Best things were several large MFFs of thornbills (saw yellow-rumped, buff-rumped and brown but suspect there were others), whitefaces, grey fantails, willy wagtails and striated pardalotes, with scarlet robins (M and F) nearby. One buff-rumped TB carrying nesting material. A magpie kept following one MFF and swooping through it repeatedly, putting them all up out of the kangaroo grass into trees every time.
Kestrels cruised over calling repeatedly and we heard a pallid cuckoo a good way off. Also saw white-naped, white-eared, white-plumed and fuscous HEs and M and F golden whistlers, and surprised a large fox by the eastern dam where there were several wood duck. Starlings passing through to the east late in the day looked nervous, flying short distances from tree to tree and doing a lot of looking around before moving on to the next.
North of Chiltern (Vic) on Tues, in yellow-flowering ironbark just off the Rutherglen road, we watched a delightfully loud and active feeding frenzy of yellow-tufted HEs, accompanied by lots of fuscous and a few white-napeds, little lorikeets and friar and wattlebirds, with brown treecreepers down below. I'd never seen more than one yellow-tufted at a time before and this time there must have been dozens of both them and the fuscous in the small patch where we stood. At Chiltern cemetery saw a peregrine whose approach could be tracked for miles by the noisy miner and wattlebirds alarms.
Stephanie
On 02/07/2011, at 5:36 PM, Robin Hide wrote:
Can I second that thanks re Kama introduction - had a great walk
there this afternoon in warm sun (tho it is I thought a bit tricky
to find the parking spot on William Hovell D going south. )
Highlights- pair of kestrels perched in sun on dead branches near
the first dam (45 mins later the same or another pair circling very
high to the west over the river); a male Flame Robin on fence
further down; 4 Aus Pipits; way way to the south a WtEagle hassled
lightly by another raptor (?kestrel); a group (>4 I think) of
Brown Treecreepers (my first).
<2 July 2011 Kama NR 36 r.jpg>
The new signage in the NR has some excellent Dabb photos!
Robin Hide
On 30/06/2011 10:47 AM, Ian Fraser wrote:
My
thanks to Alastair Smith (Happy Birthday Alastair!) and ultimately
Chris Davey for introducing me (belatedly, to my shame) to this
lovely woodland reserve. (Entrance clearly marked APPROXIMATELY
2km west of Coppins Crossing Road, along William Hovell Drive.)
Much of the understorey is of high quality Kangaroo Grassland,
with apparently a good diversity of forbs, given the time of year.
Lots of mature boxes and gums.
Highlights include a group of four Brown Treecreepers, Fuscous and
Brown-headed HEs, Stubble Quail, G-h Cisticola in breeding
colours. Kookas vigorously disputing the point - maybe a youngster
being evicted rather than inter-territorial, but?? Also a group of
four Wallaroos/Euros - perhaps the first I've seen in CNP.
Tree Martins and a Pallid Cuckoo calling; I am not going to stick
my neck out and suggest whether either of these is unusual for the
time of year.
cheers all
Ian
