COG finds food for thought in Kama

I was initially worried that I had used all the obscure jokes about Kama (2 of them) in my post about the last Wednesday Walk to the venue in December 2011.   Fortunately it also turns out to be an Estonian oat porridge, which was highly appropriate for a reference in the title as we got there about breakfast time.  (If the porridge was made from Hypericum it would have been an even closer link to this area, since there was plenty of raw material in evidence.)  Enough banter, on with the report.

The approximate route s shown in this extract from Google Earth.

24 members and guests assembled around the entrance to Kama Reserve at 8:30, or 8:35 in some cases, on a brilliantly fine morning.

While waiting for meeting and greeting, 2 Wedge-tailed Eagles and 2 White-faced Herons were seen perched.  The next interesting bird turned out, after some debate, to have been a relatively large Australian Hobby.

Moving on through the bush, enjoying the vista  to the Brindabellas ..

.. and some of the huge old trees ...

...  we recorded several of the regular bush bird species including a flock of 6 Brown-headed honeyeaters and 2 Dusky Woodswallows high overhead.  We were alerted to the presence of a Brown Treecreeper (not, as originally posted, Brown Honeyeater)  by the call (dimly over the cacophony from a few of the local cockies) ...

... and eventually got good views of it high on a dead tree.

This gave us a tick on the opulent sign for the area ...

 inexplicably about 500m into the reserve.  Why advertise to people who have already got into the Reserve?  Perhaps this is the same (non) thinking that has a sign on the side of the road with only informal access to the reserve and not one where there is car parking and clear access?  (NB: the enforcers of Canberra Nature Park should not load up the paint remover.  It's my photo that got modified, not the sign.)

As we moved into more open country we began to notice Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes.  While the most seen at one time was 5 birds they were all seeming to move uphill from the Molonglo and by the time we had finished the count of birds present was at least 20.

That fuzzy-focused one is a juvenile: unfortunately the black mark goes past the eye thus ruling out White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike.

3 more White-faced Herons were seen close to the river.  A raptor just below the sewage service road resolved, after even more debate, to be a Nankeen Kestrel.  Unusually, I got the ID correct!

The river corridor was very active with large flocks of Silvereyes and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters (at least 50) moving through.  This coincides with two reports on the chatline of the Honeyeater migration starting today.  The fearless leader went down the bank to check on this and on returning to ascend felt rather like a defender of Rorkes Drift.

An unusual "bubbling call" heard from the Casuarinas eventually turned out to be an Olive-backed Oriole.  The walk back through the open country delivered 7 Australasian pipits.

In total we recorded 44 species.