The trip to Cowra for the Cowra Woodlands Bird Program from Sydney through the Blue Mountains always involves a stop off at Lake Wallace, just past Lithgow. The lake is good spot for a rest and lunch as well as a reliable site for water birds. Numbers of water birds were low last month but still a very worthwhile visit.
Water Birds at Lake Wallace
Lake Wallace is a convenient stop over for lunch on the way from Sydney when travelling out to Cowra to take part in the Cowra Woodland Bird Survey. This lake was formed when the Cox’s River was dammed to feed the Wallerawang Power Station and it has become a reliable spot to see a variety of water birds.
Summer at Lake Wallace
Lake Wallace near Lithgow in NSW is a good place to see rare ducks and Great Crested Grebes. Over this summer there has been a deficit in duck numbers on the east coast of NSW and last week there were only a few ducks on Lake Wallace. But these included Blue-billed Ducks, Musk Ducks, Australian Wood Ducks and Hardheads, making my stopover there worthwhile as always.
Lake Wallace
Lake Wallace is 10 minutes past Lithgow by car after crossing the Blue Mountains from Sydney. It is a convenient place to stop for lunch on the way to Cowra when I travel to the Cowra Woodland Bird Surveys. The lake is about two kilometers in length and was formed in 1978 when a dam was put across the Coxs River, to provide cooling water for the Wallerawang Power Station. The power station was decommissioned in 2015 and now the lake is a popular camping and caravan destination.
The lake attracts a wide range of water birds and can provide good views of Great Crested Grebes, Blue-billed and Musk Ducks. There are usually large numbers of ducks but last week I could only find two Musk Ducks and one Hardhead. There were very few ducks on the dams on the way to Cowra and numbers are low in Sydney too. They must have moved to further west?