Chris and all at birding-aus,
I reported to birding-aus a week or so ago that I had heard an Olive-backed
Oriole next to Gardiners Creek in Glen Iris. It was still there on Friday
evening, along with a Grey Fantail. A very brief visit to the same site
(Nettleton Park) on Saturday morning produced unmistakable calls of a Sacred
Kingfisher and a couple of Spotted Pardalotes.
The thing I find most interesting about these observations is that I know
this place very well - I have played cricket at this park since 1974, and
grew up a couple of hundred yards up the street. I am sure these birds were
not around when I was a kid, or up till I moved away in the mid 1980s. So
it seems there is some sort of repopulation by native species of, at least,
the leafier mid to inner suburbs taking place gradually. By contrast, the
Mistletoebirds that have visited the park each spring for the past ten or
twelve years seem to have given it a miss this year.
Crimson Rosellas were never part of the local avifauna that I can remember
in Glen Iris, or in East Burwood, where we lived for nearly eleven years
before we moved to our present home in Syndal. Here, however, only about 4
km from our previous home, Crimson Rosellas are reliable, conspicuous
autumn-winter visitors, arriving in late February/ early March and departing
by about mid September. This is a fully developed suburban area, with
mature gardens but no remnant bushland in the neighbourhood.
In a much more recently developed area of Pakenham (a township at the outer
south-eastern end of one of Melbourne's major "growth corridors") yesterday
(Sunday), I was surprised to hear a Shining Bronze-cuckoo calling
determinedly for a couple of hours around the middle of a warm, sunny day.
Looking forward to seeing as many as possible of you at the post-Twitchathon
gathering next Sunday afternoon. If anyone is looking for a team to
sponsor, the Norwegian Blues will welcome any support you can offer.
Regards to all.
Jack Krohn
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
|
