I enjoyed my first blitz weekend even though I stayed in my familiar territory. And as I had dared to hope, I did at the end see the Blue-winged parrots for the third time although the second time (below) was not certain enough at the time to report.
I spent 3 hours on Percival Hill NR yesterday and towards dusk, a pair of blue-winged parrots were drinking at the small upper dam. I had borrowed a posh camera but as I fumbled awkwardly with it a pair of wood ducks landed and scared the parrots away.
I was to the east of them and they flew into the western sun and I lost them so I have no physical evidence for the skeptics. I simply know what I saw.
These dams have turned Percival Hill NR into a very productive bird watching site. The dams were put in after the 2003 bush fires. The larger main or lower one is unusual for Canberra because it is virtually a forest-enclosed waterhole now. While it only
seems to attract the odd water bird of the common or garden variety, (except for an Azure Kingfisher yesterday), over the ten years the number of woodland species within about 500 m of the dam has increased dramatically. Yesterday, 58 species in the 3 hours
plus several whose calls I was unsure about.
The cisticolas cross the boundary fence on the Eastern or Ginninderra creek side as their grassland is on both sides of the fence but I take the fence as the boundary of the site, so I will report the nesting cisticola in a separate sheet for Ginninderra
Creek. I don’t normally report on Ginninderra Creek because it is within the 100 m for my GBS but I will make an exception this time so it gets into the Blitz.
John
On 25 Oct 2013, at 10:15 pm, John Harris <> wrote:
I think the Blue-winged parrot/s is/are still around.
I believe I saw a pair fly from the rear of my place west across Ginninderra Creek into the trees on Percival Hill at dusk this evening. I am not certain enough to report them but I am fairly confident. I will do a thorough search for the blitz tomorrow…who
knows.
More interesting to you than my Latin nouns I suspect…
