I followed in Milburn and Damien's footsteps this morning, rising at 4am to
be in place at Warks Road at dawn for the chorus..and I agree that it is
most impressive.it is some time since I have heard a dawn chorus as good as
that!
My primary target was the Cicadabird, a species that continues to elude me,
despite my putting in seven hours of searching this morning!
Apart from that lack of success, I saw/heard most of the species reported by
Damien. The highlight was my best-ever view of a Red-browed Treecreeper
which hopped along the track towards me until it was only a couple of metres
away - of course, my camera was in my backpack, while I had to remain
motionless!
The Hobby has a nest high in the canopy and, by the noise, I believe it
contains young. There were Satin Bowerbirds and Satin Flycatchers aplenty,
and White-naped Honeyeaters were particularly numerous - I reckon that 4 out
of every 5 birds I looked at turned out to be a WNHE! Brush, Fan-tailed and
Shining Bronze Cuckoos were calling but I didn't see any. The Rose Robin
seemed to be the most common robin, although Flame, Scarlet and E Yellow
were also present.
While I was sitting drinking a cup of coffee, an inquisitive Eastern
Whipbird joined the Grey Fantails to see what was going on.
At Uriarra Dam on the way back, there were 4 Red-kneed and 2 Black-fronted
Dotterels.
Finally, at West Macgregor this afternoon, I observed the male Red-backed
Kingfisher feeding the female on two occasions - first with an insect about
the size of a bee, and secondly with a small lizard ( a very poor digiscoped
photo is attached showing both birds, with the female holding the lizard).
I also observed the male trying to swallow a large cicada with some
difficulty. At one point, I could hear a third Red-backed Kingfisher
calling from some distance away.
Regards
Frank
Damien Farine <> wrote:
Milburn and I headed up to Warks Rd this morning to see what the dawn chorus
would do, and it was most impressive! Between 5:30 and 9:00am we started
the day with a Tawny Frogmouth in the headlights, and a Hobby high in the
canopy in the pre-dawn on arrival. As it became lighter, we obtained
excellent views of a male and a female Cicadabird feeding with a number of
Satin Bowerbirds which all rapidly disappeared. We continued to enjoy the
loud dawn chorus, watching Rufous Fantails amongst the more common birds
(Yellow-faced HE, White-naped HE, Scrubwrens, Fairy-wrens, Grey Fantails,
White-throated Treecreepers). Satin Flycatcher were finally around in good
numbers, whilst a lone Pilotbird was heard calling from deep up a gully.
As the chorus began to fade away, a number of Brush Cuckoos were heard
calling within a small area. We spent several hours stalking these but they
remained very elusive and skulky, giving only brief flight views before
remaining sedentary in dense canopy foliage. Several Fantail Cuckoos were
heard during this time also. We later got some brief views of an Eastern
Whipbird flying through, though several were calling, alongside a number of
Superb Lyrebirds.
The drive back to Canberra yielded two Red-kneed Dotterels on Urriara
Homestead dam, numerous Rufous Songlarks along the way, a soaring pair of
Wedge-tailed Eagles, and a juvenile Brown Treecreeper at Bibaringa with at
least one Peaceful Dove heard and some Dusky Woodswallows.
Damien
Attachment:
*******************************************************************************************************
This is the email announcement and discussion list of the Canberra
Ornithologists Group.
List-Post: <>
List-Help: <>
List-Unsubscribe: <>
List-Subscribe: <>
List archive: <http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds>
List manager: David McDonald, email
<>
|
