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Hello People,
We've had no rain in this part of the world for
nearly 6 months, even some of our native trees are feeling the pinch,however,
the Bloodwood trees are in blossom at the moment, providing nectar for our
native bees and nectar feeding birds.
Ian saw a Black Falcon a few days ago,
approximately 500 metres from our house, perched in a tree in a dried-up swamp.
At first he thought it was a particularly dark version of the Brown Falcon but
it's stance was totally different, quite hunchy,so he stopped,and had a good
look through the binoculars. It was also a lot darker than any Brown Falcon that
he's seen before, and as it flew away the wing silouhette was that of a Black
Falcon.
Heaps of Fairy-wrens around the house environs at
the moment but can't tell what ones. I detected a glimmer of blue in a couple.
Would these be immature males or adult males not in their breeding
plumage?
We have 7 Mulga Parrots who come in late in the
afternoon and have a drink in a bore drain about 20 metres from the house and
this afternoon a Kookaburra was having a lovely bath not too far away from the
little Mulgas.
We've been seeing quite a lot of Black-breasted
Buzzards in the last few months.
Yesterday I stopped and watched a Nankeen Kestrel
hovering for quite a while, and I thought "you must have been the model for all
the book illustrations", it was just so perfect.
The Buln-bulns [Aust. Ringnecks] are being pretty
chatty, I love hearing their distinctive chatter during the day, and I love
seeing their beautiful bright colours in this now, very brown landscape.We had
some people here recently who identified 2 sub-species of the Ringnecks living
in a group together, although one of the species didn't match any book
illustration as there was a lot more blue in the mid-wing area. Our daughter had
commented only a month or so before that there was a distinct difference in a
group of these parrots, so she was happy to have someone confirm
this.
The same people identified a Grey-headed Honeyeater
out in our Mulga country, and although Ian has seen them they weren't on the
"official list".
Thousands of Emus around this area and lots of half
grown ones with a parent at the moment, but I fear for them all if we don't get
any winter rain. We have an extremely bad feral pig problem at the moment,
in spite of our efforts to rid us of these pests.
In my 36 years of living out here I've not had the lawn and garden totally wiped
out by pigs [by 'roos, yes, but they belong here and don't eat other animals].
We recently had someone here who particularly
wanted to see Hall's Babblers, but had no luck, mind you she was here for only a
day, and yesterday someone saw 19 in one group. Doesn't that always
happen.
We now have a semblance of winter weather, which
arrived yesterday[17 May], jeans and T-shirts during the day but definitely cool
enough at night to turn the electric blanket on, the 1 setting at
least.
Regards,
Julie.
Julie McLaren.
"Bowra",
Cunnamulla,Qld.4490
PH. O746551238
FAX
0746552368
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