Dear Tim,
I was intrigued to see a new birdlist for an old haunt of mine, the
scene of my youth, especially one that included 6 species ( one,
the Pied Butcherbird, since corrected, so really 5) that I have not
recorded there in 45 years of ( very intermittent) observation! I'm not
sure exactly where you went - which boathouse is the "Kew" one? -
the one under Studley Park road? My route, starting from near
Yarra St., takes in the Yarra on the Kew side from Dight's Falls to
the Pipeline Bridge at Alphington, though since the recent (to me!)
construction of that rotten Freeway I now usually stop at the
Hairpin Bend on the Boulevard. I've never got a Peregrine, but of
course the Little Falcons are resident breeders at the Kew Asylum.
Nor have I found Musk Lories, though I get Swift Parrots and Little
lorikeets and used to get Purple-crowned occasionally. My old lists
used to record Aussie Ravens, but a few years ago I was told that
the standard Melbourne corvid was the Little Raven. Is that not so?
About 3 yrs. ago when I was down I was aghast to see my 1st.
Pied Currawong at Yarra Bend, but I've not seen a Grey. The one
that intrigues me most is the Striated Thornbill, which I don't ever
remember seeing in Melbourne, though Browns are around the
Yarra. To go back to the 50's(!) I saw my first Regent HE in the
garden in Stawell St., and there were Azures at "The Rock"( near
the foot of Yarra St.), our regular swimming hole, which we shared
with platypodes, and the odd drifting sheep carcase.(We would
often swim at "Sandy Beach", too, which is where the picnic area
jetty now is, opposite the "Loonie bin", which we politically
incorrect and unsympathetic little kids used to call it. And of
course there was Macaulays Boatshed, at the foot of Moleworth
St., before the new road went in, but you were supposed to pay
there).
Stuck in Sydney as I have been for the last quarter of a century, I
don't get down to Melb. much, but a couple of months ago I saw a
male red-capped robin on the Boul. between Caritas Christi and the
road down to Kane's Bridge. And the frogmouths were at their
usual spot right next to Kane's Bridge itself. A nasty intrusion,
however, was a mob of Noisy miners at Sandy Beach.
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed your walk in a spot so dear to
my heart, and as it is such a key flyway there is ever the prospect
of something new and interesting turning up. You have made me
determined to get down again soon!
Yours nostalgically,
Ted Nixon
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
