Birdwalk Oxley Common
Saturday 27 April 2019

This ramble on the Oxley common, led by Dawn Muir, included open country, long grasses at the side of the track with Acacias, Erythrina trees and Melaleucas, Oxley creek itself, small lagoons (unfortunately largely covered by water hyacinth) and a lake. The water was turbid from recent rain. A wide variety of birds were seen and/or heard:

Noisy Miners (by far the most frequent spotted), Swallows (also common), Kookaburras, Magpies, Magpie Larks, Torresian Crows, Willy Wagtails, Currawongs, Grey and Pied Butcherbirds, Rainbow Lorikeets and Pale-headed Rosellas, Masked Lapwings, Raptors including a Brown Goshawk and a pair each of the Black and Black-shouldered Kite, Bar-Shouldered Doves, Spotted Doves, Fairy Wrens including Blue Fairy Wrens, White-browed Scrubwren, many Brown Honeyeaters, Scaly Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Leeuwin Honeyeater, Tree Martins, White-throated Gerygones, Tawny Grass Birds, Cattle Egret, Figbirds, White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis, Rufous Whistler, Rainbow Bee-eater, Grey Fantail, Grey Shrike-thrush, Golden-headed Cisticola, Brown Quail, Crested Pigeon, Double-barred Finch, Red-browed Finch, Silvereyes, and a mixed feeding flock of Silvereyes, Fantails and Brown Honeyeaters. On the Lagoon and lake we saw White-headed Stilts, Dusky Moorhens, Pacific Black Ducks, a Sacred Kingfisher, Intermediate Egrets, possibly a Great Egret, Pelicans, and a Little Black Cormorant. On the way back we added a few new species - Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo, Chestnut-breasted Mannikins, Varied Triller and Olive-backed Oriole.

We also saw a nestbox the hole of which had been enlarged, probably by a possum, and a swallow collecting mud for a nest. Of concern was the sighting of a fox in the vegetation behind the lagoon.

The walk lasted a fascinating 3 hours. Then back to the picnic table for the quaffing of tea and coffee, cake, pancakes and jam, with promises to walk it off that afternoon.