The bush thickknees in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens have moved their campsite
out into an open location, and today one of them was scratching itself behind
its ear - as sure a sign as any goose's entrails or astrological conjunction
that the Canberra end of the Axis of Carbon will be signing on the dotted line
of the Kyoto Protocol.
I was up at Yandina over the weekend, buying a few native plants from Fairhills
Nursery. I think it is a better birdwatching location than Scoopy's as you can
watch a brown honeyeater nesting in one of the pot plants, eastern yellow robins
hawking over the lawn, and have a emerald ground dove wander past your table in
the al fresco section of the restaurant.
The previous week, Ritchie Rich and I went for a stroll along the length of
Spicers Pk [south of Cunningham's Gap]. As we were taking in the views from a
south facing lookout, I mentioned to Rich that it would be nice to have a
goshawk pop in, and wouldn't you know it, one of the Peregrines from Mt Mitchell
picked that moment to stroll past. We found a freshly scratched turkey mound in
the saddle, with a catbird lurking silently nearby. We saw heaps of musk
lorikeets down near the road on the western side of the park boundary, as well
as a couple of yellow-tufted honeyeaters.
Anyhow, there were a couple of frogmouths sitting on the powerlines as I carried
the shopping home, to remind me to forward the following item ...
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=330283
Corncrake population is back on the rails
By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent
04 September 2002
The corncrake, one of Europe's rarest birds, has bred successfully in England
for the first time in decades after environmentalists began an emergency
programme to protect the nesting site.
The discovery was made this year when the rail's distinctive mating call, which
gives it its onomatopoeic name of Crex crex, was heard by a farmer in the
Pennine Dales of Yorkshire for the first time in England since the Seventies.
Ten years ago, environmentalists feared that the yellowish-brown bird, which is
about 10 inches long, was on the verge of extinction and started to conserve its
meadowland habitat to halt the decline. Until this summer the population was
restricted to two colonies totalling 600 birds in Northern Ireland and
north-west Scotland.
The shy bird is so rarely seen it can be identified only by the distinctive
sound of the males, meaning the number of females is unknown.
It favours traditionally farmed grassland where late mowing and light grazing by
livestock produce tall plant cover in which it can hide, lay its eggs and raise
its chicks.
Mechanised mowing and other changes in farming proved devastating. Flightless
chicks loath to break cover are killed by mowers.
^^^^^^^^
I think the Slaters must have either had a good sense of humour or a strong
streak of optimism including Crex crex in thaeir field guide to Australian
birds ...
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