And horses were horses. The shrike-tits have a nest in
the Newline paddock, as I think they have had for each
of the last 10 years or so. As mentioned before, I think these are
getting scarce-ish. In past years I’ve seen nests at Callum Brae
and Campbell Park but I doubt there are any there now. As usual, the nest
is a small cup woven onto the topmost twigs of a tall tree. This one is
about 16m high, almost completely obscured from the ground and has advanced
young, which will probably become evident in due course.
I am reminded of the remarkable photo in Alec
Chisholm’s ‘Mateship with Birds’ (1922, introduction by CJ
Dennis). Chisholm describes his problems in finding and trying to
photograph these birds at the nest.
You might wonder why the assistant is holding the ladder and not the horse, but
the account states: ‘’ the wheels of the cart were safely
locked, to guard against any unscientific tendencies on the part of our venerable horse”. Today’s
snappers have it so easy. The NP nest
is even higher.
