Wattlebird with an ID problem?
O830 hours, May 7, Holt shops, my attention was drawn to a Red Wattlebird as
it landed on the near-vertical trunk of a Eucalyptus tree and took a couple of
tentative hops upwards. I wondered if it was going to assume the role of a
treecreeper. But no, it shuffled around, faced downward, and I thought it was
switching its role to that of a sittella. A few moments later it speared off to
a nearby lightly mulched area and probed with its bill, had my Walter Mittyesque
wattlebird morphed to the psyche of a White-winged Chough? But within 15 seconds
it returned to the tree trunk, faced upwards at a 20 degree angle with head
turned back towards the mulch à la an Eastern Yellow Robin in perch/pounce
posture. Crazy, mixed up fowl. Suddenly, another Red Wattlebird swooped sending
it packing from the precincts and began fossicking among the foliage like any
other boring old wattlebird.
0900, May 8, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a Grey Butcherbird
on a power cable, the first I've seen near the Holt backyard. Empirical
knowledge tells me they're quite unusual in many Canberra suburbs, and maybe not
so unusual in others
John Layton.
