I saw one and there seemed to be another calling nearby a week ago (24/3)
on the SW side of Cooleman Ridge (go straight up from Freebody Place, cross the
main track, go through a gate and straight down to a dam just after a second
gate passing the wombat hole on the way – it’s near where Tobias found the
Regent Honeyeater and the Painted Button Quails some years ago).
I also heard it calling nearby on top of the ridge on 19/3, so they might
be hanging around. Interestingly the local and regular (and very mobile)
Grey Butcherbirds have often been making a call similar to the Pied (including a
few metres from our back door on one occasion), so I had to be extra careful
with my identification – when flying the Pied is much whiter, similar to a
magpie-lark.
Jack Holland
From:
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2015 4:52 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Pied Butcherbirds - Stony
Creek
Two Pied Butcherbirds seen in
Stony Creek Nature Reserve late this morning. They were together for some of the
time but later one flew over the Murrumbidgee to the western side. Mostly
feeding on grasshoppers, and occasionally calling. The first time I have seen
more than one PB in the ACT.
The relevant section of the
reserve is just south of Uriarra East Reserve, near where the Painted
Honeyeaters were a couple of summers ago.
Also many Yellow-faced
Honeyeaters on the move along Uriarra Rd and the Murrumbidgee Corridor, I’d
estimate we saw a couple of thousand during the morning.
Steve
