A couple of birdie outings

I had a while to fill in in South Canberra today so went to look at a new Water Quality pond in the WETO (Western Township) of Molonglo where others have found some good birds.  I didn't do that well but it is a place of great potential.

The quality of housing is not that great with much high density stuff around.  Possibly these are single units, but they are so close together they might as well be apartments.
However some land appears to have been set aside for a Reserve and the walk out to look over the Molonglo has potential.
 It was good to find several Black-fronted Plovers in attendance.
 A good bunch of finches and White-fronted Chats were investigated the grassland and Coots and Wood Ducks were on the water.
In the afternoon my mate Garry took me for a walk up a ridge to try to relocate some Southern Whitefaces he had encountered recently.  We did that and also saw a good lot of Australasian Pipits (at least 10) and Flame Robins (at least 7 brown birds).

In addition to the birds the views were magnificent.  This first shot looks across the Molonglo Valley to our house, which is hidden by the trees roughly where the yellow line is.  The yellow trees are the willows in Whiskers Creek where it crosses our drive.
 Garry took a breather to suck in the view over the Plain towards the Tinderries.
 In this image the meanders of the Molonglo are clearly visible.
 We could see the bed of Lake George, the Tinderry mountains at Michelgo and the ridge of the Brindabellas.  From Google Earth I take a rough guess we could see about 3,000 square kilometres which equates to an average of 54kms in every direction: possibly a little over the top.

ACT Parks are still preserving nature.
When Garry looked at this post he pointed out a detail I had not aimed for:
The plane is on final approach to Canberra Airport.

The white dot well down the hill in the distance was Garry's ute.
 The route back wasn't all downhill!
 This white dot is my car: I'm glad we drove part of the way up the hill.

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