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0800 hours today we arrived at Shepherds Lookout and walked upstream for 30
minutes, here's the highlights:
1 Restless Flycatcher, 2 Sacred Kingfishers, 10 Double-barred Finches. 2
male & 1 female Superb Parrot feeding on flowering Sweetbriar. 5 Varied
Sittellas formucating (be careful how we pronounce that) down a Cypress Pine. 1
Black-fronted Dotterel, 2 Grey Currawongs, 2 Dollar Birds making forays from a
dead tree. 3 male Rufous Whistlers, 1 Whistling Kite, 1 Nankeen Kestrel.
Pair of Red Wattlebirds cavorting vocally in scrub. Suddenly one bird burst
forth pursued by the other. The first bird went into a glide as the second bird
closed on it and clamped its bill on the tip of the leader's tail and, thus
attached, they glided into another patch of scrub. More calling ensued before
the pair appeared again, and repeated the previous maneuver. Courting
shenanigans, we assumed. HANZAB confirms this is common courting behaviour for
Red Wattlebirds, nonetheless, it's new to us.
Botanical Brat found Dodder or Devil's Twine Cassytha pubescens
flowering and fruiting among tea tree. Botanical Brat switches roles to Bush
Tucker Brat and announces that the Aborigine people liked to eat the dodder
berries as she put a few pale, nascent fruit in her busy little mouth. A moment
later she's expectorating furiously. Memo to tyro hunters and gatherers: Do not
partake unripe fruit of the Devil's Twine vine.
John Layton
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