Callum Brae today

[martin butterfield <>]

13 members and friends gathered at Callum Brae this morning and once I turned up had a great time!

We started by exploring the old zoo area which was very quiet apart from 2 Speckled warblers.  As we got back to the gap in the fence everything brightened up with an aggregation of birds including: Yellow-rumped Thornbills, Red-browed Finches, 2 Southern Whiteface, and another Speckled Warbler.  We moved on up the hill to the locale where Sandra had seen Diamond Firetails and were soon rewarded with the call of this species and on my count saw 10 of them.  Two Leaden Flycatcher (1 being fed); a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo and a group of Varied Sitella (including 3 rated as DY) were found in a single tree.  We then moved on to a largish dam where many finches (Red-browed, Double-barred; Euro. Gold and Diamond Firetails were drinking.  Our final excellent sighting was an immature Pallid Cuckoo flying just in front of the group for some distance, and eating grasshoppers captured at the base of trees.

At this time the plan is for the next walk to be on Wednesday 18 March at Hall Grasslands.  Meet at the TSR just inside the Territory border at 9am.

The editors of Gang-gang may wish to insert the paragraphs above in appropriate spots in their journal!

Martin