Yesterday afternoon I wandered through the 'Barron Woodlands' pocket
Geoffrey mentioned in his email below.
I saw all the species he mentioned, apart from D Firetail, plus the
following near a stock dam: Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (1), White-browed
Woodswallow (2), Dusky Woodswallow (1), Rufous Whistler (1).
It got dark before I could explore any further.
Cheers
Marnix
"Geoffrey Dabb"
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02/10/2006 06:53 .au>
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Subject
[canberrabirds] Obs
Classification
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| [X] Unclassified |
| [ ] In Confidence |
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Those who visited Callum Brae for the WBWS influx saw up to 50 or so at one
stage, including a couple of Masked, but apparently they have all now moved
on, at least temporarily.
Yesterday,Julian and I explored the ‘Barron Woodlands’ pocket, south of
Callum Brae, parking by the Monaro Highway and walking across the
grasslands for about 500m before coming to the scattered timber. The
grasslands were particularly rich in skylarks, with at least 3 pairs
singing like mad. The pocket itself, the furthest point of which is about
2km from the highway, had Pallid Cuckoos, both gerygones, D Firetails
carrying grass stalks and most of the usual stuff. However we didn’t find
any Leaden Flycatchers (one of which Jenny Bounds had reported at CB), or
songlarks, or woodswallows of the Masked or WB variety.
My impression is that the woodlands still have less than the expected range
of birds for the season. There are, however, a LOT of starlings. When I
walked that whole area for last year’s blitz the starling was the second
most abundant bird with 150-odd. It would not surprise me if it was now
Numero Uno.
Today Alastair reported a possibly different-looking sandpiper with 3
sharp-tailed at Kellys, so I ducked down for a look this evening. I only
found 3 SPs, the 4th possibly having been frightened off by a large female
harrier that was flying low and causing periodic alarm-flights. I got a
good look at the 3, and 2 were typical sharpies while one was very slightly
larger, greyer (no sandy or tawny tones), with definitely blacker legs and
bill. I’m no wader expert, but they all seemed to me to be within the
usual range of variation for sharp-tailed.
Joe Forshaw tells me that the female Musk Duck at Yerrabi Pond is now
feeding 2 young.
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