The Hawkesbury Road Nature Refuge has a similar mix of habitats to Moggill Conservation Park, with tall wet and dry sclerophyll and wet gullies with gallery forests. There are two entrances to the park: we will be meeting at the Primley Street entrance in Pullenvale.
This will be a short, grade 2 walk along the gallery forest at the entrance to the park, where early morning activity is usually high. There is also an opportunity to bird along the road, where some different species occur. Early November has some of the highest species diversity of the year at this site. The focus will be on bird calls, though there should also be some interesting sightings. The birds encountered should range from some associated with wetter forests, and well as drier forest.
We will meet at 6.30am, as birds are most vocal early in the morning.
If you would like to check some bird calls on your birding apps before the walk (Dave Stewart’s ‘Australian Bird Calls’ is excellent), here is a list of some of the birds we are most likely to hear. This list excludes very common species, but we would be unlucky not to see some other less common species too. These are in order of frequency of occurrence:
Lewin’s Honeyeater, Spangled Drongo, Noisy Friarbird, Olive-backed Oriole, Eastern Yellow Robin, Cicadabird, Grey Shrike-thrush, Wonga Pigeon, Striated Pardalote, White-throated Honeyeater, Australiasian Figbird, Brown Thornbill, Rufous Shrike-thrush, White-browed Scrubwren, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Rufous Fantail, Varied Triller, Large-billed Scrubwren, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Black-faced Monarch
How to get there: If you are coming from the Brisbane direction, follow Moggill Road then turn right into Mount Crosby Road in Anstead, and after a few hundred metres, turn right into Boyle Road, then after a few hundred metres, turn left into O’Brien Road. After approximately one kilometre, turn left into Primley Street and drive to the end of the road. You can park on the grass verges there. If you are coming from the Ipswich direction, follow Mount Crosby Road and turn left into Boyle Road shortly before you reach Moggill Road, and follow the directions as above.
There are no toilet facilities at this site. There are toilets at Anstead Bushland Reserve, Hawkesbury Road in Anstead about four kilometres from Primley Street. Bring a sun hat, water, and morning tea.
