U3A Bird watching group finally made it to Euroa on Thursday 31 May, after our planned outing earlier in May was cancelled due to bad weather.
The Euroa Arboretum is located south of the town, between the freeway and the old Hume Highway. Although we had fine weather, there was a cold southerly wind, so our group of seven headed for the Arboretum nursery to check out the plants for sale. They have an impressive range of local native plants propagated mainly from seed collected in the area. After we loaded our purchases into our vehicles, we then went looking for birds. Good numbers of Superb Fairy-wrens live in the grounds and were easy to see. Not so the other little birds. We had a fleeting glimpse of 2 Weebills, Australia’s smallest bird, and heard a Grey Shrike-thrush. Several Red Wattlebirds and White-plumed Honeyeaters were also seen, but it was a good day for bush birds to shelter from the wind.
Our next stop was at the Seven Creeks walking track. We started our walk near the Euroa caravan park, and headed south towards the freeway, enjoying the sunny, sheltered conditions. Best birds here were a male Golden Whistler, a Crimson Rosella and good views of a flock of Striated Thornbills feeding at eye level beside the track. They are usually in the tree tops. In the bird field guide, we compared Weebills and Striated Thornbills, and came away with a better knowledge of two of our smallest bush birds.
We then headed to Seven Creeks Hotel for a welcome hot meal in front of a warm fire, and so ended U3A Bird watching activities for Semester 1.
U3A Bird watching resumes on Thursday 13 September 2018.
Kathy Costello
The Euroa Arboretum is located south of the town, between the freeway and the old Hume Highway. Although we had fine weather, there was a cold southerly wind, so our group of seven headed for the Arboretum nursery to check out the plants for sale. They have an impressive range of local native plants propagated mainly from seed collected in the area. After we loaded our purchases into our vehicles, we then went looking for birds. Good numbers of Superb Fairy-wrens live in the grounds and were easy to see. Not so the other little birds. We had a fleeting glimpse of 2 Weebills, Australia’s smallest bird, and heard a Grey Shrike-thrush. Several Red Wattlebirds and White-plumed Honeyeaters were also seen, but it was a good day for bush birds to shelter from the wind.
Our next stop was at the Seven Creeks walking track. We started our walk near the Euroa caravan park, and headed south towards the freeway, enjoying the sunny, sheltered conditions. Best birds here were a male Golden Whistler, a Crimson Rosella and good views of a flock of Striated Thornbills feeding at eye level beside the track. They are usually in the tree tops. In the bird field guide, we compared Weebills and Striated Thornbills, and came away with a better knowledge of two of our smallest bush birds.
We then headed to Seven Creeks Hotel for a welcome hot meal in front of a warm fire, and so ended U3A Bird watching activities for Semester 1.
U3A Bird watching resumes on Thursday 13 September 2018.
Kathy Costello
RSS Feed
