birding-aus

Flock Pigeons - Cunnamulla

To: <>
Subject: Flock Pigeons - Cunnamulla
From: "Neville Schrader" <>
Date: Sun, 18 May 2008 11:53:56 +1000

     For those interested in seeing the Flock Pigeons in the Cunnamulla 
district. Having arrived back yesterday from seeing them on Friday (16th) they 
are still easy to locate, being observed 50km out on the Charleville road over 
4000 birds. On the Bourke road feeding (2000+) on the road edge, good close up 
observations and on the St George road (50+). I never expected to have them so 
close I didn't need binoculars.

      I was interested to note the interaction between the Flock Pigeon, Black 
Falcons and Spotted Harriers. On the approach of Black Falcons towards the 
flock they would twist and turn before dropping to the ground from full flight 
usually at high speed. The Spotted Harrier would then approach were the flock 
had landed and then made numerous drops into the thick grass, until the flock 
flushed. Then the process was repeated with the Black Falcon. Even though I 
observed this at least a dozen times over and hour, I never observed any 
pigeons taken by either bird of prey.

      The pigeons were nervous especially when approaching the waterhole and 
would make numerous passes before coming into drink, with many of the birds 
actually landing in the water with bill open taking a gulp of water before 
taking off, this all happen as other birds whirled overhead and others landed 
on the bank before moving down to drink. Overall it appear to be very confusing 
and no doubt would appear so to a bird of prey.

      Besides the Flock Pigeons there was large numbers of Little button-quail 
and Stubble Quail which would explain the large number of raptures (and maybe 
explains why the lack of raptures around Parkes), besides the two species 
mentions there was Nankeen Kestrels, Black Kites, Brown Falcons, 
Black-shouldered Kites.  I was surprised at the number of raptures killed by 
the road.

     A  trip on the Thargomindah road was also worth while with large numbers 
of Zebra Finch and I mean thousands of flocks, the most I have ever seen in a 
small area. Having Bourke Parrots and Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush feeding on 
the side of the road way was and added bonus as were the Plum-headed Finches.

Overall it was worth the 680km drive from Parkes

.

Neville W. Schrader OAM
2 Elizabeth St.,
Parkes NSW 2870
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
=============================
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU