A Day Walk at Ironbark Creek
We had a fabulous little walk at Ironbark Creek last Sunday. By ‘we’ I mean the Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists, of course.
I have to admit that over the years I’ve not been a fan of Cocoparra National Park. I’ve always found it to be weed infested, neglected and generally abused by users. But the years of drought, while bad for everyone in the surrounding districts, has been good to ‘the hills’. Introduced weeds have struggled to survive, and the local endemic species have been able to regain a foothold. Tenuously, of course, but at least there are the signs of a fightback.
The creek at Ironbark Creek is dry. We’ve had little rain since January. But the creek bed makes a passable substitute for a walking trail, and the gully narrows in places with some interesting rock formations and colours. A walk all the way up the creek will take you up to the top of the ridge and over, if you wish, into Jack’s Creek. We didn’t go that far. Some of us were less nimble than we’d like, so we found our way back to the picnic area.
The area is significant for its huge old Dwyer’s Mallee, as well as Stringy Bark, Bimble Box and, of course, Ironbarks. These magnificent old trees provide protection for the two storeys of vegetation below. There were Mallee Tanglevine, grey Hill Teatree, Black and White Cypress, Urnheath and Geebung. The dragonflies were out in full force as well.
If you cross the gully to the west and then climb, there is also a clear trail on the edge of the rock face that will take you to good views of the Woolshed Flat valley and then drop you off close to the road for an easier walk back. Easier, but not quicker, because it is along this road that we saw many of our bird species for the day.
Our list of birds:
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Hobby
Peaceful Dove
Crested Pigeon
Bar-shouldered Dove
Common Bronzewing
Galah
Australian Ringneck
Blue-bonnet
Red-rumped Parrot Blue Bonnet
Kookaburra
Specked Warbler
Weebill
Inland Thornbill
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Yellow Thornbill
Southern Whiteface
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Striped Honeyeater
Jacky Winter
Red-capped Robin
Eastern-yeloow Robin
White-browed Babblers building a nest
Rufous Whistler
Grey-shrike Thrush
Magpie-lark
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Grey-butcherbird
White winged Chough
Apostlebirds
Pied-butcherbird
Magpie
Australian Raven
White-eared Honeyeater
A great little day out. I’ll have to go again one day, soon - perhaps after some rain?
April 1st, 2008 - Posted in Places to Visit | |
