Alexander (Watson) has been reporting many sightings of square-tailed kites
in the Shoalhaven district of late, including one amongst silver gulls over
the main commercial street of Nowra (Junction Street)--a street with many
shoppers at this time of the year. Yesterday I saw, from a car, one near
the old cemetery. To-day, two were flying in their characteristic way over
Park Rd, about 300 metres from Shoalhaven High School.
This is the most likely seen medium-sized hawk around Nowra, at this time
of the year. Identification is straightforward.
Nowra's great virtue as a birding place is its links to forest. On the
westerm side, forest merges into the town. I could leave my house, and
within a 100 metres walk into, and continuously through, bush in a
westward direction for days -- if I so wished. Most towns are surrounded by
cleared areas.
Birds can penetrate remaining lines of trees in Nowra, even where the
housing is thick. One such outreach of grey gums, spotted gums and
ironbarks passes through my backyard, enabling both channel-billed cuckoos
and koels to breed. The bleating of their young has been part of the
soundscape.
Bill Watson, about to be ex-Nowra.
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