Hi birders
Drove out to the Liverpool Plains, Gt. Dividing Range, north of
Murrurundi, NSW, with my sister yesterday Sunday 22.7.01.
Started at Ardglen at 11 am (this was meant to be a restful
weekend!), near Warrah and drove through Blackville (lunch/cold beer
stop) and almost to Pandora.
Raptors included
1 Wedge-tailed Eagle at a kangaroo road kill
4 Brown Falcons
5 Black-shouldered Kits
15 Kestrels in pairs or singles
AND
a flock of over 70 Kestrels feeding on somthing very exciting on a
ploughed and very recently sown paddock. Maybe some grubs were
hatching as it was sunny, very warm with light breeze. A few Magpies
and Pied Butcherbirds were scattered over the paddock, standing,
listening, looking and then grabbing something off the surface. What
was being eaten was small (we couldn't see anything) as the kestrels
ate immediately on the ground and then took off again to circle,
hover and land once more. They never appeared to eat on the wing as I
have seen them doing with large grasshoppers.
A dead Black Swan was on the roadside by the Merriwa Road turnoff
between Warrah and Blackville.
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters were in the Myall mistletoe which was in
heavy flower (no Painted HEs), a few Musk and Little Lorikeets in
flowering Yellow box and other gums, a flock of 23 Cockatiels
sitting on electricity wires over some yet-to-be-harvested sorghum, 1
White-necked Heron although many White-faced.
A pair of Striated Pardalotes nesting in the Church Hall roof at
Blackville. And a large flock (20+) of House Sparrows dust bathing in
the road at dusk near Blackville.
Most creeks where the bridge crossing made a deep pool had Grey Teal,
Black Duck and A. Wood-duck in good numbers with 2 or 3 A.Grebes at
each.
On the way to Murrurundi Friday 20 July, saw a flock of over 50
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos circling and landing in a pine
plantation on the left, just after the Somersby turn-off on the
Newcastle Freeway, about 2.50 pm.
--
Penny Drake-Brockman, Examination Recitals Co-ordinator, Sydney
Conservatorium of Music.
Tel: 02 9351 1254.
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