Kama Nature Reserve

I spent a few hours out at Kama Nature Reserve today. Kama is a large area of open grassy woodland, quite close to home in the northern suburbs of Canberra.

It's one of the best places to look for Brown Treecreepers in the ACT, and with this aim in mind, I set off!
Riding to Kama by bicycle is great fun - once you're out of the suburb, there's a superb downhill run of about 200m, levelling out gently before coming to the underpass that takes you to Kama.
having chained up the bike, I set off camera in hand.
The first bird I encountered was a Black Shouldered Kite, a great view of it soaring towards me at eye level, as I stood at the top of the first hill. I lifted the camera and pressed the shutter.

Nothing happened. It usually helps to turn the camera on before taking photos!!!

It was a bit of a shame to miss that shot (the kite had disappeared behind some trees), but as soon as I reached the Kama sign, I ran into a small mixed feeding flock. A female Scarlet Robin, several Yellow-Rumped Thornbills, and a Grey Fantail. Sadly they didn't sit still for good photos, and soon disappeared into the canopy of a nearby tree.

 Scarlet Robin, female

Walking down the track, I turned left and crossed to the vehicle track, which leads to one of the dams in the nature reserve.

On the way there, I heard a rustle in the grass, and saw an Eastern Grey Kangaroo lying in the long grass not 5 meters away. I stood still, unsure as to why it hadn't taken off when it saw me. My wondering was quickly resolved, as the 'roo gingerly got to its feet and hobbled off, keeping its right back leg well off the ground. Pretty sad to see, but sometimes you just have to leave it :(. I kept going, giving her a wide berth so as not to make her move around any more.

  Injured Eastern Grey Kangaroo

After accidentally giving some Grey Teal a heart attack (and them returning the favour, neither of us were expecting to run into each other at the top of the dam wall!), I noticed a lot of alarm calls a short distance off.

I followed the noise to a large eucalyptus, hoping to find an owl being mobbed by small birds. Sadly no owl was there, but I did find a ver large (and noisy) mixed feeding flock. Brown Thornbills, Yellow Rumped Thornbills, Weebills, Spotted & Striated Pardalotes, Grey Fantail, White Eared Honeyeater, Brown Headed Honeyeater, and Superb Fairy Wrens.

 White Eared Honeyeater

Brown Headed Honeyeater

The flock started to move off, and since I wanted some pictures better than the terrible ones above, I followed. I quickly lost the flock, but in a stand of small eucalypts I found several small, fast-moving birds. I didn't get a good look, but from their calls I'm reasonably confident in saying they were Varied Sittellas. If only I'd gotten a better look, these would be a much-needed year tick! Next time.

I began to move back across to the main walking track. on the way, I found a solitary female White Throated Treecreeper, which I noticed was banded. I'm not aware of any banding programs in Kama, so I'm interested to find out who/where banded it, especially with colour bands!

Colour Banded White Throated Treecreeper

Finally getting to the main track, I debated the long walk down to the small cliffs near the Molonglo River. I decided against it, despite the fact that it's a fairly reliable spot for Skylark and Australian Pipit, plus I've always wanted to search some of the loose rocky hillside for fossils. However, it's a long walk, and all uphill on the way back. Since I had a long uphill ride home, I decided to save it for a time when I had a car ride!

Walking back up the hill, I disturbed a pair of Eastern Rosellas which had been feeding on the ground. A Laughing Kookaburra flew over just as I got to the second dam.

On the dam, the Grey Teal I'd disturbed earlier were mixing with a pair of Pacific Black Ducks, and a pair of Australasian Grebes.

Eclipse plumage Australasian Grebe

As I crested the hill and began the short descent back to my bike, I noticed the Black Shouldered Kites were still hanging around, a short distance off towards the road. I walked over, keen for some photographs. As I walked there, a Grey Shrike Thrush was hopping around in the bushes, and a Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike flew over calling.

The kite wasn't at all bothered by me, and allowed me to get fairly close. That gave me a nice finishing point, before the ride home!!

Black Shouldered Kite

Open Grassy Woodland habitat at Kama Nature Reserve

Julian

A Beginner's Walk

Last Wednesday, I received a call from Anthony Overs, my bird banding instructor. He said he would be leading the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) "Beginner's Morning Walk" at the Canberra Bitanic Gardens on Saturday, and since the group would be larger than normal, he asked for my assistance in leading the group.
I was delighted, and this morning we gathered in the Carpark with fourteen other birders, some who had been on a few outings, some completely new.
The walk was an enjoyable 2.5 hour walk through the gardens, with some great advice on starting out in birding provided to those gathered by Anthony.

