Dear Bill,
What a delightful account your grandfather wrote.
Tomtit is usually Yellow-rumped Thornbill - and I used to see them
at Hay's Paddock myself, pre-freeway, say 1970, with the Flame Robins.
Your grandfather's Sparrowhawk could be the Collared one, but just as
likely to be Nankeen Kestrel - another I remember there.
Diamond Sparrow is Spotted Pardalote - my Dad called them Diamond-birds.
Plovers are now Masked Lapwings.
Country people still say Blue Crane for White-faced Heron.
I still say Spurwing Plover, and "Cranky Fan" for the Grey Fantail,
because that is its /real/ name. And of course Mudlarks are Pewees in
NSW and further north, and quite often Murray Magpie in SA.
I know all these names because they were what I heard as a kid, and
because I had "What Bird is That?" - gives lots of alternative and
country names. But I bought the recent book on Australian Bird Names
and I intend to go through C.J.Dennis's charming book of verse "The
Singing Garden" with it, so I will know exactly what he meant by
Summerbird (prob. BFCS) and Jay (?Currawong).
In Broken Hill a woman told me Apostle-birds were "Lousy Jacks".
Hope this is some help!
All the best,
Anthea Fleming
On 25/02/2014 6:46 PM, Bill Stent wrote:
Hi all, I was going through some old papers the other day when I found
this. It was written by my grandfather in 1985 about the birds of the
local place (I now live in his old house). He's referring to the
period between the wars, I'd guess, although he didn't make that
plain, it's just a memoir. He lived in the area between 1918 and 1992.
My question is what are these birds? I didn't start birding until
after he died, so I never talked with him about them, apart from when
I was a very young kid "helped" him milk his cows on what is now Hays
Paddock. I think I know most of them, such as the Laughing Jackass,
rather obvious really, but what is a Tomtit? We do occasionally see
Black Shouldered Kites or Collared Sparrowhawks, but I have no
sightings of Pallid Cuckoos.
Bill (junior - my grandfather's name was also Bill)
The Glass Creek area and Hays' farm used to be a veritable Eden of
birdlife. In the Springtime at sunrise I have counted up to 30 species
of birds. The Pallid Cuckoo or Brainfever Bird, so called for its
plaintiff insistent call, and the Laughing Jackass were prominent, as
was the Butcher Bird with its melodious rich notes. The Mudlarks had
their mud nest in the gum tree near the cow shed, the Willy Wagtails
nested over the creek in the willow trees, the Teal and Black Ducks
were on the edge of the creek in the furze bushes. The Reed Warblers,
Tomtits, Goldfinches and Silvereyes were in the shrubbery, not
forgetting the restless little Blue Wrens with their dun coloured
harems. The Rosellas nested in the big gum tree near Newberry St where
also the Sparrow Hawk and the Blackshouldered Kite made their base.
The Magpies nestled in the gum trees further down. The Diamond
Sparrows had little burrows in the creek bank for their nest. Once I
saw a tiny Chat feeding a young Cuckoo about four times its size.
The Skylarks during the day were a delight to the children. They would
fly singing and spiralling upwards and then suddenly, closing their
wings, drop silently like a stone to earth. There were also Plovers,
Blue Cranes, Quail. Wattle Birds, Robin Red Breasts, Crows and the
occasional flock of Ibis and of course the Blackbird and Thrush
songsters. Colonies of little Fire Tails and Bell Birds
still exist around the billabong at Burke Rd Bridge.
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