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Folks,
Long time no post - been busy.
Four weeks back there was a Horsfields
Bronze-cuckoo calling beside Gardiners Creek in Tooronga - I think someone else
reported one from Hawthorn or thereabouts around the same time.
There have been Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos in
Glen Waverley (Syndal) - most recently a pair on Tuesday morning - and in Glen
Iris - several calling from beside Gardiner Creek near Glen Iris station on 16
September.
I spent 17-20 September camping in the Middle Creek
camping area of Mt Buangor State Park, about 55 km west of Ballarat in the
Central Highlands: nothing exceptional, but a Powerful Owl was heard calling
around dawn on one morning and dusk on another evening, outside the hours of
full darkness, suggesting a roosting site in the near neighbourhood of the
camping area. Tawny Frogmouths calling every night, single sightings of
Wedge-tailed Eagle and Peregrine Falcon overhead, lots of White-naped
and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and a few Fuscous and New Holland as well as
Eastern Spinebills. A very pleasant, family-friendly camping area with a
robust sheler with tables and fireplace in case of wet weather, and plenty of
good walks further into the Park.
Last weekend I spent a couple of days at Terrick
Terrick National Park, my first time camping there. Camping area is small
and facilities limited to toilets, but attractive setting on the southern flank
of "Mount" Terrick Terrick (an ambitious name for a granite tor, but so flat are
the surroundings that the view from the summit includes what I took to
be Mt Alexander, something like 90 km away to the south). Birds
around the campsite included a roosting Boobook, Painted Button-quail, abundant
Brown Treecreepers, Hooded Robins, Gilbert's Whistler and a Little Eagle.
Around the Park there were Stubble Quail, Peaceful Doves, Chestnut-rumped
Thornbills, Black-chinned Honeyeaters, Crested Shriketit, Australian
Ringnecks and Western Gerygone. There were also spectacular views of
the stars on a crisp, clear night before moonrise, a good-sized Lace Monitor and
an uncomfortably close view of a large Eastern Brown Snake - the trouble with
walking around the bush looking mostly up. A very attractive Park, even
under pretty dry conditions, and great habitat for birding - open and not too
tall.
If anyone would like lists from Mt Buangor or Mt
terrick Terrick, let me know. Not yet fully written up,
however.
And finally, this evening, an Olive-backed Oriole
calling persistently from a parkland Red Gum in Glen Iris.
Regards to all,
Jack
Krohn
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