I may have overdone the rarity aspect a little bit here.
The bird in the box is a Black Bittern, not yet on the ACT list. An
Australasian (Brown) Bittern would be sufficiently rare and is on our
list. Of course, whether the midweek walkers see a Black Bittern or
a Brown Bittern they will be sure to submit a rarities report.
The bittern picture is from the large-format edition of Neville
Cayley’s work, still a wonderful collection of illustrations of
Australian birds. The notes show that the specimen he used was in the
Australian Museum and collected at Randwick, Sydney, NSW, in 1913, the year
that the Palais de Danse was opened at St Kilda and the tango introduced to
Melbourne.
The flying bird is a female darter, snapped over the actual
sewage ponds. As most birdwatchers will know, these birds along with ibis
are skilful raptor-imitators. How many times we do we raise our
binoculars towards a raptorial shape only to find we are looking at one or
other of those imposters?
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Thursday, 14 February 2008 10:16 AM
To:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Wednesday walk next week
From: martin butterfield
[
Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2008 3:08 PM
To: COG-L
Subject: [canberrabirds] Wednesday walk next week
The Wednesday walk this month is scheduled for Jerrabombera
Wetlands next Wednesday 20 February. We'll meet at the car park at
Kelly's Swamp at 9am .
I am thinking of going to some of the less explored parts of
the area (eg the embankment between the silt trap and the school and the
Northside of the River past the footbridge) as well as the usual spots.
If time and enthusiasm permit we may then transfer to the ACTEW carpark to sign
the book and examine the sewage ponds).
Hoped-for birds could include Little Bittern and Spotted
harrier in addition to the usual suspects.
