A henny expedition to Forde

Following a report of a Lewin's Rail in Forde - a newer suburb in Gungahlin - I took myself off there for a snuffle round.

My main area of investigation was the area between Loma Ruddock St and Alice Burrey St, shown in the image below (click to enlarge and read the street names).   Unlike the initial sighting the area most popular with birds in this visit was the small pond to the East of the footbridge and the rank vegetation to the East of that pond.
I dipped on the Lewin's Rail but did see 2 Buff-banded Rails East of the small pond.  They are not that common in Canberra.  I couldn't get a photo of both together but here is one of them, with buff chest-band visible.
 The eternal 3 'hens' were also present in good numbers.  Dusky Moorhen ..
 .. Eurasian Coot ..
 .. and Purple Swamphen (possibly Porphyrio porphyrio tinnitis)
 A few ducks were around:  Pacific Black Ducks and ..
 .. a female (brown eye) Hardhead.
 I have included this composite image of Magpie-larks (Mudlarks, Murray Magpies, Peewees ....) because it shows the different facial patterns of the male (l) and female (r).
 Moving on to the built environment it was nice to see these sculptures

A lot of the housing around the water seems to be medium-high density.  This lot appeared to have made some attempt to be unboring, but somehow they look rather fragile.
The main thing in the area is how close the houses are to each other.  I estimate the small wooden fence is no more than 1m wide!
 However some folk have attempted to make an attractive garden out the front!

Comments

Denis Wilson said…
Nice birds, esp the new ssp name for Porphyrio.
Less said about the supposed "Gardens" the better.
Landscape Architects or Chess Players?
50% concrete slabs, so less area for real plants, but much harder to maintain (cannot mow it).
Sorry, but not my style.
Denis
27 August 2012 at 18:17:00 GMT+10
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