A good weekend here.
Two Red-tailed Black Cockatoos arrived on Sunday morning and began feasting
on a White Cedar just across from us, that I hadn't realised was fruiting.
We usually get a regular party of 6 to 8 birds when the seeds are available,
but maybe this is just a reconnaissance party. They came back in the
afternoon, so if the experience of previous years is repeated they will pop
in fairly regularly, probably daily, now until that particular tree is
stripped.
There are a few White Cedars spaced out along the creek and bush hereabouts,
so they have a bit of a local circuit to follow. We planted 40 or so last
March as tube-stock, some of which are up to around a metre high already,
and we have just finished putting an assortment of around 680 local endemics
in between the house and the gate, including another 40 or 50 White Cedars -
not forgetting a heap of casuarinas for the Glossy Blacks that we also get
from time to time.
The other highlight has been a new bird for Abberton, our 187th. A
Black-eared Cuckoo turned up atop a dead tree just across from our breakfast
table, so we were able to get him in the 'scope from the verandah. Good to
hear him calling repeatedly to emphasise the distinctive differences between
his call and the Horsfield's Bronze. It returned for the next two mornings,
coming closer on Saturday.
We didn't see or hear him on Sunday, but that could have been due to a
combination of heat outside and tennis inside, which led us to neglect
birding that didn't involve black cockatoos.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org <http://www.abberton.org>
Email: <>
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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