This evening Anthony Overs and I enjoyed prolonged views of Black
Honeyeaters in the eastern section of Mulligan's Flat. We located a
sub-adult male at about 17:10 and followed it around an area of about
1 hectare for about 20 minutes, but mainly watching it foraging in a
prominent flowering Yellow Box (image attached). It was feeding on
nectar and also flying out from the tree to catch insects. It then
adopted an exposed perch atop a stag-headed Blakely's Red Gum for 20
minutes. In a moment of great happiness David McDonald arrived in
time for the last 10 minutes of this perched performance. However,
just prior to David's arrival an adult male alighted about 30cm from
the bird we were watching and, really there is no other way of
describing it, the two male Black Honeyeaters just looked at each
other. Both birds left the area (10 minutes apart) in a southerly
direction.
Moving across to the dam area, we located a female atop a stag-headed
Blakely's Red Gum to the south of the dam wall at about 18:10.
About 10 minutes later it was joined by an adult male Black
Honeyeater. The birds departed to the south when a mob of
White-browed Woodswallows descended upon the tree.
Anthony departed but I decided to quarter the area once more. I
watched a group of 42 White-browed Woodswallows hopping on the ground
preying upon tiny grasshoppers on the eastern side of the north/south
track for a while when I realised that the beautiful song wafting on
the northerly breeze was originating from a Pied Butcherbird. I
changed gears rapidly and sped toward the sound. The bird seemed to
keep up with my pace and I obtained a brief view of an adult Pied
Butcherbird before it disappeared northwards into the next state!
Milburn
--
The Milburns
8 Miller Street
O'Connor
ACT 2602
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