Very early on Sunday 31st October at 4am, 4 very keen birdo’s (including
myself) met a the top gates of Mitchell Park at Cattai, for the Cumberland Bird
Observers Club annual dawn chorus outing. Getting out of bed very early on a
Sunday morning was a great challenge in itself, especially when we had to put
our clocks forward by an hour overnight for daylight saving. However, yesterdays
drizzly weather did hold off for most of the early morning.
The first bird I heard upon getting out of the car, was a Powerful Owl
with its far-carrying "hoo-hooo" call. This was soon followed by a Boobook Owl,
Willy Wagtail, Sacred Kingfisher, Koel, Rufous (Nankeen) Night Heron, Dusky
Moorhen and Black Duck (the later 3 heard flying over), bringing our list to 8
species by 4:45 am. Upon the crack of dawn, the other usual residents or summer
visitors of Mitchell Park joined in, such as Eastern Yellow Robins, Shinning
Bronze-cuckoos, Pallid cuckoos, Dollarbirds, Olive-backed Orioles, White-bellied
(Little) Cuckoo-shrike, Common Bronzewings, several Crested Shrike-tits (yes
that bird that has been discussed alot on birding-aus), White-throated
Gerygones, Leaden Flycatcher (one singing from nest), numerous Scarlet
Honeyeaters, Channel-billed Cuckoos, Cicadabird and Painted
Button-quails. The Button-quails (seen in the usual spot on the ridge at the
junction of the rainforest trail and Old Man Banksia Trails), surprisingly were
calling very persistently (despite our presence) with their Brush Bronzewing
like "oom…oom….oom…", and were easily located with great views obtained of
atleast a pair wondering here and there on the ground. This is also my
4th sighting out of the last 5 visits at Mitchell Park for the
Painted Button-quail. They appear to be quite local at Mitchell Park, and have
seen them in this very spot 2 years ago.
By about 8:30 am, we called it a day (well atleast for the dawn chorus) with
no less than 72 species seen/heard during the 4 1/2 hours of our time there.
Edwin
