A happy new year to all.
Here is a bit of an update on birds around Nth. Victoria at the moment.
Yesterday, 2/1/00 John Nankervis, Peter Disher and myself took Bill Watson
from Albury to find some missing birds for his "Victorian List". We were
able to supply him with a pair of Red-backed Kingfishers gathering food and
going to their nesting hone to feed their young on Pyramid Creek, just west
of Cohuna - thanks to John Pople. Grey-crowned Babblers were nearby too. At
Goschen we were able to show Bill a dozen or more displaying Black
Honeyeaters and several female and immature Pied Honeyeaters and some
Budgerigars. There with quite a lot of other birds at Goschen too, but
alas! the Crimson Chats seem to have finally returned to their more
permanent range inland.
At Lake Tuthchewop, we finally tracked down about a dozen Orange Chats for
Bill, and enjoyed some raptors, White-winged Fairy Wrens and waders at the
same time. I always enjoy the Banded Stilts that are nearly always found
here. We were sorry we couldn't help Peter Disher add the Rufous Calamanthus
and the Splendid Fairy-Wren that Lawrie Conole had reported seeing here, to
his 50 km radius of Barahm list. (Peter hopes to have a book produced soon
on Birds of the Baraham area).
We also showed John Nankervis that many Blue-billed ducks on Round Lake,
just west of Lake Boga, that he couldn't count them. He was happy to add
them to his life list. There were quite a lot of other species of water
birds there too, including Great Crested Grebes. Along the road to Long Lake
there is a wonderful stand of eremophilia bushes beside the road. Quite a
few Black Honeyeaters and several female (and perhaps a shy male) were
flitting about among them.
After a cold drink and ice cream at Cohuna, we found several Red-chested
Button-quail and a Painted Button-quail for Bill, and as we were heading for
a spot just south of Cohuna to show him some Lewin's Rails, we stopped at a
little sandbank and he was able to observe a pair of the beautiful
White-backed Swallows fluttering and soaring in the sky above their hollow
in the the sandbank. We dished out on the Lewin's Rails. The farmer had
recently released water into the marshy overflow area where the Lewin's had
been observed several weeks earlier, and so there were no mud banks on which
the birds could come out and show themselves. Several Latham's Snipe zipped
about us, and we were able to show Bill the Nankeen Night Heron for his list
though. It was a big day - from 6.00am to 8.00am but very satisfying. I
think that Peter Disher said that our bird count for the day was about 120.
Bill heads off today to see the Plumed Whistling Ducks south-east of Cohuna
and Crested Bellbirds and Chestnut-rumped Hylacolas near Bendigo, and
hopefully Superb Parrots just east of Echuca!.
Regards,
Chris Coleborn.
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