Saturday’s White Box Walk at the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park was attended by nine members, and five casual walkers, who followed up the ‘Try Bushwalking’ campaign by Bushwalking Victoria, and attended their first walk with us.
The 8.5k loop walk starts at the Honeyeater Picnic Area, then heads off to the remains of the Golden Bar Open-Cut Mine. The forest is a remnant of the Box-Ironbark, and is made up of mostly Grey Box, White Box, Red Box and Mugga Ironbark. The forest is young, having regrown after mining operations, and logging, ceased. There are old mineshafts and mullock heaps remaining from the mining.
There were a number of birds about, and our twitcher attending was Pete, who identified the following: Olive-backed Oriole (we heard them throughout the walk), Brown Treecreeper, Striated Pardalote, Grey Shrike Thrush, Kookaburra, White-winged Choughs. Other birds calling most likely species of Honeyeater, and others saw a lorikeet or rosella. There was very little flowering eucalypts etc, thus the lack of birds.
We came across five kangaroos, an echidna and two wallabies, one with a joey’s feet extending out of the doe’s pouch.
Wildflowers that we came across were the everlasting, nodding blue lily, bluebells, plus other purple and mauve wildflowers. We also came across grass trees close to the end of the walk.
Morning tea was taken at some fallen trees for seating enroute, and lunch was back at the Honeyeater Picnic area, along with a cuppa.
On returning to Wangaratta we stopped by in Yarrunga, to check out a new Tawny Frogmouth family.
[Jeanette]