Spent the week-end at Richard Allen’s banding site near Grenfell, coming back with the below graphic memories, among others. Richard’s records from this site must now rank as one of the most valuable stores of information about the birds of the sw slopes - covering 122 field trips over 26 years, across all kinds of weather and climatic conditions, meticulously recorded down to within a few metres of each net capture. And all done from a Canberra base, with many COG members, overseas visitors and Ph D candidates having tagged along at one time or other. Yesterday was a brilliant day.
The usual birds were around, given seasonal and longer-term variations here and there. The bigger picture is all there in Richard’s records, so no point in anecdotal mentions, chatline style. However …
I noticed a small flock of Cockatiel between Grenfell and the Weddins. The range of this species is something of a mystery. Canberra must be regarded as on the fringe of its range, but it is such a popular aviary species that local sightings are often, probably correctly, ascribed to escapes. The Grenfell birds must have been wild, though.
Mornings were accompanied by the song of butcherbirds, complaining squeaks of honeyeaters, the occasional trill of passing bee-eaters, and the curious dry gargle of the spiny-cheeked. There were a lot of small red dragonflies, often resting on the bare ground, and being hunted by a restless flycatcher and yellow robins. One butterfly looks to me like one of the Jezebels, going by Michael Braby’s, perhaps the Spotted, although the upper side was much sootier than in any of the illustrations. Perhaps they go dark if you carry them in your pocket.
