callum Brae this morning

[sandra henderson <>]

A very good morning's birding at CB this morning. The most interesting area was around the small gully crossing near the zoo corner. There seemed to be lots of caterpillars around, which had attracted fan-tailed, shining bronze and Horsfields bronze cuckoos, as well as a number of black-faced cuckoo shrikes and a large group of dusky woodswallows. There was a large mixed flock of yellow-rumped and buff-rumped thornbills, with a few grey fantails and white-winged trillers, as well as a speckled warbler and lots of striated pardalotes, in the same area. 2 gang-gangs were calling in the old zoo site, and a single superb parrot was calling as it flew over the dam a couple of times. The old zoo dam has a pair of Aussie grebes, and the dead tree at side of dam had a dollarbird and a sacred kingfisher. Took quite a while to get past all that ...

At the first dam just up the track from that spot a wedgetailed eagle was circling very low (about 20m off the ground), being annoyed by a pair of magpies.  Encountered another big group of thornbills up near the quarry fence, with more dusky woodswallows. Very quiet on the far side. Full list (50 species) is on ebird at http://ebird.org/ebird/australia/view/checklist?subID=S27366518

 

sandra h