Starting off with Bill from Barton, nineish, we noted the
choughs dodging the parental vehicles at the Telopea school morning
madness. Bill knew about the choughs, but wouldn’t want to know
about the parents.
Then down to Kellys, where the first bird on view was Old Palebelly,
the Little Eagle, hanging in the blue sky over the swamp. A fair
sprinkling of bushbirds in the shrub plantings, including Red-browed Finches
foraging among the seed capsules of the casuarinas. I have noticed before
that RBFs like to feed in such trees, presumably on the young seeds.
Early reedwarblers were on background-noise duty.
Approaching FSP from the southern, less fortified, approach,
Bill made the acquaintance of a cisticola, and then joined in the compulsory
Scanning of the Ducks. A male Blue-billed displayed for a nearby female,
choosing Rapid Neck-stretching for a first number, and then did Basic
Wing-flapping. A pair of Black-fronted Dots had managed to find a sunning
spot on the Heaped Scunge at the side of one of the ponds.
Not much immediately in evidence at the Newline paddock, but
a bit of time was spent on Tree Martins and the ever-varied calls of Striated
Pardalotes. There was a quite dramatic chase of a male sparrowhawk by
Noisy Miners and wphes.
Then, I must confess, there was a brief call at my place
because I had forgotten to get out the frozen chops before leaving that morning.
This enabled me to report the reedwarblers to the chatline. This was also
the occasion for a quick look at a short video on the local bird-life, before a
call at Callum Brae. Had we been keeping a list, a pair of kestrels and
an NFB would have been added to it.
Lunch was at the Yarralumla
English Garden
minor eatery, where we both chose chicken and avocado focaccia sandwiches.
This, we found, is a great spot to discuss plumage-variation in the Australian
Magpie, because all the basic kinds are on view, close at hand. We also
got the customary view of a female bowerbird up on a table, pinching sugar.
After lunch there was a viewing of a male and female SB at a nearby bower,
before we drove back to Barton past the US embassy.
