Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists Trip to McCann Road & Griffith Area: Saturday 27 July 2019

Ten brave souls met at the Tourist Information Centre in Griffith trusting in my ability to get us to McCann Road.

Fortunately their trust was rewarded, as we waited the obligatory 10 minutes after the scheduled time and then made our way to McCann Road.

This is a small patch of vegetation near Lake Wyangan which I had only visited briefly a couple of times before during Twitchathons.

It is a great spot with a good range of birds including the regular Honeyeaters, Thornbills and Wrens while a few specials were the Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler and White-fronted Honeyeater.

After a good look around we headed for Lake Wyangan picnic area for a combined Morning Tea and Lunch.

Then off to Campbell Swamp, which didn't produce a lot of birds but the views of the Swamp Harrier, Hobby and Kestrel were very nice.

A quick stop over at the Griffith airport where we were able to find the Pink Cockies we were seeking plus some others including Rainbow Lorikeets and Mallee Ringnecks.

We then proceeded to have a look on both sides of the road at the Winery block near Yenda which again didn't produce a huge amount of birds, but did include the lovely Olive-backed Oriole, White-browed Babbler and close views of the Whistling Kite and Brown Falcon.

With the drought, it seemed to me that the Yenda side of Griffith was a lot drier than the Lake Wyangan side.

All in all it was a lovely warm winter's day to go for a walk in patches of bush, thanks to those who came along, hopefully everyone had a good time.

Thanks to Max for doing the Bird list.

Phil Tenison