The Black-tailed Native Hen was still
around from 7-7.30am this morning. It actually took me about an hour to find and when I
first saw it, it was feeding on the grass only a yard from the concrete path opposite
the building covered in scaffolding (southern edge of Norgrove Park, along Dawes Street). It spent most of the
next 30mintues along the grass/shrub border from here down to the e-w bridge (20yards
down the slope from the pathways along Dawes
Street).
The first hour I spent looking for the
Native-hen was pretty successful though as I saw a minimum of 5-7 Baillons
Crakes (incl. 2 pairs and about 8 sightings of individuals birds). I was lucky enough
to see one pair briefly copulating and others aggressively chasing other crakes
from their patch. Very early on I also had excellent views of s Spotless Crake
feeding on worms right out in the open on a grassy area immediately to your
left as you cross the first bridge (from the SE corner).
It is certainly a very active little spot
at the moment with Reed Warblers singing loudly from all spots, several Little
Grassbirds, 6-7 Greenfinch constantly ‘wheezing’ away, and tons of
Goldfinch. Other nice birds were one male White-winged Triller and a Rufous Songlark
that Alastair Smith spotted shortly after he arrived.
I then headed out to Newline which was
equally alive with bird calls but nothing too special. The usual Brown
Treecreepers, quite a few Olive-backed Oriole and Noisy Friarbirds, one Pallid Cuckoo,
one Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo, and another two Rufous Songlark. I got the
most fun from watching a pair of Willie Wagtails bombarding a Pied Currawong
for five minutes whilst it tried to snap them out of the air. They finally
managed to move it away from their territory (I couldn’t see a nest).
Cheers Dan
-----Original
Message-----
From:
[
Sent: Sunday,
20 September 2009 9:23
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Black-tailed
Native Hen
Norwood Park
not seen this am
Not seen at 8.30am
John Leonard
