Mulligans - 11 April

[martin butterfield <>]

Marnix

I hope you weren't confused by the calls of Pied Butcherbird
to the North of the dam yesterday morning.  They were unfortunately all courtesy of BOCA and coming from my MP3
player.  It did attract a little attention from a family of Grey Butcherbirds (GBBs) but they soon seemed to work out that their relative was elsewhere (probably Cooleman Ridge).

I found some Striated Pardalotes but, like you, few other small birds.  I have wondered whether this is due to the number of GBBs  and/or the stroppy Noisy Miners in the area.

Martin

On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 9:36 AM, Marnix Zwankhuizen <> wrote:

Benj and I wandered to the large dam at Mulligans from Horse Park Drive yesterday morning. Like other areas around Canberra at the moment there was not much activity. We did find a very vocal JACKY WINTER calling from its high perch by a small dam. There is not much water in the big dam as expected. A lone BROWN FALCON was sitting on one of the dead trees and a GREY BUTCHERBIRD was foraging among the woodland west of the dam. Further east above Sammy Hill in Gooroo we could see two soaring WEDGE-TAILED EAGLES.

We found absolutely no small birds apart from two groups of WEEBILLS and a calling GOLDEN WHISTLER.

Cheers
Marnix