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Greenvale, NQ

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Subject: Greenvale, NQ
From: Marjorie Wisby <>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 08:45:47 +1000 (EST)
Hi everyone,

Thought I'd bore you to death, and report on the birds seen in the town of
Greenvale. As everyone is obviously familiar with this place, I shan't
mention it's about 250 kms NW of Townsville, about 70 of these being
unsealed, and the rest a one lane bitumen road. <g> Greenvale is a small
town, built to house the miners and their families when the Greenvale Nickel
mine was operational. It has perhaps 100 houses in it. The population is
about 300 at the moment, the town having been purchased by a chap from
Melbourne as it was about to be bulldozed.

There was a group from Birds Australia in Greenvale last April, and they did
a survey of birds in the township and on 4 dams in the area. Their list was
72 species, of which a large proportion is water birds. I didn't get to the
dams, so this list is considerably shorter.

I arrived there on Sunday and left on Tuesday - most of the intervening time
being spent on various things not involving birding. It was fine, warm and
very dry. The whole country is extremely dry, with most of the water courses
dried out. Only small amounts of permanent water remain. However, the
following were noted:

Grey Teal (a pair on a green slimy pond on the golf course)
Straw-necked Ibis
Black Kite
Whistling Kite
Masked Lapwing
Crested Pigeon
Galah (large population)
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Rainbow Lorikeet (another large population)
Red-winged Parrot
Pale-headed Rosella
Laughing Kookaburra
Noisy Friarbird
Silver-crowned Friarbird
Little Friarbird
Blue-faced Honeyeater
White-throated Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater
Magpie-lark
Willie Wagtail
Grey Fantail
Northern Fantail
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Grey Butcherbird
Pied Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Australian Raven
Torresian Crow
Apostlebird (very common in the town)

Also, down the road a bit (maybe 100kms) I saw Wedge-tailed Eagle, Nankeen
Kestrel, Squatter Pigeon and Zebra Finch.

One chap was telling me about a group of Striated Pardalotes he and his wife
feed every morning, but I didn't get to see them - I forgot to find out his
address. You win some, you lose some.

I knew you'd be fascinated! <g> Just please don't rush to view this exotic
place all at once. A few each week would be best. <ROFL>
TTYL,

Marjorie
Townsville, NQ
Caranus 16 - good rowing!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 ~   Marjorie N. Wisby                    From every mountain-side   ~
 ~                        Let Freedom ring.        ~     
 ~   http://www.ultra.net.au/~wisby          - Samuel Francis Smith  ~     
 ~                                                 (_America_)       ~
 ~  Have you noticed that people who are most unwilling to accept    ~
 ~  responsibility for their own actions, are the most keen to       ~
 ~  regulate everyone else's?                                        ~
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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