Hello everyone
Barbara Allan and I, assisted by Environmental Officer Gareth Evans, did the quarterly Woodland Survey of Majura Firing Range on Tuesday 24 November, starting at 7.30 am. The weather was superb, the wildflowers were still brilliant, and it was good birding all round. The highlight of the day occurred just after 7.30 just south of the main rifle range (I can never remember its proper name) with close-up views of two magnificent mature Wedge-tailed Eagles roosting in trees just off the track. We had seen them soaring at a distance in previous visits, but this was the first close-up view.
However, it wasn’t at all downhill from there. At the Grenade Range car park close to the northern end of the airport, generally a “quiet” site, there were considerable ructions among the parrot community around some sadly deteriorating eucalypts, but rich with nesting hollows. Red-rumped parrots were getting quite physical, but the Crimson Rosellas in the same tree simply waited quietly outside their hollow. Also seen were Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Eastern Rosellas. Little Ravens were heard in the grassland off-site; also heard was a Rufous Songlark, a species not recorded here previously. There were the usual Starlings there, as well as a couple of Welcome Swallows and some Tree Martins.
At Site 10, open woodland adjacent to a small dam normally bereft of wildlife, it was a pleasant surprise to find a couple of Pacific Black Ducks and a Little Pied Cormorant. Even better was a scintillating vocal and visual display by a Leaden Flycatcher, a response from a Noisy Friarbird, while 4 Little Corellas flew over.
At other sites, Rufous Whistlers were all over the place, as were Leaden Flycatchers, Noisy Friarbirds and White-throated Gerygones, with an occasional Olive-backed Oriole, with some White-winged Choughs thrown in at the northern sites. Generally the usual residents, Yellow-rumped, Buff-rumped and Brown Thornbills, Superb Fairy-wrens were at some sites, with a slightly larger than usual range of waterfowl on the dam at the northern end: Hardheads, Grey Teal, Wood Duck, and Australasian Grebe with dependent young. Honeyeaters included Yellow-faced, White-eared Honeyeaters and Noisy Miners (very few).
Other highlights were Dollarbird and a Western Gerygone. It was a little disconcerting to come across a group of serious (and seriously) young people heavily camouflaged and apparently very heavily armed, skulking in the underbrush as we drove north from the southern sites. However we were reassured to hear that on the exercise they were on, the troops did not even carry blanks, let alone live ammunition.
It was a very pleasant morning birding in an environment that was lush and green and full of delightful wildflowers, with the very prominent Sticky Paper Daisies brightening up the Range with their bright yellow flowers.
Paul Fennell
Editor Annual Bird Report
Manager COG Databases
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