Tis Sunday the 4th of May at 2.15 pm, and I find myself at the southern gate entrance to Porter Scrub Conservation Park.

Here I am standing among a group of lovely people, Ellen (the Porter Scrub Volunteer Action Group Co-ordinator), Shirley, the friendly DEW ranger and the dedicated park volunteers of Liz, Nic, Adam, another Dave, Greg and me (the other Dave).

After a short but detailed briefing from Ranger Shirley on safety and awareness issues etc, we start the afternoon by walking down the main park track. A short walk takes us to a side track, which we take heading towards the eastern boundary of the park.

This is a walk and weed session. We are mainly looking for gorse (a prickly, nasty invasive weed).

We found 4 seedlings and 1 medium-sized bush of this annoying plant, which were promptly cut and swabbed. This is cutting the stem(s) of the plant close to ground level and then dabbing the cut with poison.

Super weed spotter Greg also sighted several South African weed daisy plants (small, medium and 1 large plant)along with a flowering Fleabane. All were treated and removed by said super weed spotter.

After reaching the eastern boundary of the park, we did a reverse walk back to the gate for a quick refresh and drink.

We then set off to do a timed bird identification session.

Walking back down the main track of the park we set a timer for a 20-minute period in which we would attempt to identify as many different types of birds as we could.

Unfortunately, it was quite a windy day and this made the background noise rather loud, which in turn made listening for birds a bit harder. But with dedicated and finely tuned ears among all there, we identified approximately 9 different bird species including the Western Whistler, White Throated Treecreeper (they’re not as scary as the name may suggest), Yellow Thornbills, etc.

Overall, it was a wonderful day with wonderful, friendly people and was thoroughly enjoyed by me and all the others in attendance.

Cheers Dave Snadden.