Many thanks to Alison Milton who led Field Naturalist on a greatly appreciated outing along the Corin Road, stopping at three very interesting places. Alison describes the context of this outing in the following story she wrote about the field trip:

On 15 February, seven Field Nats members met for an exploratory trip up Corin Road.

Asked to lead a trip at my local Pinnacle Nature Reserve, I realised that with the lack of rain everything would be very dry, as would other local reserves. As Stuart Harris was reporting interesting jewel beetles from further afield, I asked for his advice on alternative locations and he suggested Corin Road with a few recommended stops.

Not really knowing the area I advertised this as an exploratory trip but was then grateful that Stuart took me for a recce a couple of weeks before so that I then had some idea of where to go.

Seven people met at Kambah to car pool in two cars and we set off.

Our first stop was at a track named Forest BND Track. Why BND and not Bend is unknown.

I had only just gotten out of the car and looked at the first Eucalypt when I found a leaf beetle and not one of the common ones I usually find, though not uncommon. I think this is Paropsis porosa.

Meanwhile Lindsay had found a Cadmus litigiosus, one of my favourite beetles.

Also on the Eucalypts were my not favourite insect, a tip wilting bug, Amorbus rubiginosus. Only early instars but not my favourite since they predate on the larvae of my beloved leaf beetles.

Though late in the season, we did in fact find the larvae of Paropsisterna cloelia and I later found an adult beetle. I also found a brown button beetle.

To my delight. The Bursaria bush that Stuart and I had found in flower two weeks previous, was still in flower as were a few others. On the recce we found Fiddler beetles attracted to this bush and today we were not disappointed as there were even more of these beetles feeding on the flowers, flying off as we disturbed them. I was excited to even find a jewel beetle, Castiarina bremei. Interestingly, while there were other flowering shrubs, this was the only one that had attracted any beetles.

There were many birds calling and we saw a small flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, though were not able to get any photos. Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were making their presence known as well, and I found a small group of White-eared Honeyeaters high up in trees some huge boulders.

There were several Bright Copper butterflies, which were very co-operative in posing for photos.

As the group wandered further down a track that I had not previously explored, we found so many things of interest that we spent longer here than I had originally planned.

Gathering everyone together again we proceeded to what I had planned as our second stop and what Stuart called Billy Billy Creek (though this does not come up on Google maps).

I didn’t recognise the entrance and we ended up at what was to be our third, and morning tea stop, at the car park for the Square Rock track walk.

Here we again saw Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos but whether they were the same ones we’d seen earlier was not certain.

I’d done the Square Rock walk and the further extended walk named Smokers Gap to Orroral many years ago, but at that time this car park had not existed. It now has a covered shelter, which was ideal for us to enjoy our morning tea. Signage now shows the routes of several walks starting from this point and we walked to the start of one of them.

Here we found an abundance of native Geraniums being visited by a couple of native bees.

On a tree trunk Elin and Lindsay spotted lovely caterpillar, most likely that of a Tiger moth.

The work here is obviously still fairly new as following the red brick road, the detour towards Square Rock ends with a drop to the dug out path still to be fill with red rock.

It was good to see that the rangers are now more concerned about not introducing pests into the reserve as at the start of the track there is a station that instructs you to clean your boots/shoes on the brushes, then spray your shoes before venturing onto the track.

Looking at the map I had printed, we were able to locate the entrance to the Billy Billy Creek stop on our way back.

This is largely a bog but two weeks previous it was quite dry, however, Canberra had a large downpour the previous week so we didn’t venture far.

A puddle in the middle of a track attracted a few Damsel and Dragonflies. Brown butterflies were fluttering among the reeds in the bog and were difficult to photograph.

Other small butterflies were probably the Common Grass Blue.

Of note however, was a few Wahlenbergia plants in flower. Wahenbergia is the ACT’s national flower but many may not know that the actual species is the alpine species and not the ones found locally in Canberra. Being at a higher altitude, this one however, is the actual ACT state flower, Wahlenbergia gloriosa (Royal Bluebell).

Two weeks prior, Stuart and I found a Rosy Hyacinth Orchid in flower right by the start to the track but only the dead stalk was in now in evidence.

Also, right at the start of the track was a magnificent old Snow Gum with so many scribbles that it was worth a photo by John.

All participants had a great time and all found things to delight them. They all thanked me for leading this walk, but I assured them that they should in fact be thanking Stuart for his suggestion and for taking me on an unscheduled recce so that I had at least some idea of where we were going.

It was an adventure for all of us and we all had a great time.

Elin Adams compiled a bird list for us, even though we were not able to get photos.

– Alison Milton

Bird list
Brown Thornbill
Gang Gang Cockatoo
Grey Butcher-bird
Grey Fantail
Grey Shrikethrush
Kookaburra
Leaden Flycatcher
Pied Currawong
Red Wattlebird
Spotted Pardalote
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Superb Fairy Wren
White-eared Honeyeater
White-naped Honeyeater
White-throated Tree Creeper
Wood Swallow
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo