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Hi all,
This afternoon at around 5:00pm I discovered a
White-throated Nightjar in the same patch of regenerated
woodland where I originally first saw the Regent Honeyeater
(see previous emails for directions). I first flushed the nightjar at
around 4pm, but my tired mind dismissed the very short views as an immature
sparrowhawk or weird Brown Falcon. At around 5pm I once again flushed the
bird, and this time managed to recongise it as a nightjar. Having seen where it
landed, I managed to flush it once more, and obtained reasonable views (in sight
for around 5 seconds). The nightjar was large and very dark
brown, appearing as if its plumage was made up of very dark bark pieces. I could
not see any white on the tail. There were some paler markings on the wings, but
hardly discernable.
From the little I saw of it, it tended to flush at
around 10 metres, and favoured the areas of fallen bark at the trunk of the
larger eucalypts.
Later on, around 5:45 I saw it flying high over the
horse paddocks further down the slope.
Initially, the afternoon had started slow (I was
there from about 3:15), but after a bit, a Sacred Kingfisher popped in briefly,
and a Pallid Cuckoo started up calling.
I also saw the Regent Honeyeater again (exactly a
week after I first discovered it), at exactly the same place and time (after
sunset) as I had originally discovered it. It was hanging around one particular
wattlebird, and occasionally it would fly up to this wattlebird, perch beside
it, and call energetically (the calls seemed directed towards the wattlebird,
and were given with a lot of body movement from the Regent). The
calls were an imitation of the Red Wattlebirds (again, I have only ever heard it
give a R Wattlebird call), and sounded like a wind-up toy version of the
stronger, harsher wattlebirds.
Just give me a shout if you have any queries about
anything I havent made clear,
Cheers
Tobias Hayashi
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