Now, a bird anecdote from
Bowra. Around the open camping space were families of Chestnut-crowned
Babblers, one of which contained 3 dependant juveniles, easily identified by their
short tails and short bills. Here is an example of one of them:
Midday one day I was at my camp
table, listening to the Country Hour and quietly unwrapping my pre-packed gourmet
corned beef sandwiches and getting out a jar of pickled onions, when ,skitter-skitter,
one of these juvs ran across my feet and hopped up on one of the table struts,
peering out from under. After a few seconds it made a dash for a smallish
Wilga tree, about 15m away. Tree:
As it happened, inside this
unusually noisy tree were about a dozen other agitated CCBs, plus one hawk
(male goshawk, I think). This created an interesting standoff. None
of the babblers was willing to leave the tree, because this would lose them its
shelter, and presumably allow the hawk to pick off a juv. The hawk for
its part was unable to move effectively in the dense tree, and was just
waiting (or, as the media likes to say these days instead of
‘waiting’: ‘PLAYING A WAITING GAME’). The
below hawk snap was taken from about 6m. The impasse was broken when I advanced
to 3m, and the hawk took off. After that the babbler party streamed
from the tree, and away, and resumed its business.
