Dear all
Having been confined to home during April, due to medical problems, I've
spent a lot of time on the back deck watching and listening. Nothing
world shattering bird-wise has appeared but have noticed the following:
We had rain most days throughout April after a dry March and now dry
until today when we had a light splash. From the 2nd week in April,
small groups of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters were flying through on
migration. This has increased and now includes a few White-naped.
There was a brief absence of Silvereyes, then the Tassie ones arrived at
the end of April.
Since it stopped raining end April, the bird baths are in constant use
with White-browed Scrubwrens, Superb Blue Wrens, Red-browed Finches,
Golden Whistlers, Grey Fantails, Willie Wagtails, Yellow-faced and
Lewins Honeyeaters, E.Spinebills, Yellow, Yellow-rumped and Brown
Thornbills. The little birds always give way to the big mob, which
includes Eastern and Crimson Rosellas, King Parrots, Magpies, Red
Wattlebirds, Kookaburras, Pee Wees, White-headed Pigeons, a lone
immature Grey Butcher-bird, and up to 18 Satin Bower-birds, including a
mature black male and a half-and-half black/green male.
A flock of about 30 Top-knot Pigeons flew over on 5 May, a pair of
Rufous Whistlers visited on the 11 May (rather late I thought), and a
Brown Cuckoo-dove dropped in on the 9th. The Camphur-laurels and Privet
are in full fruit and Gloucester Park has large feeding flocks of both
Top-knot and White-headed Pigeons. There is a seeming lack of raptors
at the moment - a few warning calls have caused me to search the skies
but no luck.
On Tuesday, friends and I walked up the east flank of Mograni ridge,
just east of Gloucester, on private land. Notable was the numbers of
Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters - a constant fly-over, stopping
for brief rests, and heading north along the Gloucester River to the
Manning River, which appears to be the migration route here. Included a
few Noisy Friarbirds as well. Once up the hill out of the paddock, there
is a mass of natural vegetation with large grass trees, flowering mint
bushes and all sorts of goodies hidden away. We go back on Sunday with
an "official group walk" so I shall have to separate from the crowd if I
want to see some birds!
Happy birding to everyone.
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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