Rose robin, Fan-tailed cuckoo

["boy nature" <>]

 

Saturday at the Aust National Botanic gardens 30/4/2011

• 2 pm Rose Robin male- Between Section 98 (Myrtaceae) and 150 (R).
• 3:30 pm Fan-tailed cuckoo in Banksias calling- near Toms chair.

Lots of yellow robins, NHH and surprising numbers of male superb fairy wrens in full colour. Yellow faced and white naped were flying over in small numbers.
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I was up the hill, when I heard a strange call- harsh sneep. I immediately swung around. After a few moments I could clearly see a

----Rose robin male. I waited for him to enter a bit of sunshine, yep dark grey head and chin, rose chest, white belly, and interestingly slight smudgy-buff wingbars, not mentioned in most Field guides. The individual bird was in between Section 98 and 150. In some tall paperbarks. As if to prove his point he came to within 1m of me in the shrubs.
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----I heard the enigmatic ‘fan-tailed cuckoo’ calling in the Gardens for an hour after I first arrived and followed it all around ANBG, yet I couldn’t find it. I then left to follow the rose robin, to see the rainforest, have lunch, and walk back to the Banksias and grevilleas, which were flowering well. Luckily, I finally found the fan-tailed cuckoo in the NE section of the banksias.
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I haven’t been to ANBG for a while. They had a new Bilby trail for kids to follow, people were orienteering to find listed species, what’s flowering now walk, there is a Mothers day breakfast on next week at the coffee shop, and the Volunteer guides mainly seemed quite young, perhaps Uni students. There is a cool weather gauge which shows the temp, humidity, wind speed etc in the open areas CF the rainforest gully. At the time the temp was 13, humidity 98%, soil moisture 27% in the rainforest vs the open area with temp 17, humidity 65% in the open area. The visitors centre has a cool fern garden and the books are cheap. If you haven’t been lately it is worth another look.

Benj