It was a last-minute decision to turn south to Namadgi Visitors Centre this morning, made at the traffic lights, rather than go to Jerra. The cool sunny morning air had something to do with that, as did the sense that the autumn birding
peak is on (for Hobbies or other species).
And no regrets as soon as I opened the door of the ute in the carpark – Noisy Friarbirds were calling all around, and they kept up the racket for the next couple of hours, competing with Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes and Dusky Woodswallows.
The friarbirds were feeding on flowering mistletoe and catching big beetles, while the cuckoo-shrikes seemed simply to be mucking around and moving through.
The birding in the first 20 minutes was continuous – it was the sort of morning when you go to check the focus of your bins on a distant branch, only to realise when you look at it that the branch is actually a Sacred Kingfisher. Highlights
were a Restless Flycatcher glowing in the sun, buzzing its call as it hovered over the grass; the red flash of a Diamond Firetail; the noisy peeping of two young Australasian Grebes as they followed their mother around on the dam; meeting a White-necked Heron
coming the other way on the trail around the dam; and a long sighting of a party of Spotless Crake (four birds at once, possibly five in all) feeding on the exposed mud near the reeds around the dam.
Most unusual was a leucistic cuckoo-shrike among the Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes. Same size and behaviour as the normal Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes, but an all-white bird except for very, very pale grey on the wing and under the tail, plus
a black eye and a buff-grey bill. There are photos/videos of a couple of similar birds on the interweb: see
http://www.hbw.com/ibc/video/black-faced-cuckoo-shrike-coracina-novaehollandiae/either-albino-or-leucistic-bird-abranch for example.
Full list on eBird soon.
Steve
