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Greetings
all,
Have just purchased
a new pair of Scanner 8 x 42 Roof Prism binocs from the Binoc &
Telescope Shop in Heidleberg, Melbourne. They are brilliant.
Apparently Graham Pizzey recently purchased 4 pairs of the same model and I can
understand why.
Anyway, to give them a good tryout we went out just a
couple of kms from our place at Elphinstone, Central Vic. - about 15kms
East of Castlemaine. We have several areas of great, quiet roadside verges
with River Red Gums, small creeks crossing and lots of understorey (don't
ask me what species, coz I'm no expert in Flora).
The woodland birding is great in these areas although
this is the first time we have done this exact spot. The highlight was
seeing a group of three White-browed Babblers. This is
the closest we have seen any Babblers to our place and I think it is pretty
Southerly for this species. Is three a particularly small group, I believe
six to ten is more typical for Babblers, isn't it? Others less usual for
this area included Restless Flycatcher and Red-browed Finch.
We got 27 species in 90 mins in this small area.
About 1 km up the road we got 32 in 1 hour on Thursday. About 7 were not
common, so that makes 39 in two trips in our open woodland/farmland
area.
Just getting back to our driveway when the Falcon
spotted in the dead tree at the edge of our property turned out to be a
Peregrine Falcon, not the usual Brown. Another new bird
for our property, taking the total to 80.
All in all, a highlight day with the new
binocs.
Bob & Sadhana Cook
Elphinstone, Central
Vic.
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