Some of the birds seen included, in no particular order:

New Holland Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
White Eared Honeyeater
White Naped Honeyeater (heard only)
Red Wattlebird
Striated Thornbill
Brown Thornbill
Spotted Pardalote
Striated Pardalote
Weebill
White Throated Treecreeper
King Parrot
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Galah
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Golden Whistler
Eastern Yellow Robin
Scarlet Robin
Satin Bowerbird
White Browed Scrubwren

I was hoping for Bassian Thrush, Rose Robin, and the female Pink Robin that's been hanging around the ANBG recently. Sadly none of these made themselves present, but nevertheless a great mornings birding was had.

Highlight of the day, was a Brown Gerygone seen near the rainforest gully. This species, according to Anthony, is a very interesting find for Canberra. We got a fairly good view, and heard him singing, so the ID is definite.

After the walk, I hung around the gardens for several hours, but sadly was still unable to locate any of my three targets. The only new birds for the day I added were White Winged Chough and Wood Duck.

Julian

Winter birds arriving

It's starting to get pretty cold outside down in Canberra, and some of the winter birds have started to come back with it.
I just spent half an hour down at the local park a few minutes from my house, and was very pleased to see a pair of Scarlet Robins, and a stunning male Golden Whistler. Of course, there were lots of the usual birds, Yellow Rumped Thornbill, Brown Thornbill, Weebill, Red Wattlebird, Spotted Pardalote and Willie Wagtail hanging around, and the thornbills were in quite large numbers.
Apparently there are still a few migratory species hanging around, a single Yellow Faced Honeyeater was feeding in the gum trees, and I was very surprised to see some Superb Parrots fly over calling. I'd assumed they had all left, as they usually only seem to be around in the summer.
Heading back through my suburb on my bike, several quite large parties of King Parrots were around, and I could hear a Gang Gang Cockatoo in the distance.
Sadly I didn't get any useable photos, as the light had largely disappeared. I might try heading out tomorrow morning while the light is good, and see if those robins are still about!

Julian

Good evening, good evening, good evening!

Good evening, good evening, good evening! And welcome to the blog!

I'm Simon Gorta, a Sydney based birder of 15 years. 

Although I was born in Sydney and still live here, since a very young age I have been going up to Hawks Nest on the mid-north coast of NSW, the northern side of Port Stephens for regular holiday trips. How could I not get into birding when whistling kites pass over the house on a daily basis, bowerbirds regularly sit in the gum tree out the back and when boobooks and tawny frogmouths are regular night time visitors. However, it was a kayaking tour of the Myall River up there with Larry Toffler that really got my birding going. He pointed out the river's birdlife, from kites to kingfishers to egrets and cormorants, as well as dolphins and other animals of the river. From there, my parent got me a field guide subsequently binos and a camera and well, how could I not start birding after that! 
I have been banding once, and am planning to keep going... sadly however, school limits those opportunities in the short term.

I think that is about it for me - Julian seems to have done most of the introductory business for the actual blog... hopefully I'll be able to get out soonish and start posting!!! 

Enjoy!

Hi!

Hi!
I'm Julian Teh, a 15 year old birder from Canberra.

I grew up on a 1/2 acre bush property in the hills above Perth. It's pretty difficult not to be into birds when you're surrounded by them 24/7! 
Very quickly I decided birds were my thing, and since then I've been watching them. A few years back I discovered the joys of "twitching" and list making, and since making lists of my favourite things to spend time doing, I picked it up very quickly! 
Following in my passion for bird watching, I'm also a trainee bird bander, amateur photographer, and aviculturist specialising in finches and button quail.

The other Auhor/admin on this blog is Simon Gorta. I expect he'll chip in with a quick history of himself soon. He lives in Sydney, and despite living in different cities, the passion for birds keeps us connected, and whenever we're in each others towns we meet up and do some birding. We met last year through a young birders facebook page, which also includes Josh and Max from the "for the love of birds" blog, from which we drew the inspiration to make our own. 

The blogs' name was a mixture of my suggestion of "two in the bush", which is the title of one of my favourite books by the great naturalist Gerald Durrell. Simon suggested we also include the (bird related) saying of "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". So if anyone was wondering, that's where it came from :)

This blog will be about our respective birdy outings, sightings, trips and ticks. Enjoy!