newline

A wonderful time at Newline yesterday.  39 species all up.  I was in search of crested shrike-tits, as I had never seen them in the ACT.  Brown treecreepers, whiteplumes and doublebars were evident immediately upon arrival and kookaburras and choughs abounded, which made the day even more pleasant.  I ranged down to the river, shadowed by a wedgetail, and found a very good MFF with yellowrumps, 2 speckled warblers, a pair of whitefaces and a female redcap attended by a bland fellow which I assume was her offspring.  Further along there were 25+ redbrows accompanied by about 3 doublebars.  There was also larger animal activity around me, including something sliding into the water several times - probably a waterrat.  From a distance, I saw 4 geese alight at the Queanbeyan Sewage Treatment Works, identical to the ones discussed earlier this week.  Further along, a darter was sunning itself by the river.  On return to the front paddock at Newline, a tree-to-tree inspection finally resulted in a pair of crested shrike-tits and a satisfied grin on my face.

While wandering, I noticed 4 crimson rosellas 'dancing' at the base of a tree which then paired off and eventually, after much fluttering about, mated briefly, before flying off.  Is this a common method of mating?  I assumed rosellas would mate arboreally rather than beside a tree in the middle of an open grassy paddock.

A visit to Mt Majura at day's end for my first view of the glossies ended in disappointment but I did get to meet Tom Green.

Maurits Zwankhuizen