A walk around Narrabundah Hill this morning started off cool and still, although scarcely quiet with the morning’s stream of cockatoos overhead. Eventually, some movement was seen in a eucalypt canopy – a pardalote, looking dull in the
flat morning light, but eventually revealing itself as a silent young Spotted Pardalote. Then another young bird, then an adult, then lots, foraging actively. When the flock moved across the path, 22 birds were counted in the air. I caught up with a second,
smaller group of 10 birds a little later. Presumably an autumnal movement or migration.
Later, at the far SE corner of the block, the cockatoos started screeching again, for cause this time as two Wedge-tailed Eagles were perched low in a dead tree. One showed the orange crown of feathers that I associate with a young bird.
A third, also young, eagle was perched a little way away. That bird appeared to have a distended crop, with orange feathers spread out over the stretched skin, so presumably had just eaten. Nevertheless it was calling repeatedly, the call having an uncanny
resemblance to a seagull (whether Silver Gull or the English seagulls that stole my chips decades ago). Not a call I have heard from a Wedge-tailed Eagle before, but similar to a call Stephen Wallace recorded at Tidbinbilla (www.hbw.com/ibc/species/53163/sounds).
Steve
