Hi Landcarers

The Lachlan Valley Branch of the National Parks Association held their Christmas get together this week at Bumberry Dam.

The Dam is just looking breathtakingly beautiful at the moment and there were a plethora of birds to be found! The bank accommodated the group of 20 comfortably, with the main display of water providing a relaxing evening setting.

The temperature, given the time of year, was pretty much close to perfect, providing a glassy, reflective surface on the Dam and making for some spectacular scenic photos (check them out on facebook and instagram).

Half of the assembled group undertook a pre-dinner bird walk, which accumulated a list of both woodland and water birds, with over 40 species recorded during the evening.

A big thank you to Martin Bell for providing the list of species recorded on the evening. You will note on the photos on social media that there is an late evening pan across the water. This was taken, just after the White throated nightjar was recorded. We were fortunate to see it do the evening swoop across the water. It is a pretty rare sighting.

You may be thinking, why would I be placing importance on listing the birds in this article? This, and all of the recordings of the NPA group, provide important historical records of birds, insects and reptiles in our region. I hope that it also might be a helpful tool to those who might be interested in learning more about birds in our area to take the opportunity and look these up.

Recorded bird species: Willy wagtail; Grey teal; Little pied cormorant; Galah; Eurasian coot; Black duck; Noisy friarbird; Australian white ibis; Magpie; White neck heron; Noisy minor; Magpie lark; Red wattle bird; Eastern rosella; Kookaburra; Rufous whistler; Jacky winter; White plumed honeyeater; Reed warbler; Hard head; White throated treecreeper; Varied sittella; Yellow faced honeyeater; White throated gerygone; Leaden flycatcher; Collared sparrow hawk; Horsefield’s bronze cuckoo; Rainbow bee eater; Black swan; Apostlebird; Dusky moorhen; Masked lapwing; Little corella; Australian raven; Western gerygone; Restless flycatcher; Wood duck; Nankeen night heron; Sulphur crested cockatoo; White throated nightjar.

I am looking forward to sharing more about the history of the Lachlan Valley Branch of the NPA group during January. Thanks so much to the gorgeous NPA group for sharing such a lovely evening!

For further information please go to www.centralwestlachlanlandcare.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at @cwllandcare.