central West Councils Environment and Waterways Alliance through the National Landcare Programme.

The Painted Snipe is listed as endangered under both the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 2003 and the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and had been recorded at the site some time ago. This project is an opportunity to improve a section of habitat close to the bird hide that has deteriorated partially due to weed problems in the area.

We counted over 30 bird species at Gum Bend and a friendly dog, Mallee who joined us with local landholder, Pip Perry.

Thank you to everyone that was involved in the Aussie Bird Count week activities. Hopefully next year we can expand our activities during the week. If you are interested in being involved, please contact me.

The Bird Week activities weren’t enough for us, we also had a good turn out for the Compost on the Farm workshop at Coradgery with Agriwest and ANL and a Weeds Workshop on Wednesday, with Paul Sullivan. More on those next week.

Central West Lachlan Landcare have been very fortunate to be part of the roll out of the Co-ordinator funding through the NSW Government that will provide us with more stability over the next three years. As a result, we have been working hard to maximise the benefits from this funding for the Parkes and Forbes Shire areas.

We would love to share some of the past 12 months achievements and our future planning with the community at our AGM on Wednesday, 26 October at our Office. If you are interested in joining us and hearing from our guest speaker, Guy Webb on the Soil C Quest Project, please RSVP to me on 6862 4914 or email cwllpo@hotmail.com

Until next week, happy Landcaring!