Prue and I with Dave & Kathy Cook were lucky to get a delightful morning to do our last survey for the year. As was to be expected the reserve was sodden, for the first time during one of these surveys running water in creeks drowning out bird calls was a problem! In places tracks had turned into temporary streams.
We recorded 49 spp with nothing really unexpected. There were Stubble Quail calling from the grassland at the southern end of the reserve. Wedge-tailed Eagle (1), Superb Parrots (5), Little Corella (not common here), Pallid Cuckoo (one very vocal bird), Speckled Warblers at 2 sites, both gerygones, Dusky Woodswallows, Grey Butcherbird and Grey Currawong, Leaden Flycatcher, a few Rufous Songlarks, and Mistletoebirds at 8 of the 9 sites. Very few small honeyeaters with one record each of Brown-headed and White-plumed, and far fewer Starlings than usual, perhaps they have already finished breeding and moved to nearby grazing land.
Plenty of frogs calling from the very full dams and flooded areas, and hundreds of male Common Brown butterflies.
Steve
