Coincidentally to Martin/Frances' ob of the kooka feeding on a roo
carcase, this morning near the Bot Gdns I saw what appeared to be a
flock of ravens on a very decomposed dead roo by the road. Instead it
was a mob of choughs, presumably doing the same thing - ie feeding on
those already feasting on the remains. A single raven seemed to be most
put out by it all.
IF
martin butterfield wrote:
This morning there was a steady stream of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters
over my GBS site. As is usual for the site the groups were small: 3 -
5 birds, heading SE towards the Hoskinstown Plain. Mid-morning I went
for a waddle to Captains Flat Road (effectively running three sides of
a rectangle, totalling 4km) and similar movements ocurred throughout
the "run".
Three Grey-shrike Thrushes appeared to be, very noisily, addressing
issues of teritoriality in the cypress trees adjacent to our house.
The interaction was occurring low in the trees and on the ground.
Later in the day, while I was perched on our roof 5 Dusky Woodswallows
appeared. This was a first for my GBS site this year, and an addition
to my all-time gutter-cleaning list. They were hawking for insects
and slowly moved off to the NE. Before they had cleared the boundary
of the site another group of 20 of the same species emerged from a
neighbour's Yellow Box and entered the site, so the tally was 25! The
later flock also moved off NE and, interestingly in view of Geoffrey
Dabb's comment to my post about migration of this species, well below
the height of the trees on our block. This may be an accident of
topography if they were following the course of Whiskers Creek.
In mid afternoon we were returning from Queanbeyan and Frances noticed
a Laughing Kookaburra perched on an ex-kangaroo beside Captains flat
Road. While it would be tempting to say the bird was adding carrion
to its diet, a review of the appropriate entry in HANZAB suggests it
was probably munching on the invertebrates (and possibly reptiles)
availing themselves of this food resource.
Martin
--
Ian Fraser,
Environment Tours; Vertego Environmental Wordsmithing
GPO Box 3268, Canberra, ACT 2601
ph: 61 2 6249 1560 fax: 61 2 6247 3227
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