On Friday evening, Chaddy spoke about the importance of large areas of intact remnant vegetation, vegetation connectivity and the value in data collection to gauge the changes over a period of time.

Australia is well situated to benefit from the bird migration patterns, being central to many seasonal visits for many species, who rely on many of our water storage areas, some of which may be underestimated, like irrigation properties and sewerage treatment works.

The Central West is on the migration path for many rare birds, due to there still being a great deal of biodiversity and with the Lachlan River and Wallaroi/Booberoi Creek systems and wetlands.

Chaddy went on to explain that due to the differing soil types supporting a variety of vegetation communities, we are well situated to accommodate a variety of species, including box, mallee, pine, ironbark, casuarina species and understory, with riparian/floodplain areas with red gum, myall, coolibah, saltbush, lignum and grey mistletoe.

We have many areas that act as wetlands, and even though many of them are actually man-made, they are still havens for waterbirds. Many of these areas, like PAC Park, have slow water flow, are shallow and contain a variety of reeds.

Some of the major threats that our birdlife face, apart from us, are cats, foxes, pigs and goats, as well as land clearing, fragmentation of corridors and management of waterways.

Chaddy acknowledged that regarding the challenges, nature is resilient and our understanding of the environment and biodiversity is improving. We can make better informed decisions with the use of more accurate data. Most importantly, we need to educate our kids.

This project was funded under the National Landcare Program Small Purple Pea (Swainsona recta) Project, overseen by the Central West Local Land Services. We were fortunate to have Libby McIntyre provide a presentation on the pea, which was once found throughout Central NSW.

The walk on Saturday was well attended and we were grateful for a lovely hot breakfast at PAC Park provided by Parkes Rotary Club.

We recorded over 20 birds on the walk. Our finds included a very sleepy tawny frogmouth. For more information, go to our website at centralwestlachlanlandcare.org, facebook, twitter or Instagram @cwllandcare.