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Returned from the wilds of Wagga Wagga today for a bit of R&R prior to
returning to the wilds of WW again next week.
"The Bump-beaks are back," the brats announced. They've called Noisy
Friarbirds Bump-beaks since pre-school days. Interestingly, B-bs were regular
spring arrivals in the Holt yard until the late 1990s, then became quite scarce.
During the past few seasons they've reappeared in small numbers, but,
happily, hordes of the leather-headed, nectar nibblers are currently
present in the precincts.
Throughout this afternoon and into the dusk, B-bs whizzed about
calling, cackling, cavorting and courting. And dispatching the local Red
Wattlebirds to the long paddock. One chose the top of our White Cedar tree -
currently in full-blown blossom - as a calling perch. We sat on the porch, about
five metres away, just after sundown today when the clear sky was still filled
with light, and watched as it shot upwards vertically to about 10 metres and
snaffled a small butterfly or moth. Then it executed an Immelmann turn i.e.
dropped one wing, turned and dived. Then it speared upwards again and the
flight of another little flutterbye was abruptly terminated. It did this five
times. During its final dive it noticed its perch had been commandeered by a Red
Wattlebird.
The B-b poured on the avian avgas and swooped the interloper which ducked
and decamped. Had it not done so, I suspect it may have ended up like one of
them headless pigeons folks have been talking about lately.
Not much time to bird in Wagga, but saw ~ 12 Cockatiels feeding on a
roadside near Junee. On Tuesday afternoon, during a quick walk along the
Wollundry Lagoon, within a block of the CBD, I saw a pair of White-necked Herons
in full breeding plumage. In a big River Redgum, a Magpie Lark on its nest, two
metres beneath, a Willie Wagtail perched on the rim of its nest and appeared to
be feeding nestlings.
As I walked back across the Victory Memorial Gardens, adjacent to the
main drag, a gardener indicated my binos and asked, "Are you a racing man or a
birdwatcher?"
"Both," I replied, "but this afternoon I assume the latter role." This
tickled my green-fingered friend, and he said he'd show me where a pair of
"hybrid Goldfinches" nested. We stood on the tail gate of Green-Fingers' truck
as he parted the foliage of some kind of exotic conifer and revealed a European
Greenfinch bunkered down in its nest.
In the chill post-dawn of Wednesday morning, I put on my
racing-man's hat and watched track work at the Wagga racecourse. I was
thrilled to see five Superb Parrots perched on the racecourse railings,
completely oblivious to a couple of million dollars worth of thoroughbred ponies
pounding past.
John Layton
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