Hi all,
As the tree-planting hose unfroze in the early morning sun after
another heavy overnight frost in Mulgoa Valley, I ventured up Mayfair Rd to
unfreeze my knees and neurones as a warmup for another session on the shovel
and positive thinking.
A FLAME ROBIN was feeding on a bare area behind a new fence on the right
at the top of
Mayfair Rd., a new one for my Mulgoa list. It was a Brown Bird but
unmistakable and followed me along the fenceline after I forlornly tried to
kiss up the Variegated Wrens which have not been around since a few weeks
after the Christmas bushfires.
At least six EASTERN YELLOW ROBINS were up there, a female ROSE ROBIN
in garden trees beyond the new fence, and a male at the bottom of the hill.
EASTERN WHIPBIRDS very vocal, and SATIN BOWERBIRDS playing chasings, a male
very active in the vicinity of the burnt-out bower. Bright eyed and
bright-billed OLIVE-BACKED ORIOLES have returned in full voice, a couple of
immatures with croaky calls have been feeding on our White Cedar tree
berries over winter, being chased away by PIED CURRAWONGS that regugitate
the seeds on the front path.
STRIATED PARDALOTES are nesting in a Fairy Martin nest under the back
veranda eaves, and SPOTTED PARDALOTES in a bank under the partly suspended
front veranda.
WHITE MORPH GREY GOSHAWK again seen, we see it about every fortnight,
last time two Magpies were seeing it off. KESTREL and a pair of
BLACK-SHOULDERED KITES over the paddock. A WHITE-NECKED HERON is still
hanging out but looks unhappy. A couple of LONG-BILLED CORELLAS joined the
SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOOS and GALAHS in the horse paddock next door,
PEACEFUL DOVES and a BRUSH BRONZEWING in the backyard.
The resident AZURE KINGFISHER is on the house dam, and the first BROWN
THORNBILL since the fires, although YELLOW and YELLOW-RUMPED THORNBILLS and
WEEBILLS are everyday.
A flock of about twenty EUROPEAN GOLDFINCHES in trees around the house
and drive, SPICE FINCHES, also exotic, in the paddock.
Many others.
Years ago, Mulgoa Valley probably had a very similar avifauna to
Capertee Valley, my personal Valleylist over twenty years stands at 179,
including a single sighting of a White-fronted Chat on the driveway the day
we moved in. With help from Landcare we are fencing off a km.or so of Mulgoa
Creek with fox/cat/rabbit/dog proof fencing in the hope of creating a
corridor to bring back goodies like Scarlet and Hooded Robins, Speckled
Warbler and Southern White-faces. Bush Stone-curlews lived in what is now
Glenmore Park housing estate fifteen years ago. The wintering Flame Robin is
promising to an optimist!
Cheers
Michael
PS If anyone knows how to vermin-proof an electric fence where it
crosses creeks, please advise.
Michael Hunter
Mulgoa Valley
50km west of Sydney Harbour Bridge
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