An excellent morning of birding at and around Glendale Depot, Namadgi NP, this morning, with Tim Reid - both in the open apple box woodland on the valley floor, and in the forested ridge above the river. Fuscous Honeyeaters and Dusky Woodswallows
were present in some numbers.
A pair of Hooded Robins was special. My memory is that the ranger had informed COG on a previous outing that this species had bred near the depot this year.
A brightly patterned juvenile Pallid Cuckoo being fed by much smaller Fuscous Honeyeaters was good, too. The bird was old enough to forage on the ground, but when it perched in the scrub the honeyeaters delivered a constant stream of insects.
But best was excellent views of a Black-eared Cuckoo, foraging low down in a eucalypt. We had seen both Horsfield’s and Shining Bronze-cuckoo earlier in the morning, so the differences were clear. Imagine the jizz of a large bronze-cuckoo,
but all shades of dark and pale grey and buff (no green sheen), not barred underneath, and a thicker eye-line than Horsfield’s that continued back and down to the ear.
Full list at
https://ebird.org/australia/view/checklist/S42475424
Lots of yellow-winged grasshoppers were bounding out of the grass. We later saw quantities of Little Raven up near Yankee Hat, presumably drawn to the feast.
Steve
