What a couple of days!
In, out and around the one birdbath in a circuit of splashing, preening and
waiting their turn to get back in, Spangled Drongo, White-throated
Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater, Superb Fairywren, Red-browed Finches, Zebra
Finches, Double-barred Finches, White-browed Scrubwren, Brown Honeyeater, &
Lewins Honeyeater. It hardly sounds possible, but the ones that aren't
crowding in together just adorn an adjacent wattle awaiting their chance for
more of the action.
Spotted Harrier here on Monday, cruising the creekbank; Speckled Warbler in
the garden doing its surreptitious thing; a couple of Hoary-headed Grebes
are still on a farm dam up around Lockyer Waters.
John Hadley has surpassed himself (yet again) by turning up a Banded Stilt
at Lake Clarendon! We went back there this-afternoon, and eventually found
it among a hundred or so Black-winged Stilts and 300+ Red-necked Avocets.
How John ever picked it out in the first place without a 'scope is
remarkable!
It is an immature bird, but distinctive for all that. It has no black on the
head or the back, only on the wings. As I watched it walking away from us at
one point, it was surprisingly reminiscent of watching a Ground
Cuckoo-shrike in the same pose - as the long black wings stood out against
the uniformly length of grey (in this case white) back. In flight, there was
the white-headedness of a White-backed Swallow, but with the white extending
unbroken from head to tail, and with a bold white trailing edge on the wing.
All in all, it stands out distinctively from the Black-winged Stilts around
it, once you've found it!
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org
Email:
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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