COG O'Connor Ridge

30 members and guests gathered on Dryandra Street for a definite return to the Tom Green model of a Wednesday Walk: close to the centre of Canberra and not too long.  (This was reinforced with a unanimous vote not to extend to Bruce Ridge.)
The basic route was along the back of the Youth Hostel and towards the top of the ridge, then a counterclockwise loop.  After the initial ascent there was a little excitement with the first Scarlet Robins of the day.  (We ended with 8, spread fairly well through the walk, but appearing such that we felt they were different birds , not the same ones following us.)  Little Corellas flew from the direction of the AIS into the suburb.

We had nice views down into the centre of the CBD with misty views of the hills in the background.
It was a little surprising that there was so little Autumn foliage, especially with drought stress being possible.  Perhaps the unseasonable warmth is delaying the formation of abscission layers?

Birds seemed few  in number and only a few Kangaroos were evident.
I'm sure the rest of the marsupial was attached to the head in the grass.

Shortly after encountering a small flock of Double-barred Finches (some seen, others evident by toy trumpet calls) we got onto a mixed feeding flock comprising some of the finches, a Speckled Warbler, Buff-rumped and Yellow-rumped Thornbills, Grey Fantail, Grey Shrike Thrush and Silvereyes.

A pair of Galahs appearing to be either inspecting a nest hollow or vandalising a eucalypt.  In view of the time of year the latter seemed more likely .
A small dam produced 2 Australasian Grebes - until a passing pooch (on lead) went for a wade, whereupon the grebes headed for the reeds.

Continuing to walk along a track close to the GDE (Ghastly Dumb Expressway) some interesting invertebrate life was encountered.  The first was a very active male Red-headed Mouse Spider (Missulena occatoria).
 This was followed by a slightly less active, but somewhat larger caterpillar of (so far) unknown species.
The size of the caterpillar - see end of the arrow - is indicated relative to an iPhone (and the  COG member holding it).
We were pleased to see that only sins were banned from the construction site: sinners were not excluded.  However it was thought that trespasses were to be forgiven not prohibited!
Two thoughts were generated by this typo.  First, there has been no construction there for at least 10 years, so the road builders were just too idle to remove their warning signs (SNAFU).  Second thought was how many of these typo signs were printed?  I shall now check all such signs

All up we recorded 36 species for the day.  The full species list is at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S44678802.

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