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Went to Tharwa Sandwash after work this morning and
spent about an hour and a half there - left about midday as it was
getting quite hot.
Small groups of 4-6 Yellow-faced Honeyeaters were
passing through - and also stopping to feed in the flowering
eucalypts. Rufous Whistlers were very conspicuous and Tree Martins were
gathering mud at the river edge. I'll call that "Breeding - nest building" when
I put in the Atlas record - on the assumption that the mud was building material
and not food. Actually, I think I managed to spot where one pair may be building
- but its quite a way up the slope from the river.
Other highlights for me were a pair of Wedge-tailed
Eagles soaring high up roughly over where the Namadgi Visitor Centre would be
and a pair (male and female, the size difference quite noticeable) of Brown
Falcon - both birds the pale form of the brown morph.
A pair of Hooded Robins were actively hunting - I
saw the male catch a fairly large caterpillar on the ground and then take it
back to a perch to subdue and eat it. A Mistletoebird also passed through -
stopping briefly near where the Robins were foraging before heading uphill to
the eucalypts. Nankeen Kestrel was present again but only briefly.
All up, I managed to spot 18 species and, as with
my visit the other day, I'm sure someone who can put a bird name to the many
fainter calls that must be all aound would have got that number quite
a bit higher.
Bruce
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