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There are at least three kinds of fool. Those who play
cricket(flanelled fools), those who watch cricket (non-flanelled fools) , and
those who believe that ,with sufficient
planning,dedication,determination,observation,consultation etc.etc. they will
ultimately find the alleged Little Bittern at Sherwood Arbortorium.
Yesterday I was (at least) two kinds of fool.I left home at 5am for my third
attempt at finding "the bittern" with the plan to then attend the third day of
the first test at the Gabba. I had a great half-day at the cricket, and the
bittern remains a figment of other people's imagination. There were friendly
locals at Sherwood who smiled knowingly as I paced the perimeter of the reed-bed
in the lagoon.They informed me how frequently they had seen "their bittern", and
the 10 metre stretch where he invariably appeared. But could I find it ?No. But
I did record a total of 30 species in 2 hours, not bad when my gaze hardly ever
left that 10 metre stretch of reeds.
And so on to the
cricket ,where great fun was had by all-as long as you supported Australia.I
hadn't been to the Gabba in 25 years, most of my test attendances having been at
the beautiful Adelaide Oval. As a cricket ground, the Gabba makes a great
football stadium.
Took the binos in
and got great views of the action for the 3 hours of play it took the Aussies to
wrap it up.Also did a bird count, despite the complete absence of any natural
habitat, and recorded:
Torressian Crow
Aust. White Ibis
Rock Dove
Welcome Swallow
Willie Wagtail
and the highlight, Peregrine Falcon, doing lazy circles
high in the sky over the eastern light tower in the penultimate over of the
game.
The only other sightings of note were three Carribean
Black Duck (others have reported five were seen on Thursday, the first day of
the Test) and approx.200+ Ocker Galahs (Brisbanii sub-species) exhibiting normal
Test match behaviours, ie flocking together on hilly ground, close to waterhole
dispensing alarmingly murky brown fluid (obviously poisonous from some reactions
seen, and even labelled with XXXX).They were making their usual racous call of
"havagoyamug" interspersed with the Brisbanii variation of "Andyyy, Andyyyy". As
always, whether in breeding season or not, they exhibited particularly strange
and incoherent behaviours towards the few females of the species who had the
misfortune to pass close by their waterhole. Plumage was consistent with
previous records of being naked from the rather large abdomen to the head, with
skin ranging from a ghostly white to a bright rufous , often changing on the one
individual during the day. Varios forms of crest were observed but almost all
had strange rubber-looking appendages stuck to the bottom of their
feet.
I encourage other birders to get to the
Test matches, do a bit of birding, and be a bit foolish.
Russ Lamb, Maleny,
SEQ
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