I seem to remember, from reading Biggles in my youth, that there
was a WW1 German pilot named Max Immelmann. AFAIK the aerobatic manoeuvre is
named after him...
Nick
From: Philip Veerman
[
Sent: Sunday, 18 November 2007 3:22 PM
To: John Layton; Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Bump-beaks are back
As below:
"an Immelmann turn" being presumably a commemoration of Klaus
Immelmann who came to Australia and did a lot of research and wrote a book on
Australian Finches. That is the only Immelmann I know (yet alone one with a
connection to birds), although I can't conjure up any kind of connection there,
to what it is you are writing about. I for one don't like the Noisy Friarbirds
and am glad to see the last of them in Autumn but not quite as much as I don't
like the Pied Currawongs. Although that is just my bias and hardly matters a
hoot.
Philip
Subject: [canberrabirds]
Bump-beaks are back
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.
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