Late notice - white browed scrub wren

[Anthony Overs via Canberrabirds <>]

They can be quite tame indeed. Which reminds me of a story.

Many years ago, I was on the board of Barren Grounds Bird Observatory, and had the opportunity to live on site as the acting warden for six weeks while he was on leave. For those that know the reserve, the warden's residence is the house tucked in the forest just 100m inside the reserve entrance off the Jamberoo Mtn Rd. 

The experiences with the wildlife were fantastic:

- A Tawny Frogmouth would use the front veranda handrail as a hunting perch. 

- A tiny pond in the very small backyard was full of Limnodynastes peronii (Striped Marsh Frog) and when they all called it sounded like a dozen tennis matches all happening at once. 

- The resident Spotted-tailed Quoll enjoyed picking through the small compost heap, and would occasionally go under the house and under the bathroom - you could see the little pink nose sniffing through the air vent below the bath. 

- If you left the butter out on the kitchen bench overnight it would have antechinus teeth marks in it in the morning.

- A wombat lived in a burrow under the back of the house and you could occasionally hear it grinding its teeth.

- I used the warden's little old and busted Mazda to go down to Jamberoo for mail, groceries, etc. One morning, I got in the car and in the small round hole where the swivel air vent control should have been there sat a bush rat. We looked at each other for maybe 20 seconds before it retreated and was never seen again. 

- Right outside the office window, a female antechinus sat in the garden bed in the bright sunshine and gave her pouch load of six or seven jellybean babies a good cleaning. 

Now that was all really cool, but the best thing was the male white-browed scrubwren that owned the house. I'd only been there a couple of days, and was sitting on the couch going through some papers, with the front door open. In wandered a scrubwren, he took the immediate left turn into the large open kitchen (used to cater for a dozen people for weekend stays in The Lodge) and began working over the floor for crumbs, bugs, anything he could find. He did a lap of the kitchen in a few minutes, then made his way out the front door. This happened most days if the door was open, and he was quite comfortable with me being there. One particular day though he came in while I was at the far end of the kitchen. He must have felt threatened, or perhaps he thought I was going to take his crumbs, because I copped an absolute earful of scolding calls! He didn't flee though, he just kept working the room until he was done, eye-balling me, and bashing my ears the entire time. Then off he went. From then on, I guess he figured that I wasn't a threat. I'd say hello, and he'd buzz back, as if we were greeting each other as we arrived for work for the day.

Anthony

On Tue, 31 May 2022 at 11:48, Kim Farley via Canberrabirds <> wrote:

Hi Fleur

Yes, they can become quite tame in sheltered places with lots of humans about. They can also be seen at Willow Grove Nursery at Pialligo and at the Yarralumla Nursery. As you might guess I am a keen gardener!

Kim

On Tue, 31 May 2022, 11:41 am Fleur Leary via Canberrabirds, <> wrote:

I was at the plant nursery at Federation Square about three weeks ago when I noticed a bird flitting about among the seedling pots. I didn't take much notice assuming it was a sparrow, but once I took a look, realised it was a white browed scrub wren, not at all concerned with the close proximity of several shoppers.

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