At 6am 4 foxes were playing on one of the
logs in the middle, a female and 3 young almost as big as she, practising their
cat-pounces and engaging in mock fights. I feared the worst when no
crakes appeared for 30 minutes or so. However Michael Lenz came by at
0645, and soon after one pair of Spotless plus 2 young emerged from the dense
cover on the southern side and eventually made their way over open ground
to the diminished puddle. The young are pretty quick; they can do a
sort of fly-skitter.
From: Esme Barker
& Bruce Ramsay [
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006
2:16 PM
To: Canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Vale Kellys
Swamp ...
for now anyway. Until rain I presume.
I went out there today from about 10.30 to 11.30. Essentially, there is
no more swamp. It's dried mud with just a damp sheen left where the last puddle
was a day or so ago.
Only one waterbird in sight - a Buff-banded Rail on the damp ex-puddle.
No sign of the Spotless Crakes - but presumably the chicks are either hiding up
in the reedbeds or have gone to God in the heat and dry. Certainly the one Esme
and I saw on Sunday morning would not have been able to seek a more amenable
place by flying there - it was just a tiny little black fluffball.
Have attached a pic - its a sorry sight at the moment but I guess its
all part of nature's rhythm.
