For a change of scenary, I spent the w/e visiting my folks - my parents
in Flaxton and brother in Eumundi [sunshine coast SEQ].
Highlights in Flaxton were a pair of hardhead ducks in the neighbourhood
dam [not normally resident there], a pair of breeding PF swamphens, an
emerald ground dove, the first spectacled monarch for the season, white
bellied and blackfaced cuckoo shrikes virtually in the same tree, YTB
cockatoos enjoying the banksia flowers in the front yard, and a P baza
with attendant miner "blowflies". All up 63 species on the atlas sheet.
The most interesting behaviour was displayed by the swamphens who were
walking around the edges of the dam with oranges in their beaks - there
were about half a dozen oranges bobbing at the edge of the dam. For
people who aren't familiar with swamphens, they are partial to many
things growing in people's backyards - including pineapples and bananas.
At Eumundi, the sea eagles were working on their nest, the carbon copy
jacana on the large dam had a dodgy leg, a pair of azure kingfishers had
set up shop round the dam [first time I've seen them on a dam as opposed
to a natural waterway], ditto a pair of lathams snipe, another baza
getting the blowfly treatment, and the compulsory BB rail at the front
gate. [The interesting story I heard from the inlaws there was the way
the cattle egrets were catching and eating the local quail].
Anyhow I had another look at the deviant pied butcherbird in the next
street. It actually has a fair bit of black in its wings and nether
regions. However, the black is almost totally missing round its head
and neck, which is an off-white colour.
Regards, Laurie.
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