Friday 12th February 2021 0900 – 1100

Weather

23.5 mm of rain. Overcast with intermittent light showers. Light SE breeze. Water level high.

Wildlife Report

This morning’s Patrol of Petersons Creek occurred on a previously unvisited section of the Creek upstream of my usual haunts. I was lucky enough to be invited to accompany a friend on a ramble through an area of riparian reforestation along the southern boundary of his family property. The map shows a distance of just over 1 km as the crow flies but probably double that allowing for the meandering course of the Creek and there was no formed path. The ground was to say the least soggy with areas of standing water along the paddock edge when we emerged from the trees to return home.
The object of the trip was to checkout Platypus numbers in this area of the Creek but although the bank was followed as closely as possible we had not a single sighting. This is similar to my recent experience between the Gillies Highway Bridge and the Suspension Bridge.
I will not attempt to sketch our route or where we saw what as we wandered along barely discernible tracks when it was difficult to maintain geographical orientation. Suffice to say that we followed the Creek until we reached the boundary fence and then returned through the paddocks.
The most exciting finding was a Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo who was however largely concealed by dense foliage but I obtained enough to prove what I saw.
No Possums were spotted although Green Ringtails are often seen in the area.
Birds were quite plentiful however. Kookaburras were carrying on intermittently during our walk and Orange Footed Scrub Fowl were calling ahead and behind us. We did spot one crossing the track as we were returning to the highway.
My best photographs were of a female Broad Billed Flycatcher, a new species for me who posed nicely for a few shots.
Catbirds were heard screeching several times and one of these also posed although not as close as I would have liked.
I spent several minutes trying to locate a pair of Whip Birds which were answering each other in the tree tops but they managed to elude me.
We also saw a bird of prey in the crown of a distant River Oak and this was identified later from the not very good photos as a Brown Goshawk.