Re: Corn Crakes Back on the Rails and Other Briding Observations

[Penn Gwynne <>]

Laurie&Leanne Knight <>wrote:

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.

Owl about we won't send off our Oz children into battle until George Double ewe and Jonny shiney kneecaps signs up?

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.

SNOB!!!!! bet you drank cuppa chino's.

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.

If you talk to an olde raptor nicely it's surprising what can happen :^D>>>

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.

Could you repeat, exactly who, was responsible again please?

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.

Oooh arrgh Ooh dat be rite dat be

Ten years ago, environmentalists feared that the yellowish-brown bird, which is
about 10 inches long,

Haven't they gone metric yet?

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.

Ummm how many times can England, without Wales, Scotland and Ireland fit into Victoria? and check the faces of the males for number estimates ....

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.

Yessum hence no rolling in the grass for young human POMES.

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 ...

Thanks mate and bless ya for this one .... Ooroo from Water Gabriel :^D>>>

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