Friends of Berowra Valley Inc.

Some Friends got together on Sunday 15th of December for a picnic and bird walk with David Martin at Carrs Bush in Galston.

Birds seen or heard by our group:

1. Common Bronzewing
2. Musk Lorikeet
3. Tawny Frogmouth
4. Noisy Miner
5. Variegated Fairy Wren
6. Red-browed Finch
7. Golden Whistler
8. Rufous Fantail (seen by the other David).
9. Olive-backed Oriole (including fledgling on nest)
10. King Parrot
11. Brown Cuckoo Dove
12. Kookaburra (heard )
13. Whipbird (heard)
14. Grey Butcherbird
15. Rainbow Lorikeet.

David’s earlier observations at the Bayfield RD Dam in Fagan Park on the way to the gathering:

1. Dollarbird
2. Eurasian Coot
3. Dusky Moorhen
4. Little Pied Cormorant
5. Common Blackbird
6. Spotted Turtle-Dove
7. Magpie
8. Magpie-lark
9. Galah.
10. Masked Lapwing

Additional sightings  just before leaving in adjacent paddock (private property):

1. Wood Duck
2. Common Starlings (introduced )
3. Welcome Swallows.

Of interest all the above birds are resident birds within the region except for the Dollarbird and Rufous Fantail which return to northern QLD in the cooler months.

More birds would be recorded in the morning especially during a ‘Dawn chorus’. Hot days and loud cicada noise doesn’t help as it drowns out the bird contact calls.

Thanks to everyone for spending an enjoyable afternoon at Carrs Bush and for bringing such a lovely lunch to share. A special thanks to David for leading the walk and putting together the list and to Tom for making and keeping cool the cheese cake!

No birds were disturbed, the close up photos are due to a telephoto lens.

Friends of Berowra Valley were very kindly invited to attend the Berowra Public School Spring Fair.

The rock guessing competition was again very popular with Sophie winning the Bilby puppet with her guess of the number of hawkesbury sandstone in the jar.

The stall contained all sorts of items from our natural environment such as insects, birds nests and many more to entice the children to think about how these are all connected.

A big thanks to Tanya for masterminding the Bedrock Challenge, Bird Nests and Dark Sky exhibits. Also thanks to Mary and Robin for bringing the insect exhibits. Rae and Ken for managing the stall. Tom, Kon and Lucy for figuring out how to set up the stall and secure it from the wind. Also many thanks to Lucy for creating such professional graphics for our displays. Thanks for Karen for coordination skills, David for bird skills, and Benjamin and Christeen for helping set up and pack up and also for the lovely stall group photo.

Thanks for all of the ‘friends’ that helped out at the Woodchop on Saturday 7th Sept 2024.

It was a great fun event for the entire family. We were happy to sell quite a few of our new publication ‘Wildflowers on the Ridgetops’ and ‘A Walking Guide Map to the Berowra Valley National Park.’

There were plenty of entries to our ‘Guess the number of Hawkesbury Sandstone’ rocks in the glass jar. First prize of a gorgeous Ring Tail Possum toy went to Brad and second prize, Menagerie game, went to Char.