A visit to Mulligan's Flat

Being in the City (Carwoola is the locality; Bungendore is the village; Queanbeyan the town;and Canberra the City) with some time on my hands I took myself out to Mulligans Flat to inspect the repairs to the Big Dam.  The original dam broke some years ago and getting it repaired has been a fraught process - apparently,  mainly because the suits of the ACT Government were concerned about getting sued if it broke again!

Whatever: it has now been repaired and I had read reports of it being a good place for birding, so off we go.

I parked as close as possible to the dam and wandered in.

The first thing that caught my eye was this sign.  Since I had been wandering through Themeda triandra (Kangaroo Grass) for 10 minutes before I got to the sign I wondered what was going on.

 Here is a view of the new dam wall.  A most impressive bit of infrastructure: the wait has been worth it.

The next two images are of general habitat, as background.  The first is of the area where the waterhas risen over the vegetation that grew while the wall was breached.  The dead trees were there for years: I have seen White-necked Herons nest in them before the water ran away.

Away from the dam the Reserve has low grassland interspersed with stony ridges on which Eucalyptus mannifera (Brittle Gum) dominates.

Theer were many insects around today.  Grasshoppers were everywhere in the grassy areas and Dragonflies all over the place.  Unfortunately  it was warm, so they had plenty of energy to keep moving, and windy, which meant they didn't settle.  This Meadow Argus was the only cooperative insect.

Birds were more cooperative.  Here are two images of the Red-kneed Dotterels which moved round the dam in front of me.

Theer were also a few Black-fronted Dotterels giving the famous over the shoulder "come'hither" look ...

... before scarpering.

Several of the waterbirds posed nicely on the dead trees against the beautiful clear sky.  First is a White-faced Heron (knock-kneed race).

Next two Royal Spoonbills.

I'm sorry that image is nowhere near the quality of one posted to the COG Chatline by Kym Bradley.

One Australian White Ibis posed in a tree,

and a little later 21 birds soared over and caught a thermal upwards.

A Little Pied Cormorant did its usual presentation of the jiz of a young Jack Russell!

Not all the kangaroos have been removed from the Reserve although there were very few in the Sanctuary.  These were outside the Sanctuary, but I did see a couple in there (and 2, widely separated. rabbits).