canberrabirds

Michelin Man thwarted

To: 'John Layton' <>, 'Canberra Birds' <>
Subject: Michelin Man thwarted
From: Mark Clayton <>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 08:40:02 +0000

G’day John,

 

Are you sure the bird was a female Golden Whistler? In all my years of bird watching and banding I don’t think I have ever seen a GW on the ground. What surprised me even more was that it went back to the ground after the moggie had departed. Are you sure it wasn’t a Grey Shrike-thrush, a bird that does spend a lot of time foraging on the ground?

 

Mark

 

From: John Layton [
Sent: Thursday, 18 June 2015 4:52 PM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Michelin Man thwarted

 

It wasn’t raining at the time although the grass was sopping wet but this didn’t deter Michelin Man, fattest cat in all Fat Cat City (I understand his owners call him Pussums). As I looked out the back door MM was bellying along ever so slowly, attention riveted on a nondescript grey bird pecking around in leaf litter 10 metres away. I eased the door open and hurled a tennis ball at his ample rump. A satisfying plop told me I’d found my mark.

 

MM leapt away towards the gap beneath the gate, paused to gesture rudely with a forepaw before undergoing a tight squeeze and streaked away to where people call him Pussums and don’t bounce balls off his overly-padded posterior.

 

The nondescript grey bird was still present although it had withdrawn to the comparative safety of a shrub. A few moments later it was back in the leaf litter. I turned to She-Who-Must-Obey and requested my binos. When I glassed the bird I positively identified it as a female Golden Whistler so don’t need to ask about Canberra’s- most-asked-about this time.

 

John Layton

HOLT

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