Hi all,
Three people braved the late Autumn weather to go to the You Yangs
(south-west of Melbourne) for the Birds Australia Birding and
Boneseeding day on Saturday 26 May: David, Debra and myself. What we
lacked in numbers we made up for in enthusiasm. The rain didn?t last
long and it was only water. The ants up peoples? pants didn?t bite much
and were soon evicted. We managed to eventually get to our boneseeding
site, despite the closed roads. We fought off the giant mosquitoes
which were obviously enjoying the wet conditions. The dams and puddles
were all full of water and there was even some water in the creeks. I
suppose all puddles are full of water by definition, but never mind. In
places where there was no boneseed before, there was a carpet of tiny
plants with only two or four leaves each. They are easy to remove when
they are so small, but the sheer numbers were daunting. We managed to
locate, cut back, and dig out several Boxthorn plants. David did most
of the work on those.
The main thing is we saw birds and plenty of them? not as many species
as at other times of year, but in good numbers.
It was great to see a Painted Button-quail for the second visit in a
row. The Tawny Frogmouths near the entrance haven?t been in their usual
tree during our recent visits to the You Yangs, but to our surprise
there was one in residence in the same old spot. Our investigations of
nest boxes revealed an Owlet Nightjar, a Brush-tailed Possum, a
Ring-tailed Possum, and a huge old Bees? nest that was hanging out the
bottom of the box. Speaking of mammals, there was also a Koala resting
in the fork of a tree, as they do.
We saw several Crested Shrike-tits. One was begging for food with its
wing vibrating movement, but the other birds took no notice of it and it
found some food itself. The Purple-crowned Lorikeets were everywhere
investigating eucalypt blossom and for once they weren?t too hard to
see. Sometimes you can hear them but they so easily disappear into the
foliage.
We had a most enjoyable day.
Here are the birds we saw:
Straw-necked Ibis (over the fence)
Whistling Kite
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Painted Button-quail
Bronzewing (Common? heard only)
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Purple-crowned Lorikeet
Eastern Rosella
Fan-tailed Cuckoo (probable but not a very good look)
Tawny Frogmouth
Owlet Nightjar
Laughing Kookaburra
White-throated Treecreeper
Superb Fairy-wren
Spotted pardalote
Brown thornbill
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Striated Thornbill
Red Wattlebird
White-plumed Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
Jacky Winter
Scarlet Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
Crested Shrike-tit
Grey Shrike-thrush
Grey Fantail
Australian Magpie
Australian Raven
White-winged Chough
Welcome Swallow
Cheers,
Merrilyn
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