Dubbo Field Naturalist and Conservation Society members go bush

The grove, on Bligh Street, features 52 species of wattle (acacia) endemic to the Dubbo region and is tended to by the Dubbo Field Naturalist and Conservation Society.

The Dubbo Field Nats, as they call themselves, are made up of people who work professionally in environmental jobs, people who work full time and just love the bush, and retirees who have free time to spend recording what's in our natural environment.

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Mel Hancock, group president, grew up in Alice Springs, which is where her love of the environment began.

"Alice Springs was a great place to grow up and just go out in the bush and explore and have fun," Ms Hancock told the Daily Liberal.

"I just absolutely fell in love with the Australian bush and every weekend I would be pretty much on my push bike or scrambling through rocks, looking at lizards and snakes and flora and fauna."

Ms Hancock feels "bloody great" when she's out in the bush.

"It's just a beautiful sense of freedom that you feel. Being grounded with this beautiful feeling of happiness ... It really energises me."

The Dubbo Field Nats have published a handbook called Plants and Animals of the Dubbo Region - a field guide to our flora and fauna. People come from all over the state, as well as locally, to buy the book, including bush walkers and bird watchers.

The group hosts a monthly field trip called Birds and Botany, and organises ongoing projects like counting the glossy black cockatoos in the Goonoo forest - something they have recently partnered with Central West Local Land Services to formalise.

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The members gather in the Goonoo forest and have "a really great afternoon sitting on a dam".

"We have a little natter, maybe some of them take a bottle of wine or some nibbly bits and pieces, and we just sit there ... and hopefully get to see some glossy black cockatoos come down for a drink late in the afternoon, early evening."

The Dubbo Field Nats have been around for 46 years and began with a group of people who were enthusiastic about the environment who came together and decided to do something more formal.

If you go out to the wastewater treatment plant you can sit in a 'bird hide' build by the Field Nats in collaboration with Dubbo Regional Council. This spring, residents have been encouraged to use the hide to try to catch a glimpse of an endangered bird that has been spotted there - the curlew sandpiper.

"We get contacted a reasonable amount by other people travelling through Dubbo of where they can go and check out different birds, animals, fauna and flora, so this [bird hide] was partly for that because you can see some really great birds out there," Ms Hancock said.

The curlew sandpiper is a migratory bird that travels from Siberia to Australia. It is an endangered species, mainly due to climate change, loss of habitat and predators.

A Field Nats member spotted five of the birds together at the sewage treatment plant which is "really exciting to see" - whereas years ago, "you would have seen 500", Ms Hancock said.

"It just reminds us that we really need to think more about how we impact the planet and when people often think about climate change, they just think of global warming, but climate change is much bigger than just the planet heating or cooling or however it's going to work," she said.

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"It's also about major loss of habitat, clearing of forests and pollution of waterways, even pollution in the sky [and] water and ... the animals are not having the places to breed, they're not having the food to eat, and they can't get as easily from A to B anymore."

Ms Hancock encouraged people to get out into the environment and enjoy what beautiful areas and species Dubbo has to offer.

"We have lots of places that we can go that you can find beautiful orchids and shrubs trees, they flower at different times of the year and they bring beautiful colour," Ms Hancock said.

She added: "We have great informative people who have so much knowledge and love to impart the knowledge, love to teach people about different birds, what they do to different plants, how they interact with animals and just to get out in the bush, enjoy nature. Come join us."

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